The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

[Magic Beans]

Hopefully next weekend

[craig]

I see the Rev 5 has gone to Puku, the buyer of everything MR2.....

Looks smart on that trailer.

[Magic Beans]

It has indeed.

Really nice guy and he has one hell of an MR2 filled garage! It's the stuff of dreams!

Washed and waxed it a while back. It's been sat under a car cover since then, not really doing anything. Popped in the key and it fired first time, first turn! Gotta love these old cars!

[Magic Beans]

Just had a message to say it was put through an MOT.......

Passed, with only a wiper blade and license plate bulb being required! Impressive really, considering the sedentary life it's lived!

[Magic Beans]

Things have happened! Quite a few actually! Pete's had at the boxes of service gubbins I've been trickle feeding him. He's kindly put in full day on it and even spammed with with photos, because I have a problem

Time to crack open some boxes and get t work!









At this point Pete got bored of box opening shots and got to work

First job: Cam cover gasket replacement, to hopefully resolve the oil ingress into bores 2 and 3.













The small gasket wasn't sealing properly and had gone hard.





Clean up, gasket swap and rebuild time.









Sparks swap.













This is definitely being repainted!







Time to head below. First up is oil and filter swap.





This will pop off no problem, right...



Nope! Stab it with pliers!







With that done it's time to replace the CV boot. Cue suspension striping!







Apparently fancy tools are needed to swap these, so Pete headed off to see a man that can.







Ta daa.



Refit, rebuild and swap the gearbox oil next. The gearbox was really grim, so it's likely never been swapped. Which would definitely contribute to its reluctance to go in to gear.













Treasure found! It has an LSD! https://flic.kr/p/SQVd8r



All done. Fire it up and see if leaks...



No leaks!



Done and dusted for the day. HUGE thanks to Pete for his efforts. He's put in a solid day's graft and made a big dent in the jobs list

I guess that's it for now, or am I forgetting something





Oh yes, the car comes home this weekend!

[craig]

Awesome progress!

[Madabout]

Good work that oil filter had been on a little while!

[pistol pete]

Clutch fluid has been changed
It was horrible.. Phil will be along with pics..as I sent them through
Still struggling for gears.. so I have now adjusted at the pedal..
Huge difference now... seems much better awaiting Phil to arrive to test it.

Again. I'm sure Phil will supply many pics

[Magic Beans]

Well, here we are, the end of the weekend which would see Mule VII come home..

We departed early on Saturday morning, for the long journey down to Chez Mason. While we were driving I kept getting little updates of things that were being done. Main job for the morning was to check out a shifting related issue. What I found when driving it last time was that it was a massive fight to get it into gear. It would also try and creep if you sat stationary, clutch fully depressed and pulling towards a gear. This pointed to either the clutch sticking, the fluid level being too low, the cylinder having issues or one or two other things.

First, and easiest, test was to replace the clutch fluid. Turns out it was really nasty, so definitely not helping!







Better!



Tested and exactly the same shift feel After some reading about paddle clutches Pete decided to adjust the pedal setting, as it possibly wasn't getting enough throw, even fully depressed.



Fixed! Feels perfect now

After that we (Adrienne and I) finally arrived, and after the usual pleasantries we set to work. First up was replacing the brake fluid. The fluid in the reservoir wasn't too terrible but the stuff in the lines was pretty grim!



Time to bust out Pete's special pumping tool. I think there's other attachments for it, but didn't want to ask...





Done. Pedal feel wasn't massively different but it's a job off the list. While we were under there I spotted this...



You can see why they get their name! Pete's going to fabricate a fresh pair, like the ones he made for the Rev 5.



A couple of other bits were also done at the time, which marked the end of its stint on the "Lift of shame".



Best give it a test drive then... Straight off the bat it felt better. Engine felt smooth, boost came on earlier and more consistent, pedal feel was normal again, basically a happy and healthy car The exhaust was also notably quieter with much less drone at mid revs. We pushed it hard and it just kept going, it's a potent little car! All in all it was a complete success and we were verbally patting it on the back on the way back to Pete's.

Now's one of those moments where you get to understand why the Mules are called Mules.....

There we were, driving along, commenting on how there was pretty much no blue smoke, now the gasket had been replaced etc etc. We were about 400m from Pete's a we noticed a puff of the blue, followed by another. Odd, we thought, but could just be a bit of residual oil in the system, pulled through after giving it some boot Right at that moment it went in to full Bond esque countermeasure mode, with the car behind disappearing into a cloud of blue! We pulled on to the drive, smoking like a trooper and got out to have a look. This is what it looked like idling with a dab of revs..



bu88er! Curse of the Mule in full effect

When idling there's pretty much nothing, it just goes in to ninja disappearance mode when you apply the revs. Logically it's the turbo seals, as we already suspected they were on their way out. It's disappointing but not a massive dramas. Better it happened then instead of being about 100 miles from home and 100 miles from Pete's! It means she won't be coming home just yet but it happens, right

That ass though!



We did a whole bunch of beard stroking, despite neither of us having beards. Checked the compression and it was all good, with everything being right on point PSI wise and each cylinder within 5% of each other. Piping off etc etc, oil in the places you'd expect if a turbo wasn't able to handle its drink. The compressor wheel has no abnormal play in it, which is a positive. Basically, it needs removing and investigating, which is already underway and will be covered as/when we know more.

One thing it does mean: It's back on the "Lift of shame" for Mule VII!



I'll call time of this update here, other than to thank Pete for his time and efforts so far It's a PITA what's happened but we will overcome

[pistol pete]

Defo leave the stock lights.. no upgrading to rev3 .. these look perfect

[shane34]

Can definitely see the potential with he efforts going into this. Good work guys. Keep the updates coming.

[craig]

Defo leave the stock lights.. no upgrading to rev3 .. these look perfect

Agree entirely!

[Magic Beans]

Can definitely see the potential with he efforts going into this. Good work guys. Keep the updates coming.

Thanks One thing you can be sure of is updates

Defo leave the stock lights.. no upgrading to rev3 .. these look perfect

Agree entirely!

The lights are staying. They'll be cleaned up considerably and I might have another small idea for them, but they will remain

[Martin F]

The cars slowly taking shape, love the rear look, ironically i was the 200000 th view to this thread

[Magic Beans]

The cars slowly taking shape, love the rear look, ironically i was the 200000 th view to this thread

200K views! That's quite a thing!

Who'd have thought people would be so interested in rambling, photo bombardment and the occassional calamity?!

[Race Idiot]

You sure it's turbo seals gone? When mine went it would only smoke when the oil pressure was at it's lowest ie on hot idle and off throttle.

[pistol pete]

Im getting all parts off turbo so i can check things like the oil turbo drain make sure its not blocked..
done a compression test and it was all happy
So either turbo seals, or pressure build up, but not exxcesive pressure when removing the 710 cap

Also its a hybrid turbo, which are never quite as good..

but any suggestiosn on how to check for certain!!

[Magic Beans]

One thing we're not sure of is the previous oil weight used. It's got 10w40 in now, which is what I've always used previously.

[puku]

hi guys...

after talking with phil - i should do building threat from the white rev5 too:

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=192445[/code]

[Magic Beans]

Things have happened and now decisions need to be made....

We left this wonderful drama at the point where we knew to could do smoke tricks, which is all very clever and that, but how to make it stop?! The only way to find out is to pull it all to pieces, so that's what happened..





Oh look





A small part of me wanted to think that was the cause, but it wasn't..









Now it's all in bits Pete checked it over. The turbine end has a load of play in the shaft, to the point where it all but touches the side. There's also signs of the compressor wheel catching on the housing, which isn't good. Even if it was only a brief rub when it decided to expire on the last journey



It needs to go off and be rebuilt. That's either a minor rebuild, or it could well be a full rebuild. All pretty disappointing and frustrating, but it was always a risk with this car.

Pete also scoped out the speedo drive, to see why it's so bad at doing its only job. Teeth all look good and everything appears solid, still doesn't work though and the odometer is reading under too.





Now it's decision time.. Do I continue to fund this car, given that there's still plenty of unknowns with it and quite a few jobs to sort. Or.. do I cash out on it, move it on and buy something else...? I do have something in mind, as always

I always accepted that this would never be the prettiest car out there, but it was a trade off given what it was going to cost. I'm happy to bankroll something much more expensive, but the expectation levels increase in-line with the cost. At the money levels this would need to really get it where I wanted I'm now at a level where I could get something else, something nicer. Plus I'd have one hell of a parts bin at my disposal..