Kawasaki Mule 3010 project

[Rat]

She's loud as a Harley, but damn she runs good now.
So much easier to tune when you can tell precisely which cylinder is firing hot, cold, or missing every few hits. Adjusted the carb idle A/F screws a little more and the random misfire in the front cylinder cleared right up.

 

[Rat]

New versus old... that's pretty bad right?

 

[Denny]

I’d have to say kinda bad.

 

[Rat]

So as it turns out the valve cover on the forward cylinder is leaking quite a bit of oil, I noted a possible leak before but couldn't be sure it wasn't just spillage stains from putting oil in it.

Front cylinder doesn't seem to be firing at full capacity either, hard to tell so I might need to borrow a gage from autozone and do a compression check... I really don't want to need to lug this engine out for an overhaul.

•Replace the gas cap
•Replace the fuel gauge
•Replace fuel pump
•Replace radiator fan switch
•Replace thermostat
•Rebuild or replace carburetor rebuilt
•Replace all hydraulic brake lines
•Replace drivers floor panel support between main and side rail
•Resheet the cab floor (24x24 panels x2)
•Replace a few bed braces
•Resheet the bed floor (53×47 panel)
•Replace all 4 tires
•Replace the rear shocks
•Replace the front struts
•Replace R/R (passengers) parking brake cable
•Replace both rear light assemblies
•Replace the intake air filter hoses between the filter and carb, and the filter/roll bar connection
•Modify exhaust or spend $300 on OE muffler
(most likely modify) Modified

•Replace or find a way to seal 2 wheels (rims leak air) sealed

 

[Rat]

Got the Other New gauge in today. Had to rework the shrouding a bit, it will need a little more touching up and building out before I move to repainting the whole hood.

I was wrong about the front cylinder not running right, but only sorta. I'm going to have to get an overhaul kit for it (all gaskets, O-rings, main jet pair, pilot jet pair, A/F needle screw pair and springs, float needle, idle screw and idle screw spring)

 

[Rat]

So... I pulled the valve covers to make gaskets and ended up doing lash.

I can say is I am floored I didn't drop a rod or 2 the way I've been flogging this thing lately

 

[Rat]

Either she doesn't like zero lash, or the carb sucked something up again because she basically went into limp mode on me. I'm guessing lash is more likely since its been running perfectly fine over tue last week, so I'll start there

 

[Rat]

It was lash, the spec is 010" but the carb is still being a finicky jackaṣs too

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

I know your not a noob, but what method are you cleaning your carb?
Finicky things

 

[Rat]

I know your not a noob, but what method are you cleaning your carb?
Finicky things

The carb isn't dirty, at this point.
Kawasaki didn't want anyone messing with their A/F tuning on the Mikuni BW26-18 and put Welch plugs over them which I popped out... the adjustment is touchier than anything I've ever tuned. There's just a lot of minor things going on with this thing.

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

The Welch plugs were what I was getting at.
A similar story, I was having hell getting my xlch to run smoothly. I was chasing misfires, Hard to tune carb. It would be fine one time then funky the next minute. Finally found an intake leak. The manifold to head has a funky clamp.
Even though I addressed it several times I kept having an issue. Finally got it.

 

[Rat]

The Welch plugs were what I was getting at.
A similar story, I was having hell getting my xlch to run smoothly. I was chasing misfires, Hard to tune carb. It would be fine one time then funky the next minute. Finally found an intake leak. The manifold to head has a funky clamp.
Even though I addressed it several times I kept having an issue. Finally got it.

I am well aware of quirks like that which is why a master rebuild kit is high priority. One of the A/F screws was actually stuck and got the head chewed pretty good getting it to back out, same case for one of the jets (pilot iirc) but overall it runs damn good when it doesn't decide to act an aṣs... pun highly intended

 

[Rat]

Anyone see what I'm seeing?

Front plug

Rear plug


Ironically the rear cylinder seems to run stronger than the front. I just popped fresh plugs in it, woke up the thing a bit more. I am now up 3 new tires, 1 to go. The tires are so crusted to the bead it has taken a Sawzall and angle grinder to cut the sidewalls out and split the beads to peel them off the rims. I definitely mean peel too.

 

[Rat]

Even though I addressed it several times I kept having an issue. Finally got it.

I've determined an airleak at the A/F adjustments by taping the threads. Turns out the Orings are 100% gone if there ever was any in there, with the welch plugs I'm thinkin there might not have been any.

The master rebuild kits I'm looking at specifically include new adjustment screws, springs, and o'rings for them

 

[Rat]

Pulled the carb off for another look before the rebuild kit gets here to totally overhaul it with... one of the mains and the opposite pilot was plugged with some really fine crud that managed to pass through 2 filters. I have one on each side of the fuel pump just to monitor the fuel flow because it's an OE type and they are a known problem.

Back to running like a kicked dog

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

Geez man. Quit pouring dirt in your gastank

 

[Rat]

Today all the new gaskets and o'rings went in. I am a little pissed the mixture screws are not correct leaving me stuck with the original ones...but holy crap is it a different machine now.

I stick my foot to 'er and without delay or hesitation its "Yessir, right away sir!"

Now I need to get a puller, rebuild the primary, and stick a new belt on 'er.

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

Which brand was the kit you got.
I've had that issue trying to use a cheepeese rebuild kit on a genuine carb. Some parts work some don't.

 

[Rat]

Which brand was the kit you got.
I've had that issue trying to use a cheepeese rebuild kit on a genuine carb. Some parts work some don't.

Not sure on the kit, pretty sure it was the cheapest one I could find that had what I needed included.

The carb is a genuine Mikuni BW26-18. The mixture screws in the kit will fit the typical kart carb just fine (m5x0.5 thread) so it's not a total loss.

I've already figured out I'll have to throw 20bucks out to get genuine Mikuni M6x0.5 mixture screws... not a huge deal just unexpected and extremely annoying, but at least everything else I needed fit perfectly.

For a machine some "Farmer John" type half-wit could never get running properly from day 1 (according to his wife) before it up and quit entirely to be left in a field for several years... I sure as hell have it running like an Ace and it didn't take a whole helluvalot to get it going.

 

[Rat]

The thermostat finally just crapped out, jammed shut.