Yes, really, to protect the safety of my grandson who will be the riding in the Mule's inaugural ride, we had to hire a "Crash Test Dummy".
Don't laugh, this is a serious, yes a very serious occupation. Not many can say that they were selected for this acclaimed position.
Iron Buffalo felt that no expense should be spared in hiring the most qualified "CTD" in the state.
The Mule has kicked one, bucked a few, and now today was the final test of the road worthiness of the Mule.
Seriously, I can not take my grandson on a ride in a vehicle that I do not feel is safe, period.
Enter the CTD (crash test dummy)
"Marg, you want to go for a ride in the Mule"...
And off we go, the rest is history... putting the Mule through the paces with a highly skilled CTD on board.
At first I can see the CTD has a tentative look, but as we proceed a smile starts to arise.
Is the smile because the CTD does not realize what is coming or is it that she has also bonded with the Mule?
About 20 miles into the test ride the Mule starts to make a
serious screeching, whining sound. At first I feel it is the speedo head complaining, then as I slow and downshift I start to wonder if it is the clutch or second gear, shit, not good!
My CTD does not register my alarm, GOOD, but I am starting to get my squishy pants again. We are 20 miles from home and I have not figured out what the screeching noise is.
I pull over thinking that maybe I have lost trans or secondary drive oil. No that's not it, no visible leaks.
I check on my CTD and she is all smiles, so off we go. Then the screeching starts again. I flip up my modular helmet and start to listen, listen and then it appears to be coming from the instrument cluster (this was my initial thought). As any great test driver does I start to smack the speedo and low and behold the screeching stops. I continue on and it starts again. I smack it again. It stops. OK, so now my squishy pants start to go away. We then continue on our test ride and every time it screams I smack the gauges. Then I realize that if I smack the tach, it stops.
I can even feel the screaming from the cluster on the tach side. There is nothing like the feel/sound of a screaming mechanical tach...
Problem diagnosed, tach drive is dry. Nothing like a set of squishy pants and a few hard smacks to figure something out at 60 mph...
My CTD is still all smiles as I tell her we are going to enter I-25 for a couple of exits (NOT!) so instead I get back on the frontage roads and see how the Mule performs.
Then I suggest that we take a few dirt roads to see how the Mule performs on dirt. Low and behold the dirt road I wanted to drive on is gone, the bastards paved it, WTF.
Anyway off we go on a wonderful new asphalt paved road. Eventually we find a "dirt road" to take the Mule on. As I exit I look over my left shoulder and it says, "No motorized vehicles". OOPS! Kind of feel bad, but not really... nobody around but me and my CTD.
50 miles later we arrive home, just me and my CTD. All smiles and no problems other than figuring out how to fix a non serviceable tachometer.
Get the hammer!
Anyway, long story short, I figure out how to get it apart WITHOUT BREAKING ANYTHING, add a little clock oil here and there and boom badda bing, the tach has stopped screeching. The needle moves a little slow, as I figure out clock oil is not the right viscosity for a tach, but who cares? It's not screechin' anymore...
Tomorrow BC & me take the Mule out to spank her! Stay tuned...
W
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