MTD off-road romper build.

Engine pushed out a valve guide on the lower cyl exhaust and burns oil. Needs to be fixed, but lucky for me I've been working on a 46ci 21hp opposed seen here: https://www.atltf.com/t4166-briggs-opposed-build-46ci That I can swap in. Upgrade and fix, hopefully. Just swapping the 16s carb over because it's tuned in stupid good, un gov'd too.

Looks like making a trans skid plate would be pretty easy. Could just bolt it somewhere to the bottom edge of those brackets/weld a tab down there or something. Gonna slope the skid plate up in front of the trans at a 45 to meet up with the belt guard?

yyyyyyyyyep. It's going to be pretty tight to the case, just off the pumpkin for maximum ground clearance. Going to run a bar side to side on the bottom of the forward tranny mounts and run the skid up to the frame. Then the same on the backside probably

Deffinatley gonna have a skidplate on mine to, probably full belly pan like your talking about, are you using steel or aluminum?

Steel. Angled front and back so I can drag it over stuff. I think the 1/8 - 3/16 plate I have is about as wide as the frame. Little ears on the ends and have like 4 bolts holding it on. Probably wing nuts for easy removal on the trail. The 16ga belly pan will go probably up to the engine crank but still figuring out how to mount it. I think I'll use pins with rubber "washers" should keep brush out if the belts when running in the woods.

Nice list... But new motor? What is wrong with opposed?

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Steel. Angled front and back so I can drag it over stuff. I think the 1/8 - 3/16 plate I have is about as wide as the frame. Little ears on the ends and have like 4 bolts holding it on. Probably wing nuts for easy removal on the trail. The 16ga belly pan will go probably up to the engine crank but still figuring out how to mount it. I think I'll use pins with rubber "washers" should keep brush out if the belts when running in the woods.

yea I have broke belts Becuase of sticks and stuff so for splash protection and belt brakeage protection I think it's a good idea

Carshowkid wrote:

Nice list... But new motor? What is wrong with opposed?

Answer is on page 53, keep up! lol

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Carshowkid wrote:

Nice list... But new motor? What is wrong with opposed?

Answer is on page 53, keep up! lol

butt... Butt!!!! THERE ARE SO MANY TOPICS IM FOLLOWING ON!!!! It's hard to keep up now... And hw at school sucks now... So I have even less time

Pressed in valve guide came loose and slid up into the exhaust port. Terrible situation...just terrible.

First of, WOW, its been to F'ing cold for to F'ing long. I cant work in this junk!

BUT-today it got to a toasty 22F out so i went and worked on the hubs i left off on.

Got a $11 or so bit from advanced auto. went to try it out in our big drill and SNAP! Like a freakin' twig. ****..... lucky i scrounged up another 1/2" bit, and worked, eh alright. I mean it didnt break in half before i could put a dent in my material...

Exhibit A that made for interesting shop language:


Zipped off the little sleeve on the end so the hubs stick out farther. Got all the holes drilled the ones on the corner are tough.


Ran the bolts thru everything and tightened up, didnt weld anything. i cant decide if i can make use of those lugs and make little spacers or what. What ever, this is how it sits now at least.





Probably going to get tubes to seat these stupid tires.

Sorry, there isn't any more in the junkyard, I picked these hubs off a big gt john deere hydro. The hubs are actually off set like 1/4" for some reason too.

I don't know, in that last pic the front end looks a lot wider than the rear. Looks like more than you could get back with spacers. I mean I guess they would help. Not that it really hurts anything anyway.

How come anything you have with four wheels has the front tires wider than the rear? I think you've been hanging around with the guys who work at the nissan racing department.



So are you gonna go with some wild rim color this time or just stay with black?

Its all about being able to turn with those big tires man!! And if the front fits in a trail so will the rear... duh

Red this tractor had come so far and all... But those rear Kendra's I think... Look insanely awesome!!!

Carshowkid wrote:

Red this tractor had come so far and all... But those rear Kendra's I think... Look insanely awesome!!!

Hopefully it looks better when i groove the knobbys. youll see. I have some more junk ill be able to get done to this, its going to be above freezing for majority of next week! Shop time

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Carshowkid wrote:

Red this tractor had come so far and all... But those rear Kendra's I think... Look insanely awesome!!!

Hopefully it looks better when i groove the knobbys. youll see. I have some more junk ill be able to get done to this, its going to be above freezing for majority of next week! Shop time

lucky!!! You have a shop... I have a drive way whenever it's above 10F ... Until April when we build a garage. But why are you cutting perfectly good knobbies?

Scorpians cake up quickly with mud.

Gotch ya!

Just go out to St. clair pa and get all the free tires you want. Sure you might have to pick through to find good ones. I'm gonna stop out that way monday and get my reading anthracite access permit. I'm gonna check if those 12" atv tires are still where I left them. Need a good spare for the baja sears. I think there was two there, but they weren't exact matching tread. Might be a bit dry rotted by now, it was about a year ago when I saw them.

if they have matching brand new mounted tires on 4x4 rims, ill be glad to take them

So tell me... Whats your thread page goal for this?

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Carshowkid wrote:

Red this tractor had come so far and all... But those rear Kendra's I think... Look insanely awesome!!!

Hopefully it looks better when i groove the knobbys. youll see. I have some more junk ill be able to get done to this, its going to be above freezing for majority of next week! Shop time

still gonna be juek

TheBeal wrote:

So tell me... Whats your thread page goal for this?

Page number goal? Oh, I don't have a goal. It just....happens

Ah so more progress from the past week and today.

High steer, wanted to get this done. Took the old bar, cut the spindle steer arm ends off, turned the tie rod 180 and flipped it upside down. Gained about 3" of clearance. Im thinking building a bumper almost on the axle that drops down and protects the tie rod when i hit rocks or the tire slips off the rock and ends up inbetween the tires.

Tie rod ends are pretty automotive type. have to use a ball joint separator to remove the tie rod. Have grease zerks too.
Original setup:


Cut and moved them up. Used 1/4" plate. Tie rod really tucked into the rim as much as possible. Excuse the trash welds where I think i can weld over my tack welds




Modded the steering stops. Pretty easy.


End result. Much better.


Onto the Arctic cat brakes. All this time i thought i was putting them on the axle. Silly me, didnt even check if that honkin' 8" rotor would fit, and it didnt... Buy a mile...

Plan B (or only other option) imput shaft brake. Maybe this is a first? For vertical shaft trannys at least.

Put the rotors hub on a lathe, re faced it, and bored it within thousands to my pulleys shaft.


Took a long time of tack weld, spin the pulley and rotor, tap it with a hammer, spin more, tap more, even spun it with a drill. I think i got it within 30 thousands. Aint perfect by any means but its damn good for me.

After i was done with that, i mounted the caliper all the way back in the corner. after a bunch of cutting, grinding, close measurements, careful bolt hole drilling, i made a bracket for the caliper.



All together. Took a lot longer then pictures say it did, but i feel like it will work good. I put a hole in the side of the frame for the snowmobile brake handle cable. I think ill mount it on the fender to the left of me. Has a parking brake on it too.