And so it begins! Craftsman LT1000 ---> ATV (we are hoping!)

yep.. hubs.. more than likely the wheels are steel... i saw some surface rust on one of them.. the "orange" rust..

anyway... so I passed by the repair shop I went to yesterday, and they have a ton of tractors sitting out there, but they are from people that took them for repair, and never picked them up... and "they cannot sell anything" as theyre not "theirs"... so now to look at other possible places... im gonna bring the ATV wheel with me to make sure I find the right part...

keep the ideas coming!!

I like all the work sir! good tires, i always say they can be the best upgrade. You and your sun will definatally have fun, ill be waiting for updates and the first romp! Cheers.

Im hoping to be able to find those wheels for the front soon, and locally, cause shipping will be cost prohibitive..

paint and all the other cosmetic stuff will have to come in the spring...

will post something if I get anything accomplished at all!  

not a whole lot done today, but did take most of the stuff under the hood apart and gave it a good cleaning, checked the plug and looked decent, and my son got to drive the tractor for a while... he had fun...

Tried to get at least the rear tires mounted on the stock rims, but the ATV tire would not budge to come off the wheel AT ALL... so I will have to pass by these other shops and see if they can help me mount them, and see if they have the 9in rim I need for the front... cause if I have to order it, i may get shot... LMAO...

hope your weekend was a productive one, guys!

quick question... Im gonna try to remove those "horns" that were the front bracing for the mowing deck... would that make the "frame" structurally less rigid taking those off, and putting the bolts back on? Im just afraid he will hit stuff with those...

and also... anyone recommends any places to get some sort of bushing to raise the rear of these tractors? since the rear tires are shorter than the front ones now, I want to make the "stance" a little more even, if needed.

hope you all are having a great week, and not breaking too much stuff!  

Ok... so.. got the tires off the tractor wheels, so I can start cutting them off tomorrow hopefully, and mount the ATV wheels/tires soon....  turning the wheels into hubs...

these are the rear ones....



and these ones are the fronts...........  

as you can tell... i have a problem.... solutions/suggestions?

I wouldn't raise the rear end, I would lower the front. Were you thinking about welding the front end together to make it solid??  If you were you could take the front axle and raise it up into the slot that it sits in and weld it fast if you want, or if you still want the pivot you could re-drill the hole and remount the pivot up higher.  Make Sense??? Then you won't have to worry about extending your input shaft.

I was just thinking about raising it up, over the frame.. like.. between the seat and the frame somewhere, and maybe just an inch or so.. nothing drastic, and I shouldnt need to compensate with any other shaft, since the moving parts would stay put... at least thats what I thought...

I want to leave the front end to pivot, at least until I try it on the fields at the farm... see how it does.. but I wouldnt consider lowering it since it is "low" as it is, for a "4 wheeler" standard.. lol!

I was looking at it today, and I would assume adding some rubber in between the "body" and the frame should do the trick, if it is at all needed to balance the stance....

TOMORROW:

cutting wheels to make hubs!!! if i get the darn saw to work!!  

looks amazing! love the atv tires! if only i could get my hands on some of those for cheaps lol

PROGRESS!  but another slowdown... lol

so... the rear wheels are all cut off.. now I just need to grind the edges down....





the slowdown is.... I am trying to find a drill press to make the holes on the "hub"....  dont want to free hand this.. lol  but hey.. its progress none the less!

now for the front, I had that little hiccup where the wheel cut off, which is 4.5", would not be big enough to go over the bolt pattern on the ATV wheels... which are 5" to the outer edge of the lug holes...





so it was either welding something else up on those cut offs, or welding the cut offs to the ATV wheels.... and I think I am going for the direct weld to the "hub"....   unless you guys have a more practical solution to this one... :p

then we started toying with lighting ideas....  and found these lights I had stored for a couple of years in my shed...  not sure if they will be the final option, but they look decent... just replacing the dichroic halogen 55w bulb with a LED based, IF this is what we are doing...   Im gonna pass by walmart tomorrow to see what other small driving lights they have... and replace those bulbs with LEDs instead of halogen, as I dont think the electrical "system" on the tractor will be able to feed them....  and white light is cooler anyway!  



location wise, as long as they stay under 3 inches, that may be the spot, since my son wont be driving this through woods or anything like that.. just open field, so nothing should hit them too hard... just not sure if towards the outside of the bumper, or between the brackets... i guess it will depend on the lights we decide on...

pretty excited with the work so far... now to find a drill press and a welder.....  and should be done for now, until spring comes around and the temperature allows for paint

I like em lights and that bumper

murrayracer wrote:

looks amazing! love the atv tires! if only i could get my hands on some of those for cheaps lol

if only I could get a couple of Hooters girls to pose ON my tractor...

I would put the lights above the bumper, personally... he may only be running in the field, but all it takes is finding something a little bit higher than ground level and you can write one of those fixtures off. Take it from someone who has been there... if it's left hanging in a vulnerable spot, something will find it.

Love the work so far btw.

TheRainbowBoxer wrote:

if it's left hanging in a vulnerable spot, something will find it!

LMAO that sounded funny!

I agree with you... Id much rather put them on top of the bar, for visibility purposes as well... but the hood hits the bumper when opened fully...
wait a min...... hmmmmmmm..... BRB...

well... I will have to take measurements, but the bumper does go down, so as long as the hood doesnt hit them, the upper side of the bumper will be the location!

I think this is gonna be the way Im doing the front hubs....



The "scratched" area is a cutout from a steel wheel, welded to the cutout from the mower rim...

hopefully I will have a positive update by the end of the weekend!

Got a nice little pulley out of the deck.... now just to figure out how to attach it to the transmission.... its a 6 speed Spicer... not sure if thats a good or a bad thing... lol



and this is one of the wheels I will cut the centers off... they are 5.5" at the inner plate... too bad these are 4x100mm lug bolt configuration...



just to show the pattern i will have to transfer to the other wheels...



any suggestions on drilling the steel wheels guys???

I am gonna work as much as I can tomorrow... I hope I dont run into any hiccups...... and i can mount the ATV tires on the mower by the end of the weekend!

Ok.. Rears are almost done....




But I have a little problem with the fronts... They're TINY... Don't feel very comfortable welding something to them as I had planned.. Hate to do it but, where do you guys buy hubs for front tires?   3/4" bore....




Once that is done, and those ordered, ready to roll!

This morning.....  doing some explaining about how the pulleys work...



Sweating it....




and the end result... fronts are not mounted... theyre there just for looks

I need to order the hubs for the front... anyone who can guide me in the right direction?  hopefully nothing too expensive...

would any of these work?  

http://www.bmikarts.com/4-x-4-Wheel-Stepdown-Hub-1-step-down-to-34-Bore_p_1648.html

http://www.bmikarts.com/4-x-4-Galvanized-Wheel-Hub-Front-with-58-Bearing-_p_2553.html



I'm new to this, so the whole "keyway" is whats driving me nuts... these are plain "spindles" at 3/4"....  and since it only has a front side picture, I cant tell if there is actually the slot on the other side, or whats the deal....  I just want to order and be done with the fronts!

SNOW IS ON ITS WAY!!!  

You want something with either bushings or bearings, preferably bearings. if you found 4x4" hubs with bearings that have the inner DIA of the DIA of your spindles that will work. Your spindles are most likely 3/4" DIA.

Yep! they're 3/4". I was gonna order those. I think they're $12 or something. But they say something about the keyway.. They don't mention the inner dia of the bearings...

The other one talks about 3/4 spindle but says that's on the flange side and 1" on the other side... Grrrrrr

I'll probably call them tomorrow....

These will work if you can find some with a 3/4'' inner dia.
 
http://www.bmikarts.com/4-x-4-Galvanized-Wheel-Hub-Front-with-58-Bearing-_p_2553.html

LAWN MOWER MUDDER wrote:

These will work if you can find some with a 3/4'' inner dia.
 
http://www.bmikarts.com/4-x-4-Galvanized-Wheel-Hub-Front-with-58-Bearing-_p_2553.html

If you got that and pressed those 5/8" ones out, and pressed these in http://www.bmikarts.com/Flanged-High-Speed-Wheel-Bearing-34-x-1-38_p_2369.html , it would work. expensive tho. Im sure theres a 4x4 hub with a 3/4" out there for you.

hubs on their way! should be here on monday... probably replace bearings on tuesday, and mount tires...

just for sh!ts and giggles, I went to the local TSC and actually explored it for a good while... wow.. impressed!

they did have the bearings I ordered, but at the same price, so no difference, since they are thrown in the package with the hubs...

good finds tho!

I much prefer to shop locally, and in person when possible. You never know when you'll find something.