Craftsman GT3000 "MUTT" Part I

Been doing some stuff to her today, I cleaned the crap out of the sump(dad called it paraffin or something like that, wax that came out of the oil). I cleaned the mating surface on the sump for the gasket that I have not aquired yet and fixed the timing. (The crank gear had come out of place when I removed the sump) Also, I looked the over possibilities of putting a Briggs model 31 pressure lube I was given for free a few months ago. The mounting holes are there but I don't feel like scabbing an intake, carb, and bunch of other things off of the 14.5 I have just to take them back off later. The shroud you see in the pics is to a Briggs model 31 splash lube that the rings went out of.

I assume the 31 is a single. It will be really good on fuel and rev really high. Much cheaper to build up than an oppy and lighter too. I would do the swap, but it's your call.

If ever I do a racer, I'll certainly use this engine. But I don't exactly know the condition of the internals, I think they may have been hosed because the oil fill tube is missing from this engine. One day I'll tear it down, but first I have to get the pulley off that is stuck to the bottom of it Also, I don't really want to lose that badass oppy sound!!

Ordered in the sump gasket on Wednesday, was surprised how cheap it was. Somewhere around a buck apiece. They say it should be in sometime next week I can't wait to see what this this is like ungoverned, should be fun. Gonna do dual open headers out of some old pressure washer frame too, so that'll sound good I bet. Also a meme I made in my frustration of waiting for the gasket...

Welded up a new hitch plate and toyed around with some pulleys. I've found that you can drill out the spot welds or cut the rivets and split the pulley to replace or regrease the bearing, might save me some money in the future so I can buy a cheap bearing instead of a whole new pulley. i tried swapping on a 14hp briggs but i've found that the carb won't pull fuel all the way from the tank without an extremely level fuel line. Also looking at doing a simple rear bumper soon, could mount lights to it or whatever i choose.

That draw bar looks pretty rugged, the factor ones usually arent very good for hauling anything more than a dump cart haha.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

That draw bar looks pretty rugged, the factor ones usually arent very good for hauling anything more than a dump cart haha.

Actually the PO had already bolted a big piece of steel plate to the underside of this one, it sticks out like an inch and a half past the stock one, somebody actually cut it the right size and put a bend in it for this application! I guess somebody knew what they were doing with this mower, it really was well taken care of, how often do you see cracks in a fender welded and painted?

So finally I got my gaskets, but as some of you may have seen on other sites and some of you may have not I found that my crank timing gear had a crack in it from somebody trying to tighten it down while it wasnt on the key correctly. Thankfully I have a 16hp oppy that needs a set of rods that I'll steal one from.

I'm amazed this didn't blow up

Dash is pretty bad, going to make another sturdier one out of stainess steel

Braced the steering column/support thingy by drilling a hole through in two places and putting nuts on either side of it with threadrod, it flexes a lot less now

Also i threw the sno hogs on the Snapper LT16 for fun, they work pretty good!

snow hogs look good. are those 18's?

Warren Evans wrote:

snow hogs look good.  are those 18's?

Yep, 18x6.50-8 but they only measure to like 17. They seem nice so far, but I havent had them on stuff that could puncture them or knock them off the bead yet.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Threw her all back together and discovered I could drift and do donuts. Ended up rolling her in 5th gear in the driveway, messed up the light mounts, broke the mirror mounts, bent/twisted the muffler up, but oh well, all of that is repairable. Overall I'm pleased with what I can do now, Wheelies are back (on grass at least) and I can crawl over soo much more. Love it!

Are them the axel shaft spider gears?

Oh boy oh boy oh boy, have I had an interesting last 24 hours. Guess I'll start from the beginning: Last night, I finally got a jug of oil to put in this thing. Threw the engine together, bolted her to the frame, worked out a foot throttle and before I knew it I was taking her out for a test drive at midnight. I was shocked as to how different it was with no governor. After that i parked her in the shop and went inside for the night.So this morning, I started her up and took her for a drive again and started to get used to it. I took it down to the creek and dropped one rear tire down into a hole about a foot deep and had a bottom of loose gravel, and was full of water. The front end went up, the tractor turned left, and on its side into the water with me on it. The engine drowned out (but wasn't hydrolocked thankfully) and within 30 seconds in an adrenaline fueled rage i flipped the tractor back on all four. I was soaked, the seat was soaked, the air filter was soaked, my phone got a little wet (screen is probably screwed now neener) Oh, and did I mention I didn't have a dash, battery, or hood on? Luckily I was fine besides a scratch or two. And surprisingly enough when I was being towed back by dad's JD 50 I jammed her into 6th gear, pulled the clutch back a bit, the engine started spinning and I gave her a bit of choke and throttle and 50ft later she was running again. I checked the oil to see if it was washed and it wasn't. So I continue driving around the rest of the day (new top speed of 22mph btw) and i go to drop in my favorite hole in the pasture and discover that I only have 1 wheel drive again. She manages to limp back to the shop again and I find that the right rim is neener again, and the keyway is pretty rounded too. That was the end of my day, at that point I had a big bag full of DONE WITH THIS.

My plan for fixing this, you ask? Well there is another Craftsman GT of this body style with a briggs 18hp oppy and peerless 820 with 5 lug hubs and 5 lug 12" rims that I'm planning on picking up for $50 sometime soon. I'll take those axles and put them in this trans and put the Execs on those rims and that'll hopefully solve my wheel problems. As for the dash (I removed because it was plastic and broken) it's going to be stainless steel. Sorry for writing a frickin book, I'm kinda angry and don't like to miss details. Misc pics below of stuff

Kind of a mini update, I found this online calculator that can calculate RPM, Tire size, gear ratio, and MPH. http://www.wallaceracing.com/calc-gear-tire-rpm-mph.php (btw you have to put in half of your tire height, like 26" as 13"). Anyways, a 13.5 gear ratio, 13" diameter tires, and 22mph= 7676rpm. Either that or 4555rpm with an 8.01 ratio (which roms peerless transaxle supply specifies the ratio as). Still, that's pretty crazy for stock con rods in an oppy. Although I only ever went wide open twice in the driveway to get a top speed, pretty much tried to stay below 4k everywhere else.

13" is the radius. run it again and put in 26 for the diameter

A lot has happened recently. I made a dashboard, fixed the wiring on the LED headlights (wouldnt light up like they should, put some heavier wire on and now they are brighter than ever). I replaced a bearing in an idler pulley (now another one is screaming whoopdefugindoo) I made a hood cowl from the old dash (not done in pics). Turns out the guy sold that craftsman but he may have a hydro with the hubs and wheels I need, if not then he has 2 sets of 12" keyed rims I'll buy off him. Stock and LED lights are on a old PTO switch (2 separate circuits to work with on 1 switch). I tightened up the steering. Went back to a normal lawn tractor battery, it kicks her over just fine and gives me room for stuff under the hood. Also thinking of cutting the tines/grill out of the front of the hood and replacing them with some expanded metal so I can put the lights in there or maybe a winch later
(pics are in no particular order)(hood sits crooked from when I rolled it)

So a few hour later and here I am with 2 sets of 23x9.50-12 tires with rims I picked up for $40! MUTT is nearly back together! Hood cowl is finally bolted solid and the hood sits in an acceptable way. Switched the bungee cord latch for the hood to the other side to even out the hood some. It'll be nice to have an extra set of tires to drift with too! I'm stoked to take this thing out tomorrow! Also, somebody stuffed a 15" tube into one of these tires, and it only has one hole!

Whats the cowl look like ???

A piece of the dash I cut off and made some brackets for, you can see it in a pic above

Dash looks great Rich! Much better than plastic.

been working on a double pulley clutch for the past two days (I forgot to sleep last night lol) Adding a bracket towards the rear of the frame, it's gonna have the clutch on it. I'm not exactly sure how it's all gonna turn out yet, but I wanted to post what I had before I crash and sleep till tomorrow. Also I got a camera, so I can do better videos on my youtube channel.

I keep forgetting to update this lol. So recently I have:
-Finished the clutch
-Got a new belt
-Belt keepers
-Moved LEDs inside hood
-Looked over putting 21x7-10s on the front, I could but the tires would rub the spindle if I didn't use spacers and it would add a bit of a backwards lean
-Tethered kill switch out of an old safety switch, got the idea from a thread here somewhere
-Looked over making a new exauhst, not 2 into 1 but more like dual out one side
What I still have to do:
-New Exhaust
-Brakes, my setup no longer works
-Minor adjustment with the belt, keepers, and clutch. I'm having problems with the belt not wanting to stop when I hit the clutch
-Dual throttle setup, or at least a remote idle adjust
-Get the right wheel off, I was an idiot and rammed the key in there and I think wedged it on there, and the axle was kinda boogered up so the wheel went on hard anyway
-Switch in a new coil, this one misses a bit on the left cyl







Also today I took it for a good romp, the clutch works a lot better now that the belt has worn in and the miss has gotten progressively worse. I rolled her again(i have bad judgement sometimes lol) and the the the tethered kill switch has proven its worth. The lights are also a lot better when in the hood, they dont get screwed up so much. I think I'll make a belt guard plate also, I had a stick literally come up under me and knock off my belt   Another thing is that I wish I had 2 reverses, t's nice to have a fast reverse but sometimes its nice to have a creeper reverse for tight spaces and crawling.

Belt setup looks great! That loop thing is a pretty interesting idea.

You mean the tethered kill lanyard? I braided it out of some plastic baling twine and have a keyring and a cotter pin on one end for the switch and a clip on the other. I use baling twine way too much lol
Edit: I also noticed that she has much less frame flex with the new crossmember thing I made for the clutch

I was talking about the loop that goes around the belt next to the clutch. Looks like it would keep the belt in place pretty darn good.

Oh lol yeah I put that in just to keep the belt from drooping too far when I hit the clutch. I made it out of some 3/8" threadrod and a 3/4" lock collar. It would be a lot more useful if it was on the right side but it's alright there, works just fine and i don't really need it on the other side now that the clutch is so far back. I'm considering making another for more towards the engine pulley when I get the MIG welder back.

That belt holder setup is pretty cool. What's going on with the exhaust? Gonna run dual pipes back? Where are they going to go once they get under the running board and will there be a muffler?

What I'm planning to do is dual out the right side dumped out in front of the tire, I think it would look and sound pretty good. I have some 1" conduit and some 1-1/4" pressure washer frame with some bends in it, along with an old mashed up tube gate that has like 1-1/2" tubing on it. I though about doing 2 into 1, I have the material but I think it would sound cooler if I stay with duals. I might do something completely different than any of this, I never really know until I get going with it, lol. I gotta finish cutting out 24 3" pieces of 2x4 box steel before I get the welder back tho. One of dad's friends is doing something on his trailer.

Also I put up a new video on my youtube channel of a short ride on MUTT, be sure to check it out and subscribe!