Craftsman GT6K

Spotted this one at the scrapyard a few months ago and finally got around to liberating it from the GT6000 it was in. It’s an older variant with a drum brake and cast aluminum hubs.



I stole the battery out of mutt and fired up the GT6k after installing a carb that I thought was clean. Apparently it isn’t, though at least it sort of runs. I really hate these kohler carbs. The clutch also doesn’t work as well as I thought it did, but I can see how i can fix that. The steering is super loose compared to mutt. Most of that is in the steering box itself though. I don’t think it’s so loose to make it skip though. If I’m lucky I’ll have a new transmission in this thing this weekend.

I was fooling around trying to finish off the transmission when i accidentally flipped the GT6k back over on top of me. That was fun


I tightened up the front end a bunch a few nights ago, that seemed to have helped a lot. I’m going to be installing mutt’s old front tires on her. As for the transmission I think I’ll just swap the broken parts for the ones in the trans I just bought. I don’t have time to adapt the drum brake on the new trans. Oh, and I think I’ll make a separate lever or pedal for the brake, clutch brakes suck big time. I found that out by rolling the tractor back on me.

Donor trans looks good


Went fishing in the old trans. There was lots more where this came from.


That is supposed to be a gear I think


Several gears seem to have ate it. The other single gear is reverse and it is driven by the small gear with no teeth on it.


All the gut’s transplanted into the old trans as needed and ready to be sealed up

Wow, that trans took quite a beating and didn't blow out the side.

Apparently that 1/R gear is a known weak point on these.

Trans back together and in the tractor. Put the cast aluminum hubs on because they’re supposed to be better than the stamped steel ones.


Think I’ve got the belt figured out pretty good on this thing now, had to make a keeper to go on one of the pulleys in the clutch. Only had 3/16x1 so I made it out of that lol. The belt stops in 3 seconds or so and breaks loose from both the engine and trans pulley.

Nice! I'd be interested in what you came up with on your belt/pulley configuration.

I snagged a pic of the clutch. If you look closely you can see the keeper I put behind the V idler. The linkage for the clutch pedal is in line with the belt, can’t really see it. There’s not much else to see, no other idlers or anything.
Nice thing about a double pulley is the ability to only run 2 idler pulleys for the whole belt system, if you place everything right.


NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE (I did manage to get it running ok I think)


New battery in this thing! Figured I’d put it in here instead of mutt because of the lack of a pull start. I am lazy and don’t like using two wrenches on battery terminals, so I just let a carriage bolt pull it’s square into the hole.

Out screwing around in the playground at GER, next thing I know everyone is leaving for a night ride. No time to grab Mutt so I just took the GT out. It survived!


I almost rolled it back over me, and I did roll it sideways onto me once. Tractor actually rolled down back on its wheels with me between them, and drove off without even touching me! Talk about lucky!

Yikes!  Sounds like a wild ride!

Took the mudlites on the offset rims off of mutt and put them on the GT6k. Gained a sweet 2.5” of width! Up to 39” wide in the back now. Lots more stable.




Took her up to the infamous bank on the power line


Put her in 2 high and just committed to it! She barely made it, definitely a near death experience. The front end is WAY too light.


Oh, also with the eastern KY special zip tie governor bypass my top speed is now 26 (downhill, more like 24 on flat)

Pulled this sweet steering rack out of a club car at the local atv boneyard. I think it’ll be perfect for this thing!

Looks like GER won this last weekend.  AYE!  I'm sure you'll get it fixed better!

After I twisted off the straight axle in mutt, I honestly went a little wild on the GT6k she’s the junk rig anyway, I’ll do anything to it so long as I don’t hurt the kohler.

Here’s a highlights reel from GER:


The bolt on front axle mount definitely wasn’t strong enough. After I tore it off we pulled her back up to camp and I welded it back on. Front axle mount survived the rest of the weekend, the spindles just barely made it

Sick camber bruh

Found Mutt's original spindles, I think I'll brace those up and then swap them in. Should last a little while at least. Good enough to get around with.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Found Mutt's original spindles, I think I'll brace those up and then swap them in. Should last a little while at least. Good enough to get around with.

Yeah, That should get you around for a few minutes. LOL. Then again I have only bent 1 spindle myself.

Stand your tractor up to the balance point and then just pull your foot out of it and let her drop to the ground. Couple of those will stovepipe a set of spindles pretty quick

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Stand your tractor up to the balance point and then just pull your foot out of it and let her drop to the ground. Couple of those will stovepipe a set of spindles pretty quick

I can speak to that lol, that can kill a steel axle too if you are dedicated.

TechnoChicken wrote:

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Stand your tractor up to the balance point and then just pull your foot out of it and let her drop to the ground. Couple of those will stovepipe a set of spindles pretty quick

I can speak to that lol, that can kill a steel axle too if you are dedicated.

Stamped steel axles I've killed a few of lol, this cast iron one seems to be doing ok. It'll get replaced with a 25mm spindle john deere axle here before too long.

Here's something kinda cool I decided to try.

Braced up mutt’s factory spindles.


Good enough for now lol.


Apparently stamped axle and cast axle spindles are slightly different. The stamped spindles are like an inch taller. Need to cut these down so the spindles can’t bounce up and down in the axle lol.

Ever see those older gokarts with springs in with the spindles?



Would something like that be cool since youve got the extra length

There was a couple mowers in the 60s like that. I think putting that extra unsupported length below the axle would just help me bend or break the spindles faster lol.

Getting ready for GER. Replaced axle seals, forgot to get a pic. Just ran a drywall screw into the old ones and yanked em out and then drove the new ones in with a piece of tubing over the axle.


Carb was giving troubles again. Swapped back to the pumper with a fresh set of O rings. Seems to be running good now, but that’s kind of always how they go at first.  


Shortened the clutch both height wise and width wise. Lowered 2” (to the standard LT clutch height) and cut an inch off the outside end. Added the same washer-foot keeper deal as I have on mutt. The idea is to have a similar clutch action on both mutt and the GT6k

Got a back bumper put together this afternoon

Simple and effective!

It’s a little higher up than it should be, honestly. Good enough for protecting the gas tank though.

Remember the rear bumper on budgie? That thing was fit for a big rig!