The Beater

Well I never started a build thread on this mower becouse it was just going to be a simple build. You know just keep it together, keep it running and only fix what would happen to break on it.   To an extent I've kept up with that plan although sometimes more often than not I'd have it tore apart for longer periods of time then it really should've been.  I've now decided to start a build thread on it becouse seeing the progress of it over all these years I've noticed that a bunch of little things add up, and also due to losing countless pics of work that I've done to it too.  I'm going to try and dig up as much info as I can from the beginning but with all the broken phones over these years I may not be able to get everything.


MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THIS MOWER / BUILD  is to keep it looking as factory as possible but built as strong as possible.  

I bought this 2006 craftsman lt 1000 in the summer of 2015 as running and driving grass cutting machine for $125. Only issue it had was the detent was lost in the shifter and was missing the headlight wiring harness. I'm not sure when I started to modify it into an offroad machine but I had to first talk myself out of trying to flip it in the pa used mower market.

Over the years it has done fairly well but the 2019 Top Tractor Challenge put a beating on it and I now have an extensive list of stuff to finish, change, modify, and build.

(I'll try and do all prior mods in a single post at a later date to get all y'all caught up with this rig.)
So here's some pics  of The Beater.
This is the oldest pic I could find right now- from summer of 18. Had transaxle removed cuz I blew the input ring and pinion gears out of it (from pulling out shrubs).



This is after I went on a ride with some atvs in the late summer of 19.



And this is how it sits currently, in pcs as usual. (I'm working on converting the transaxle from belt operated to chain operated -more to come on that later too).

Nice to see a thread for this build! I like that muffler setup going up under the fender, pretty neat.

Really looking forward to seeing the chain drive!

Thanks AllisKidD21.

The muffler is a TSC special (farmall replacement I think, it was the smallest one they offered) and if it does quiet it down any it would only be at idle. It's going to get replaced at a later date with something that would quiet it down alot more  since most of the time when it's out it's somewhere we're not suspost to be.
Was going for the sport quad look when I did the system that way you didn't see anything minus the tip an a small chuck of the headpipe.

Hoping to have the chain drive rear setup done in a couple weeks. Parts are in I just have to do it.

So awhile back I blew the input gears out of my Dana Spicer 6 speed transaxle, no problem I'll just swap in an 820 and I'll be up and going again. Wrong, I didn't have an 820 nor could I find one for sale in my area. After awhile redzz02 came through and sold me a 930. Then it was either  that day, the day before, or the day after, my buddy dropped off  a Foote  6 Speed  transaxle  for me. Man what do i do - run the 930 (i think there is huge potential in those transaxles) OR switch my welded diff into the Foote and run it.  I picked option 3 which is the same as option 2 but with a slight variation.
To keep a long story short the main reason why I went  with this option, to use these makes of transaxle is because they are one of the most unliked / Unwanted  types of transaxles out there .  So I kinda took on a challenge with myself to see if I can take the unwanted / unloved transaxle and make it strong, make it last and make it perform.  If its not possible then I still have the 930 to fall back on.
So the variation came along when I was tearing apart both transaxles to make one. I found out that there are only a few differences between them but one of the differences that I found was in their cases. The Dana case had more stiffeners molded into the case then the Foote transaxle did. So I decided  to keep the Dana case  and all the internals inside it since there was no differences between the two. However, I did swap in the input shaft, the pinion gear, and bevel gear from the Foote transaxle. While I had the Dana transaxle out and tore apart i went ahead and degreased everything.  I put all new bronze bushings in and ordered some precision shims from McMaster-Carr to tighten up all the play I found inside the transaxle. I also replaced the bearings in the case that the input shaft passes through with new ones. The only thing I forgot to do was to drill and install a grease zerk in that area of the case to help with keeping the bearings lubed.  
Once everything looked and felt good I smeared in some new grease and closed it up. Finally I can install it and drive it around; right ..  Wrong - this is where the project goes spiraling out of control. To be continued

Super cool exhaust routing. I'm gonna do something like that on my new build I think.

Glad you finally made a build thread for this, its got alot of really cool features and I love how its kind of a sleeper

Nice! Hey may want to install a grease fitting through the case where your input shaft is.

mr.modified-  thanks.  
I made it so there was nothing really hanging below the frame to get caught up on.  I've got a couple more modification to do to it, so I'll do an up and close post on it. (I think the pics from me building that system are some of the ones I lost).  

Creepycrawler-  thanks.
A couple of these new mods I'll be doing to it (before the 2020 ttc) is going to take away from the sleeper look unfortunately.  It should have more of a sporty look when finished but still closely resemble the stock look.

Jeremiah R. Cooper - thanks.
It's one of those things I forgot to do but has always stayed in the back of my mind to do. You know, the next time it's out I'll do it. ( it's still not done).

Love that you’re doing a thread on this now, I’m intrigued by the sporty sleeper look that’s suppose to be coming in the future, but I just picked up 5 more 820s..... so if you ever want to go that route I got one for you

On the plus side, those LT1000s always have broken noses so you are at least keeping it looking stock by smashing it into trees lol.

@redzz02    I may be interested in one of those 820s, this summer's goal is to try and destroy my dana Spicer.  I want to see where the next weakest link is in it. It would be nice to have something to throw underneath it for the time being that is strong.  

@Doug  
Those  dang trees- I'll tell ya I think my tractor has a magnet for them. This up coming year I'll have a fresh zip tied together old hood on for any  actual woods/competition riding.

@muddstir I also have several 930, foote, 206s laying around at this point too so I got parts if you need them just let me know

Well I ordered some new front tires for this thing last week and they came in today. Bought them not knowing if they where going to work or fit like I want, the description was poor but the tires were cheap so why not. It did say the tires were 18 x something something. But under the description it said outside diameter was 17in.
Well in this pic they are pretty wide and look way bigger than 18in tall.


18 x 8.50 x 8


I'll mount them up sometime and see if I like them, if so I'll run them and if not then they'll go on my pile of tires and I'll search for another set.

If you don’t like the way they look I’ll take them off your hands

Between you and @mister_studabaker I'm feeling a bit left out in the new tire dept!

Trying to get you'll cought up with this I'll go over my first transaxle mods.
Yes transaxle is a Dana Spicer 6 speed.

I wanted to try and address all the issues with these transaxles and see if I could build it to withstand the abuse of off-roading.

To me the biggest problems are-
Wore out internals
The cases cracking
Input shaft wear
Axle flexing

For the wore out internals I already took care of that (in post #4)  by replacing all of the bronze bushing, input shaft bearings, and reshimming all areas with precision shims.

So on to the cases
Since my frame has a ton of flex in it, that causes a lot of stress sent into the transaxle which the cases are made of a thin cast aluminum that are not very strong to twisting forces.  I'd figure I'd wrap the transaxle in some 11ga steel then. This will give the transaxle a "backbone" and it will also provide a skid plate to protect the bottom of it.  (Which I still need to finish the other half of the skid plate.) Then also with having steel on the topside of the transaxle it then gave me a spot to build a mount to support the input shaft.
I call this steel transaxle housing my "case saver"  






The input shaft wear fix.
I figured that the pulling pressure on the input shaft from the belt because of the tension from the clutch, along with the heat from spinning the input shaft really fast was what wrecks the input bearings.  Bad input shaft bearings and sloppy internal clearances will wreck the internals of the transaxle. So I figured that the input shaft needed to be extended up with a shaft coupler and then supported with a bearing on the top of the extension that would be tied into my case saver. This would take all the strain off of the input shaft and hopefully save my new bearings. (There's not much I could do to save the input shaft / and bearings from the heat aspect. )








Now since I used a coupler to connect the input shafts together on the transaxle, that created another issue for me. It made my pulley setup completely change and I'll get into that later.
I'll also show how I solved  the axle flexing at a later date.

Looking good, I think I've seen a few of your youtube videos. The disc belt keepers you made for your pulley are a pretty interesting idea.