"Craftsmaha" Yamaha 350 Warrior Racemower

Hello again, long time no see. I seem to have a bad habit of disappearing for a year or so and building things secretly while I'm gone lol. This time it's for a buddy who wants to help get some kind of racing group/league or just general interest into these kind of mowers in our neck of the woods. This mower is built along the same framework as my honda racemower except I went all out on it since it's not my life that's going to be risked on it. I started with 3\16" 2x3 angle iron and mimicked the stock frame dimensions. I decided to go this route after I bent the stock frame on mine. Then I cut the "box" off of the mower, since it was a craftsman with the box between your legs instead of open floor, and grafted it onto the frame I made. From there I mounted the engine and got to work on the fun part... steering. This part alone took me 5 hours of fabrication, not counting the time standing around and wondering what the f*** I'm going to do next and how lol. I ended up using a combination of fourwheeler tie rods, and the piece they mounted to, and the mowers steering mechanism. In the end it honestly is a one of a kind and unique looking steering setup that functions pretty well. And the best part is that because I used the fourwheeler tie rods without modifying them, they can easily be replaced in the future by my buddy without me needing to build custom part for him. That was my main goal for 99% of what I built on this mower was for it to be easily serviceable and use off the shelf parts.  









Here you can see the electrical mounting plate I made out of an old aluminum  road sign I had sitting around, I also used the same sign to make the dash cover. The wiring harness from the fourwheeler was definitely messed with before but not too bad, except for the four random fuses I found bundled up together in a ball of electric tape lol. Instead of trying to figure out why they were there I just wrote down all the colors going to each fuse and what amperage they were and got a fuse block from the local auto store and some fresh fuses. I completely re-wrapped and cleaned up the harness and it turned out looking pretty clean.  





Here I discovered that a 350 warrior's exhaust and the old headers of my ol' ford are the same pipe size so I cut em' up and tacked up a pretty wicked looking exhaust. I had to take it to work to weld it up since I only have flux core at my house and I at least wanted it to look presentable lol. Now personally I'd run this thing straight piped, but my buddy wanted to have the muffler off the fourwheeler on it, I really ain't complaining though, it looks sick.





Some of these pictures are out of order but it took too long to host them all to re-order them lol. Here you can see the hydraulic brake caliper from the one of the front wheels of the fourwheeler and I used the master cylinder for the rear brakes and the fluid reservoir actually had a screw on cap it instead of a cap with two screws, which usually are stripped and a pain in the a** lol. The reservoir actually had enough hose on it to mount it up by the electrical plate giving it a pretty tidy looking engine bay.















Here you can see the chain tensioner I came up with, we'll see how good it works in the long run, but once again I made it easily serviceable with off the shelf parts, and at the time of writing this I have already rode this thing a few times and don't see any signs of wear on the pulley yet. I plan on doing this on my honda racemower as well since it doesn't have any chain tensioners at all, and both the chains are so loose it ain't even funny, but after putting a couple hundred backroad driven miles on it they've never came off once lol



I had to get some pictures of the beasts together lol, seeing them side by side made me hate how wide my front tires are even more than I already did. I want to put the same size on the front of mine that I put on his. I'd also like to relocate my tank back under the hood at some point, and extend and bend the shifter like I did on his mower, which is a major upgrade since you don't have to reach so far down and forward to change gears, which can be very butthole clenching, trust me I know from experience lol.







Here's some pictures of the final product, well at least 99% done lol, I ended up patching the old exhaust hole in the hood and cleaning the hood up some, I never planned on using this hood on it, it was supposed to be temporary and is actually the original hood from my honda racemower, but the mower my buddy brought me to use for body parts ended up being rougher than I thought so I didn't use the hood, it was also a older craftsman hood and way uglier in my opinion lol.













This seat I reupholstered I'm pretty proud of, it really ain't much, but it turned out pretty good. The original vinyl was cracked like usual on these seats so I peeled it off of the foam and grabbed an old browning shirt I had and some headliner adhesive and went to work. It's not perfect but it's better than what it was and was a cheaper alternative to buying a new one or trying to track one down that's not cracked to hell.







Well, I hope y'all enjoy this one, I'm pretty sure I've been working on this post for two hours now lol. Guess that's what I get for posting a years worth of work all at once instead of a little at a time. I'll try to stay more active on here, even though I'm sure i said that on my last post and my presence lasted a month maybe lol, just been a lot of changes in my life the past year making it hard to stay focused on any one thing at a time for too long. Anyway y'all have a good one. Cheers!!!

Man o man, I bet those are a blast!

Well done, great looking machine! Good to see more members around!

Yea, these things are a wild ride lol. And yeah, it's kinda crazy that I've been a member for almost ten years, I joined when I was 14, and my rank is still a new member . I'm going to try to be more active on here from now on.

LOL, yeah it goes by # of posts. 100 is the next level.

Those are wild but where have I seen that black one before? I'm sure I have!

I did a build thread on the black one a year or so ago.

That explains it! Thanks, I probably would've lost sleep over that! Lol

Thank you for the excellent pictures, I bet they are a blast to drive.

> you can see the chain tensioner I came up with

When I built a tensioner for my sawmill, I decided to go with a sprocket. Though on yours you might have to weld two together to get the needed width. The reasoning was you put the pressure on the inside on the chain where the rollers are, instead of on the outside of the links where they are not meant to have pressure and wear. That and you can lube a chain and the lube stays on the sprocket and rollers, not, the links. -$0.02

I like the adjustable knob, if you find it loosening up with use, a light spring around the shaft would probably put enough pressure to keep the knob from backing off.

I need seats for my mowers, I decided to either buy discount boat seats from Overtons or this one from surplus center:

https://www.surpluscenter.com/Brands/Concentric/3550-Universal-Black-Vinyl-Fold-Down-Seat-1-5956.axd


Sportsman Guide had a nice camo one, but, they sold out before I could place an order.

Like the fuel tank in the middle of the frame btw.

I honestly don't know why I didn't use a sprocket, the thought occurred to me a few days later, but at the time I was thinking about how a lot of minibikes have solid rollers for chain tensioners so I didn't really think about sprockets. I was also trying to use whatever I had at the time, and I just happened to have some idler pulleys laying around. And the adjustment bolt shouldn't ever back out, I only use that to set the chain tension, the bolt going through the idler pulley is what's doing most of the work as far as keeping it from backing off. And I like your boat seat idea, I'll have to take a look at some of those. My personal favorite seats are the old tractor seats like I have on my mud mower, another cool looking seat option is the fold down rear seats out of a 90's Chevy S10. Appreciate the feedback, I'll definitely be switching that pulley out for a sprocket.

> another cool looking seat option is the fold down rear seats out of a 90's Chevy S10

Never considered them, I will have to take a look at them, as I can't remember how they worked or looked or attached.

Years ago, I had a bunch of old cast iron (think they were true cast iron) tractor seats and I sold them all, even the cracked ones.  Wish I had kept at least one. The advantage I can see in using them is they have sides to keep you in the seat during rough riding.

Though I have repaired many mowers for other people and sold them, this is the first time I have actually owned my own lawn tractors.  Hope to build a nice diesel GT with a FEL.
One thing I dislike about my Murray seat is on slightly off camber driving, I end up having to hold onto something so I do not slide off to the side.  But, the plastic cracked and came off the back of the Murray seat, so, now it is time for a new one after 25 years of use.


I want something that can get wet and be left out in the rain.  Though I try to cover my lawn tractors whenever possible, sometimes I forget while letting the engine cool down. Plus, I plan on using one whenever needed including in rain and mud for actual work.  So, I am picking one that has a drain hole so water and leaves can just slide off the back.  Probably will get something to protect the top of the battery from leaves.

Yeah, most stock seats suck at holding you in, the craftsman ones like what's on this mower aren't that bad, but those old tractor seats definitely hold you in pretty good, and are surprisingly comfortable for not having any padding.

chevy8988 wrote:

Yeah, most stock seats suck at holding you in, the craftsman ones like what's on this mower aren't that bad, but those old tractor seats definitely hold you in pretty good, and are surprisingly comfortable for not having any padding.

It is surprising how comfortable a pan seat is. You wouldn't think it. The contours I think is why. Also, your rump stays on despite twists and turns due to it.