1994 Rally build, basic and no money spent!

Yeah Im a little onfused about that too let us know how it goes!

Jamus wrote:

Ford Boi wrote:

I'm gonna double up my alternator circuits to fix that soon

How does that work exactly? (Insert Joe Dirt quote)

Well in my experience and research thru factory owner's manual wiring diagrams, the B&S alternators have a 3 amp AC circuit for the lights, and a 4 amp DC circuit for charging the battery with a diode in the circuit. I used to remove the diode and splice both circuits into 1 for high intensity halogen lights. On this mower I am going to put a diode in each circuit so that it still provides DC current (at 7 amps, I hope) to charge the battery while running the lights directly. Hopefully it works well!!

Cool! Welcome to the forum!
Looks like you've done this before! That tractor is pretty cool, and your exhaust is crazy! Lots of welding! How much travel does she have?

Ford Boi wrote:

Jamus wrote:

Ford Boi wrote:

I'm gonna double up my alternator circuits to fix that soon

How does that work exactly? (Insert Joe Dirt quote)

Well in my experience and research thru factory owner's manual wiring diagrams, the B&S alternators have a 3 amp AC circuit for the lights, and a 4 amp DC circuit for charging the battery with a diode in the circuit. I used to remove the diode and splice both circuits into 1 for high intensity halogen lights. On this mower I am going to put a diode in each circuit so that it still provides DC current (at 7 amps, I hope) to charge the battery while running the lights directly. Hopefully it works well!!

Sounds cool, I'll be keeping an eye out for that. I'm electrically challenged so I could use step-by-step instructions intended for a preschooler, haha.

Ford Boi wrote:

roboman79 wrote:

What year is the mower?
I forgot if you already said it!

1994 according to the engine stamp, my parents bought it new. Thread name

Gosh....., sorry!
I'm an idiot!

FearlessFront wrote:

Cool! Welcome to the forum!
Looks like you've done this before! That tractor is pretty cool, and your exhaust is crazy! Lots of welding! How much travel does she have?

I'm going to guess 1 front tire can get 12"-14" off the ground with both rears still firmly planted. I'll have to measure it now lol

[quote="Jamus"][quote="Ford Boi"]

Jamus wrote:

Ford Boi wrote:

I'm gonna double up my alternator circuits to fix that soon

Sounds cool, I'll be keeping an eye out for that. I'm electrically challenged so I could use step-by-step instructions intended for a preschooler, haha.

I've never actually done it with diodes to each for DC but I'm going to tackle it within a couple days, I'll take close-up pics and show you exactly what to do and let you know how it works! I've only ever done it before with AC and it worked fine for lighting.

FUnilly enough, I found some old engine documents saying not to do what you are doing, and one curcuit is AC and one is DC. But who knows. You say you've done it before, so waiting to see how that turns out

Chunk wrote:

FUnilly enough, I found some old engine documents saying not to do what you are doing, and one curcuit is AC and one is DC. But who knows. You say you've done it before, so waiting to see how that turns out

Haha I love it when there are things saying not to do stuff that I did lol. All I know is 1 wire has a diode on it making the current DC, the other is AC. I had taken the diode off the DC circuit and made 2 AC circuits into 1. Tested it with my DVOM and it worked out. Now this time I am going to add a diode on the AC line to make it put out DC and see if it works!

I htought the diode just stopped the flow going the wrong way? Never was good with electrionics though

It does- its like a one way switch - thats why i think a couple of my tractors have bad diodes- they wont charge the battery .

Yup, one-way valve for electronics. That is one of the few electronic things I do know, only from messing with LED's. Get the wires switched on an LED and no light, as opposed to incandescents. Though I have no clue as to all their applications.

Ford Boi wrote:

FearlessFront wrote:

Cool! Welcome to the forum!
Looks like you've done this before! That tractor is pretty cool, and your exhaust is crazy! Lots of welding! How much travel does she have?

I'm going to guess 1 front tire can get 12"-14" off the ground with both rears still firmly planted. I'll have to measure it now lol

Sweet, thats about what I get. Looks like a pretty solid set up though. I hope to see more of it soon! it make me wnt to finish the craftsman.

Well my alternator idea doesn't work as I had hoped I tried it out, the charging system circuit produces 28 volts AC before the diode, which converts it to DC by cutting half the AC voltage (creating more of a pulsed DC current) at 13.8 V. The lighting system circuit produces 12V AC but after placing a diode on it, produces 6 VDC. So I figured out that converting AC to DC via a diode only will reduce the output voltage by half (makes sense) Although the lighting system puts out higher amperage it cannot me doubled with the charging system, as together they can put out about 20 V which would fry the battery. My lights draw about 11 amps while the alternator only charges the battery about 4 amps so I'll have to watch my light use.

On my old setup running both circuits together with no diode for AC was fine as it had no battery, so it had enough voltage at low RPM to keep the lights bright.

Shame it doesn't work out. Wouold have been a nice mod to do. Guess I'll get back onto adapting a car alternator onto my romping tractor

Id look into a high CCA car/truck battery- even just the stock charging system should keep it topped off -go extreme and use two batteries and an alternator.

TRY A CHARGING RING OFF A 17HP OR 18 HP SINGLE CYL. BRIGGS.
IF IT FITS IN YOUR FLYWHEEL YOU CAN MOUNT IT.
I RUN A OHV 14 HP IT HAS THE ORGINAL CHARGE RING WITH THE LIGHTS AND WINCH DIRECT TO BATTERY
I DON'T HAVE PROBLEMS WITH BATTERY
I ALSO USE A 425 AMP LAWN MOWER BATTERY NOT A CHEAP ONE!
A DIODE ONLY LETS POWER TRAVEL IN ONE DIRECTION
IF YOU ARE TRYING TO REDUCE THE VOLTAGE TO THE LIGHTS TRY USING RESISTORS THEY HAVE TO BE BIG ENOUGH TO TAKE THE HEAT AND YOU HAVE TO FIND THE RIGHT ONE THIS WILL MAKE IT EASY TO CHARGE BATTERY AND GIVE YOU PLENTY OF LIGHT WITH THE RIGHT RESISTOR
MAYBE THIS WILL BE OF SOME HELP

I'm gonn have to invest in some big amperage mower batteries to turn my opposed twins over.
Worth getting if you can though.

Yeah the resistor idea could work, but you'd need to calculate what you;d need. I can never remmber the formula for calulating ohms and resistance when trying to work out what you need to reduce something to 12v.

you can also use a dimmer switch
like the ones that dim the light in a house
you would have plenty of adjustment
you can set the amount of voltage draw you want

Yeah a variable resisotr would be a safe bet. Can change it about as you needed!

Well I've been driving this Rally hard since my last posts. Rolled her 3-4 times this weekend, banged up the hood and fenders, pounded up a footboard on one side, smashed a headlight (my own fault for not putting a bash guard on there) Went on some nasty trails following my buddy's Honda 300 4x4, only had trouble in 1 swamp hole. Other than that climbed some huge rocks, stumps, attempted one off the baddest hills around (most trucks cannot climb it, Rally made it about 1/2 way) and then rolled it a few times climbing hills in my friend's lawn, where the damage occurred, minor really only bodywork, still runs perfect. Running gear holding amazingly.

Sounds like a good run then yeah i pounded the crap out of my stock 10HP agway when i was up north at my folks- only real thing different was i changed the front smooth tires over to turf tires to steer better in the mud- still used stock rears tires for about 4 years - only thing that stopped me was swamp mud that got too thick , i had to get off in 1 1/2' deep mud n push it out.

I started building an off roader from it, but changed my mind - dont have any where to offroad it in the city here ....

Well while changing my busted headlight glass after the weekend run (lol) I discovered I was unknowingly running H3 100W bulbs instead of the 55W I thought.... That explains the battery drainage!!!!! So I put the 100W's in my car fog lights and took the 55W's from my car and put them in the Rally, they are dimmer but plenty bright still, and draw about half the amperage!

Ouch. I had trouble just running 55w halogens.

On my 85 craftsman ( alot like your rally) - i ran a set of blue 1157 bulbs and a couple blue LEDS into the headlight buckets - my reasoning would be to use some blue LEDS under and around the tractor to show it off at nite - not good for seeing anything but looking cool- eventually ill get around to finishing it back into a plain mower with blue LEDs.

I had considered using bright red lightbulbs on my murray and red LEDs underneath - but i had a thought someone might think theyre looking at the back of something- not comming at them. I might get the LEDS for the MTD.....

FINALLY an update, I got a nice little Kodak C633 6.1 MP camera for 40$, time for pics again. Just wish I had pics of the latest fabs.

Front bumper and skid plate. Bumper off my old Rally racer and skid plate is a deck mounting bracket off an old Craftsman.


25x13" ATV tires, super beefy. Almost unstoppable now !!


Super wide stance


Racer vs off-roader. The rear tires on the racer is the size I used to have on the Off-roader, what a change.


Custom built front axle, I took 1 1/2" x1/4" angle iron welded into a rectangular tube with 3/4" id. 1/4" thick wall pipe for spindle tubes.


Sway bar end links off Toyota and Ford cars for tie-rod ends and steering links, no more play and a lot tougher.


Skid plates. Old Rally racer frame for main plate, seat mounting plate for middle, and custom bent rear transmission plate, all 1/8" steel. This thing is so heavy now it can take out small trees.


So this is what I have been up to, have had it out on and off the trails alot, working excellent, the steering is now perfect, all I really need is a bushguard to protect my lights, I broke both in the past 3 days.