Craftsman LT4K kart/woods project start

History: was my day to day mower until this winter when setup for plowing duty (which is now done by my 1961 Massey 12!) the trans (6-speed Spicer) let go. My buddy had a 12/38 in his shed taking up space that he gave me for a bottle of rum. (no joke) That tractor's Tecumseh 12hp OHV had quite an oil leak so I pulled it and installed my Kohler onto the 12/38. That is now my mowing tractor. The Tecumseh is at the local career center getting re-gasketed by a neighbor of mine. It will be the power plant for this project. I picked up a Peerless 3-speed this weekend with rims and tires for $40 and that will be the trans in this project. I have already installed a cast iron front axle from a year or so ago, fixed the ridiculously sloppy steering, and removed all the deck garbage. This 3-speed has a 5.5" pulley and I am on the lookout for a similar sized crank pulley for the engine. I will make a custom tensioner and reverse the stock clutch to clear. Throttle will be the standard bike brake/clutch lever setup and I am debating on either using the deck lift for a hand brake and making a pedal setup for the brakes. The wheels/tires in the pic are 20x9.5x10 from the original Spicer. The 18.5x9x8's that were on the Peerless needed a tube in one. Planning on custom paint and bumpers/rack and I will need to figure out a seat as the foam on the stock one was shot. I may recover or I might grab a $30 boat seat and bolt that to the stock hardware. As it is now, waiting for the engine:




what is the best place to grab crank pulleys?

You've got a really good foundation there.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with this!

If you have a welder you can go to tractor supply and they will have a 1" bore hub sleeve that you weld to the pulley that you want.

got my engine back and installed today. Fired it up by jumping the starter with the car. Ran good. Thank goodness. Gonna fab up an intake setup and ditch the stock airbox I think.


I need help figuring out a throttle cable and return spring setup on this throttle plate/carb. Any ideas??? I have a bike brake installed on the footboard.

the front line is the choke and the rear link on the arm with the holes is off the governor to the throttle plate. I'd like to keep the throttle line to the dash to control the choke plate only.

seat mounted

dash, push button start on lower right, red switch is kill

custom intake and filter



Now the thing is, the way the throttle is hooked up is overriding the governor and is not good. My neighbor, an old small engine guy, says I need to keep the stock link from the governor to the throttle plate attached then rig a cable after that. I need some help here. Also, what is the stock setting for the screw on the bottom of the float bowl? 1-1/2 turns out from buried???

Well, third engine was the charm. It is now sporting a 12.5HP Briggs I/C. I now have two Tecumseh 12hp OHV's to part out on fleabay or here. I have a couple questions now, but I will post them in the appropriate area.

YEEEEEEEEAH BOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYEEEEE!!!  
Got driveable and prettied up LOL.    Now I need a smaller trans pulley and proper belt and I should be good to go. Much easier to rig a throttle on a Briggs than a Tecumseh.   



Colors are OSHA Orange on the hood, Colorplace flat black on the grille, and Suzuki Quadracer blue epoxy on the fenders.

nice man, love the paint

welded for the first time ever today. I have a 90AMP flux Harbor Freight welder I got this winter at a pawn shop new in box for $75 OTD! This little buzz box rocks! I welded a front bumper out of an old school chair, welded a crack in the frame and welded the seat tubing supporting the bracket it sits on. Welding seems fun. Can't wait to do more of it. Hopefully it isn't for repairs though...

made and mounted a rear bumper/grab bar today out of an old generator frame, a couple hex nuts for spacers, and a couple of the school chair legs from the front bumper leftovers.



I guess I should've joined the build-off as I have made more progress in the last couple weeks than others have in months. I ordered a belt yesterday for the new smaller pulley setup and hopefully it is here Monday. Then all I have to do is figure out a brake setup that will look decent and maybe add some hood straps and she should be good to go for the time being. Later down the road, I plan to add extended spindles for nuts and possibly rear fenders of some sort and perhaps some frame bracing.

Nice work- the rounded corners are different from the usual. Have you welded before? cuz if you were a first timer, those welds a pretty good from the other horror stories ive seen before. Rear fenders would tie the back end together, probably make it look better.

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Nice work- the rounded corners are different from the usual. Have you welded before? cuz if you were a first timer, those welds a pretty good from the other horror stories ive seen before. Rear fenders would tie the back end together, probably make it look better.

yep, first time welding was the front bumper. Second time was yesterday, rear bumper and sealed up the other frame crack around the front axle.
We'll see about rear fenders. I might try and cut up the OEM ones a bit more or see if I can source an ATV set or maybe even some trailer fenders.

dwcopple wrote:

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Nice work- the rounded corners are different from the usual. Have you welded before? cuz if you were a first timer, those welds a pretty good from the other horror stories ive seen before. Rear fenders would tie the back end together, probably make it look better.

yep, first time welding was the front bumper.  Second time was yesterday, rear bumper and sealed up the other frame crack around the front axle.  
We'll see about rear fenders.  I might try and cut up the OEM ones a bit more or see if I can source an ATV set or maybe even some trailer fenders.  

I've thought about trailer fenders, like doc sprocket's MULE, but have fenders the hole way to the floor boards. I think it would look pretty slick.

swapped gas tanks today for better fit, added eyebolts and mini bungees for battery hold down, and installed an idler pulley and new belt and went for a drive. Have a bit of a high speed wobble when pegged in third (3-speed Peerless). Should be fine in the woods and on grass though. I found that the crank seal is leaky and needs to be replaced. I hope I can do this without pulling the engine. Now I just need to figure out a reliable brake setup. I am gonna use the transaxle brake but I want to do a hand brake for actuation of the lever. Need to figure up a linkage or a cable setup. Not in a huge hurry to do that as it winds down quick when the throttle is off with the clutch still engaged.

I have a hand brake on my murray. Its beside the shifter on finder works great. All custom fabed an all parts from mowers if i get a chance ill get som pix of it in a couple of days.

The paint on this looks great! hows the 3 speed do? as in speed and handling in each gear? i seen two of them on craigslist and thought about getting them but wasnt sure about the speeds.

3rd flies, 2nd is decent, and first gear crawls. I have a ton of gears from a Spicer Dana Foote 3865 trans that I could swap in if I knew what gears gave what speeds...

i really like this build has there been anything new happen to it

yes actually there is. Today I cut the stock double stack pulley in half and cut the small pulley off the top of it. want to run the larger deck pulley on the engine for even more speed. I also removed all the stock clutch pulleys and did the reverse setup like the Mowrons do, but I am not convinced it will work with a larger engine pulley, though it does for them so we will see. I am waiting on my neighbor with a mill and a lathe to get home to safely remove the bottom pulley from the OEM shaft so I can weld it up to be the new engine pulley.

I also ditched the school chair seat yesterday and bolted on the OEM seat pan, hinge, and springs because that rigid setup I had was bouncing me all over the place when I went offroad. I slapped a foam cushion on the seat pan as the stock foam and cover was shot. I also installed an ATLTF sticker on the back of that seat too  

hopefully I can go get this pulley done in a bit so I can try figuring out my clutch setup. I also need a set of bent nose needle tip pliers so I can bend my governor tab out a hair like Fearless did in his most recent video. Stay tuned...

ok, so I bought a cheap hole saw set last night and going low and slow with some penetrating fluid and a 1/2" drill I was able to cut the mower deck spindle pulley center out that I was gonna use as the engine pulley.  With the hole cut, I welded back in the OEM pulley shaft so I can secure it to the engine.  Amazingly the same belt still worked once I ditched the idler pulley and reversed the clutch action ala Mowron style.  I think the clutch actuator rod still needs some more tweaking though as even when pushed to the "floor" the tractor lurches fwd when in gear.  Not good, either that or the belt is one size too small.  I had to get it on by rolling it onto the transaxle pulley.  But with this new setup, "wow" she is so much faster.  Probably at its limit for safety as far as handling with OEM setup.

Pics or it didn't happen!

   

looks good man love the tractor in the back