Mild Mod MTD

Well, i DID use almost a full tube of grease on it...... my 97 mastercut is ready for grease fittings now- thing still howls away....

I need to pick up a couple more tarps for my clunkers - my old tarps are all falling apart. I need to do some work to the temp garage - id like to pick up some pressure treated 4x4's for a base ( to mount the poles to) and maybe get some pressure treated plywood to put on top for a floor - raise it up a bit off the dirt.

nice mtd, i got a montgomery ward, built by mtd, and it has a stock 14.5 briggs on it, its pretty fast, and does pretty well offroad

Yeah i have like 10 MTD's - most mow , a couple are apart, and will made into mods .

This tractor is just something to tinker on and run around with , continuously mod- the others will be more heavily modified .

Ill do a few more changes for now, maybe a future change will be custom lowered spindles, direct steer- i doubt w/o doing a full drivetrain swap itll be much faster anyway.

Driving it reminds me of driving a go kart , now that im somewhat used to it, its pretty cool to run around on with the lower seating position, its not so high centered anymore, can lean into the turns n stuff.

Another update: No pics , but i used the 12HP carb off that 'mysterious clunking motor ' - runs a WHOLE lot better- plus the neat thing is its hand choke right on the carb.

Ive been thinking about modding a carb- like bore out some of the passages n stuff to see if itll get more flow - i have plenty of spare parts to try adding them to it- reason i bring it up is now i can crank the throttle all the way up, but it seems stronger down around the normal range tho. Itll be something to tinker with.


Im also looking into a foot pedal - i took the brake pedal off my wheelhorse chassis - that has 2 holes already cast into it- now im just settling on a somewhat comfortable placement for it on the right side, then ill need to make a bracket setup for it.

Once thats done , ill do the belt retainers and fix the idlers - then should be all good.

Sounds good! Did you get to figure out you battery situation? I'm still tring to find some space for mine.

Not yet- im still sorting out the 'details' - heck im still starting it with just the leads on a battery.

I spent some time figuring out the gas pedal- its rough right now, but works - also added a different air filter setup ( came off my mod murray- setup didnt work on it) - heres some pics:



This is the clutch pedal off my 69 wheelhorse- i cut the steel bar that it was on off that chassis and mounted it to a couple brackets i had laying around - recycling at its best.



Heres the air cleaner side- i made this filter setup for the murray- cept it was too tall- i saw it sitting there in the shed and sed "heck thatll work here" - lil better airflow now - used a spring on the carb to make it snap back - i drilled a hole in a bolt n ran the bike brake cable thru it twice n tightened it up.

Thats actually a vacuum cleaner filter ( off a red devil) , a 4" PVC cap, and a 4" x 3 reducer pvc coupling. I drilled a large center hole for the carb, and two holes to bolt it on- actually had to flatten the rounded end just a bit to sit flat.

I fired it up, ran petty good actually - throttle worked decent ( still needs a lil slack out of the cable ) - so now that thats done, i can set my belt retainer pins and setup the rest of the belt drive.

That petal is neat! So is that air filter! Very cool little additions.

Yeah its a cast piece - since the wheelhorse is disassembled anyway - might as well use the ' leftover' parts for something. It already has a small hole in it- could put a grease fitting in there sometime ( you can see the tiny hole in the pic of it) - another reason i liked it was because of the two holes cast into the top part- one for the cable- one for the spring - i put a bolt in the spring's hole to let it line up a tad better.

I still need to tighten the cable a bit more , has a lil slop in it, also need to put some ties to hold it in place- i thought of removing the stock air cleaner because that carb has a manual choke lever - easier to get to now.

As a return stop to the gas pedal , i just used a bolt- ill need to weld that in because the pedal keeps bending it backwards ( the return spring on the pedal snaps it right back)- i want it to be tilted a lil bit more forward actually.

I figured a dust filter in a vacuum takes quite a bit of dust out, heck should work for my tractor as well .

I was hoping to mount the gas pedal a lil bit further forward, but itd interfere with the oil drain- thats about as forward as it can go- im thinking i might make a frame to mount the seat back just a couple inches more for more legroom - im scrunched up on this thing- LOL!

Chunk: Sounds like itd work- maybe just use one off to one side or forward- i wasnt thinking when i made this filter for the murray - by the time i bolted the PVC cap on - it already was almost too tall ( i didnt glue the two pieces together - the filter is glued to the adapter tho) to fit under the hood. I figured id save it for something else sometime- like now- LOL!

I couldnt believe it took me nearly 5hrs just to set up that foot pedal n air filter - kept adjusting things..... but now its ready for its belt retainers - ill mark the spots, pull the motor drill n weld the nuts to the chassis, realign the rear idler belt and should be good to go.

Im not sure what ill tinker on next......

I did some tinkering on the mild mod yesterday- i ended up using another shorter bike cable, and i bot a couple small clamps to clean up the setup a little bit more , also re adjusted the pedal setup- made a return stop out of another piece of metal .

I flipped the tractor up on end..... and ill havta make some brackets for the belt retainers- theres like no where to weld/drill holes ( the hole for the motor is like a foot in diamater) - also put my 6" drive pulley on the motor as well- also have to custom make a bracket for the trans retainers - have to do some modding to the back of the chassis for room to work in......minor setbacks.

6 in drive pulley? Thats gonna fly! I love building something then improving on it. Nothing in my garage is ever finished... I donno how many time i've done something, then undid it a little while later. It's a part of life... I need to plan more!

I originally had a 5" drive pulley - i figured better set everything for the way i want it before i have to redo it . I want at least a 8" on the wheelhorse - that thing will seriously haul, also using a large # chain to the rear axle.

Other then fixing the idler pulley on the rear belt , thats probably as many mods as the drivetrain will get actually , i dont expect this thing to go super fast .

Actually thats the best thing, building it to have something to eventually improve - modify.

Before i always had like 3-5 projects at once going - ill keep tinkering on this and maintain my stockers till its done, then ill work on the next mod- Chunk got me to thinking about the ex mod murray - id like to get that back together in a mild state as well - id use that old twin off the kleen kut n try dual carbs on it - only issue i see is hooking the governer up - see how that goes.

Im still debating on lowering the front - probably the easiest way would be to raise the front axle a bit and weld it in - id also like to use some different traction front tires- swap a couple from murray rims- those MTD ones are too rounded- ill swap the wheels, then look into raising the front while im still tinkering on it.

I was sorta afraid to weld on it the other day, because the dude i bot my 2003 bolens from ( i used the gas tank off it cause the 2001's tank was missing) used RTV to patch a hole in the gas tank , it leaked all over the shed floor and the frame of the tractor- didnt feel like having a fireball on my hands...... ive got sunday/monday off - ill work on it sometime then AND get some pics

Happy Easter! I got some shed time today- i made up a couple belt retainers for the motor pulley - made em so i could take em out if needed ( for either a larger pulley or change the belt) - while i had it up on end i decided to drop the front axle as low as possible- since the original axle was in decent shape, i decided to use the crappy front axle from the 97 mastercut- i found some short steel nipples ( yeah yeah joke here) - opened em up with the step drill bit, and welded em to the axle - works great AND it sits just about perfectly level now. I drilled a lower set of holes - i didnt want to weld it , in case i decided to do something later with it.

To access the back area i used a cutting wheel on my grinder to cut the top part of the chassis - so now ill just bolt it down on top of the chassis - easier to get at everything now.

Im ticked i forgot my camera - im thinking another day or so in the shed, this thing will be done.

The weird thing was those nipples were in a bunch of tools n stuff i bot for like $5 at a yard sale - i was actually looking for that metal pitman arm off the bolens , when i came across them- idea struck me about using them for bushings - first they looked aluminum. but they welded in great- i still have a couple left if i need em for another MTD.

Its also odd that while working on this mild mod MTD, ive gotten quite a few new ideas and the tractor is getting further and further away from stock , BUT nothing has been changed ( so far) that cant be put back to normal ( if i ever want to).

Got some pics- actually its almost all back together, minus the gas tank n oil in the motor and wiring ( battery rack as well). When i put it back together, i cut the chassis over the rear axle and mounted it above to access things easier, i bolted the seat to it, drilled some new holes n worked great. Another plus is i managed to move the seat back about an inch or so- gave me some much needed leg room - plus it really doesnt look that much different, other then the gap in front of the seat.



Re did the gas pedal setup and cable- used an oridinary bicycle cable ( they have the 6 piece kit at wally world) and small cable clamps.



Raised the front axle flush to the frame bracket - all i did was drill 2 new holes n used the stock bolts.



Heres a better view of the axle location.....



Removable belt retainers - only way i could see making them easily.


I used the old 97 mastercut front axle, since i had to cut the locator rings off to raise it - bushings were all screwed, so used those steel nipples - worked awsome! Steering is like super smooth, and havent even greased it up yet- lil bit more and itll be done so the next project can make its way into the shed.

Those belt retainers look just like the ones we built for my friends MTD! Thats funny! Its looking great! when do we get a driving vid? huh? huh? huh?

Yeah man! I know I keep bugging you about it! BUt I really wanna see this thang cruisin'

LOL! Might be either thurs or saturday - ill see what i can get finished before a run.

I forget where i got those pieces of metal from - theyre actually curved near the belt side - i welded a another piece of metal to the bottom so i could bolt it to the frame. i just used some small brackets and bolts on the back pulley.

coming along nice dude, cant wait to c it finished

As Fearless said- one step forward- two steps back..... i went to put the key switch in to find i didnt have a starter solenoid.... so next came the 'test run" to see how itd work ..... the belt had so much tension i had to have the clutch in to actually start it. Once i got it going, ran pretty good - throttle response crisp , brakes held it in place, popped it in gear and .... took off like a bat outta hell! Man that thing flew.... ran good n strong, hit the corners great, handled awsome , was so fast i couldnt open it up ( before running out of room) - I really wanted to run down the street and open er up . Till the belt broke. Changed the belt- broke again. Usually itd last about 10 mins or so then break- been thru 4 belts already ( old used belts but anyway) . Cant drive it like that .

When it runs in neutral, the things spinning like crazy- wether it eventually slips off a bit or just extreme wear - i dont know.

I might need to ditch the vari drive n just use 2 pulleys - might just go to one long belt n ditch the vari pulley all together. Not really sure yet what ill do yet. Im sorta disapointed actually .

Well, i wanted to get the bugs out first..... i dont want an epic fail on YT - y know. I was surprised the last belt went, i hooked a spring to it to adjust - not sure why its doing it. the front belt is fine tho - just the back one is the issue.

I was surprised how fast it actually went n how well it handled- i might need some sort of wall on the right side of the gas pedal- my foot kept slipping off it .... lowering the seat /moving it back made a vast improvement on handling - not tipsy at all - steering is super sharp- so sharp the front tires hit the grille at full turn- LOL! Havta make steering stops now- specially since the axle is lower.

Ill haveta think about how ill fix it.