90's Craftsman "Loki"

Here's one of my most on and off again builds, Thing has so much custom on it, new shift linkage, clutch linkage, new rear axle, engine, drivetrain, heck, I've even butchered the hood!
Figure pictures would do more justice.
I never actually took pictures of it in the building stage, just pictures sent to my friends WHILE I was building it, so if they're a bit out of order, I'm sorry. But I'm trying to get them right.


This is the mower the engine came out of,


Got it ripped out.


Putting a front bumper on it, found some kinda old crane body thing, I honeslt had no idea what it was used for but the material had a thick wall!



Really liked Fearless' idea of the side bars, not only to hold onto, but to protect some of the sheetmetal.


Got that engine in.


And then I ran into this issue (it was solve by cutting a hood scoop into the front to clear the bulge of the air filter housing)


I extended the spindle on both sides to accomadate wider tires if I ever wanted to run side pipes.


Like these.


I actually cut off the original fender lips, and welded on flares. you can *kinda* see them in this picture.


This is the most recent picture (Today actually) I took it out in our pond and it did not great, but not terrible, The updated clutch linkage has its bugs, and the belt tensioner I put on it didn't stand up to well. Needs more tweaking driveline wise in general.

that is cool, by the way I woulld have put the the bumper forward more so the bigger tires could turn more, or is there more room than I can see?

Im always worried about seeing stamped craftsman front ends but thanks goodness you modded yours. and fit front tires correctly!

Ariens YT11 wrote:

that is cool, by the way I woulld have put the the bumper forward more so the bigger tires could turn more, or is there more room than I can see?

The wide tires that are on it in most of the pictures I *think* are 22 tall and 10 wide, and the have enough room to turn all the way around. I have a smaller set on there right now just to go around the yard on. This build was actually started before my Trike, so the wide tires went to that.

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Im always worried about seeing stamped craftsman front ends but thanks goodness you modded yours. and fit front tires correctly!

I know the feels there man. I used one of the stamped frames for a speed build and hit a tree with it. Didn't go over well at all.

Another day...More work!

First, I took more pictures of how it was on the underside before I started tweaking it.



This is the underside of the tractor, you can vaguely see the reinforcement bar in the far back right above the transaxle pulley.


Here's a really decent shot on how the ***** linkage got ran, it really needs to be remade into a single piece, and adjusted correctly.
This photo also doubles in showing the idle pulley I has put on in a hurry, that will get some attention later.


Here you can see I updated the steering joints with Heim joints, I popped the original ball joint.


This is the biggest issue I'm having. it my clutch linkage. it runs up from the line to a bicycle hand brake on the left side of the tractor. It worked reasonably well until the noodle I supporting it going through the frame straightened out, and got pulled through the stopper for it.


I grinded off the lips around where the idler pulley sits, and made it so it could possibly swivel, (It was also resting on the lip for the steering side)


Made this do-hickie to pull the idle back and forth, giving it on the go adjustment. (sorry for the bad resolution.)

I started to weld a rod that would go to that bolt sticking out to the outside of the frame, and the Welder wouldn't cooperate. Somehow I managed to melt the welding tip inside the nozzle. the tip got so deformed that I can't really use the nozzle anymore, so no welding for awhile.


Redid the original design for the cable stop, did away with the noodle and stopper and just put in a wire stop.


Remounted the clutch up of the shifter rally style.

When I got everything all bolted together on the clutch, the thing was WAY too tight to open the clutch by hand. I ended up calling it quits.