Not so main murray

Don't really know a ton about this mower. Traded a work horse or wheel horse or something like that for it. Thought it looked cool so I bit. When I got it, the engine didn't run, no gas tank (still a problem) needs some wiring done (haven't gotten to it yet), rear pulley was swapped and someone decided it was a good idea to add a pulley to the deck height adjuster bar, welded rear axle, cool tires, stack, messed up hitch thing and crappy paint. Probably some I'm forgetting. Welded new front pulley, needs new belt, brakes adjusted, engine figured out, gas tank solution, would like to know what year it is. Not sure what I'll end up doing about the engine yet. Seems to leak a lot and won't run right. Honestly it's on the back burner since I have tons of projects all going on at once. Here's some pictures. Any comments, recommendations, or really anything welcome and appreciated.

That engine in it is a 1983 25 cubic inch briggs flatty (I assume you knew it was a briggs flathead). It's identical to my briggs hh11 build. Assuming thats the original engine, Id say its an '83 or '84 model year. If it's not the original engine, someone else will have to chime in on where to find the numbers on the chassis.

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

That engine in it is a 1983 25 cubic inch briggs flatty (I assume you knew it was a briggs flathead).  It's identical to my briggs hh11 build.  Assuming thats the original engine, Id say its an '83 or '84 model year. If it's not the original engine, someone else will have to chime in on where to find the numbers on the chassis.

being it was originally a 12/38 And the limited info I was told about it (the guy before the guy I got it from blew up the engine) it's been swapped on. I really would like a 12 hp flat head in good condition, but I haven't come across one since I got this thing.

Right now I have an 18 twin and a 16.5 in the yard, with a messed up 12 ho Tecumseh but I really like 12 hp Briggs for my offroad mowers for some reason.

Yeah, you really can't go wrong with a briggs single. Some prefer OHV and their power, some like flatheads because of their simplicity. Really, both are simple, reliable, and rugged. I have a 28 ci OHV briggs waiting to go in place of my 25 ci flathead when it blows (which should be a few years yonder...).

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Yeah, you really can't go wrong with a briggs single. Some prefer OHV and their power, some like flatheads because of their simplicity. Really, both are simple, reliable, and rugged. I have a 28 ci OHV briggs waiting to go in place of my 25 ci flathead when it blows (which should be a few years yonder...).

hey I'll take it off your hands and give you my 25 for spare parts;)

SatiricalHen wrote:

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Yeah, you really can't go wrong with a briggs single. Some prefer OHV and their power, some like flatheads because of their simplicity. Really, both are simple, reliable, and rugged. I have a 28 ci OHV briggs waiting to go in place of my 25 ci flathead when it blows (which should be a few years yonder...).

hey I'll take it off your hands and give you my 25 for spare parts;)

Hahaha...nah, I think I'll hang onto it. What all is wrong with yours? Is it an 11,11.5, or 12 horse? If you can get it running, I think it would be worth keeping on there.

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

SatiricalHen wrote:

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Yeah, you really can't go wrong with a briggs single. Some prefer OHV and their power, some like flatheads because of their simplicity. Really, both are simple, reliable, and rugged. I have a 28 ci OHV briggs waiting to go in place of my 25 ci flathead when it blows (which should be a few years yonder...).

hey I'll take it off your hands and give you my 25 for spare parts;)

Hahaha...nah, I think I'll hang onto it. What all is wrong with yours? Is it an 11,11.5, or 12 horse? If you can get it running, I think it would be worth keeping on there.

I think it's an 11. Before putting doing anything else to the tractor I got it running and it would sit there and run till I killed it, but I put a new front pulley on it and belt on and tried taking it for a ride, would run about 100 feet and die then again and again then finally just pulled it back with my other mower.

Well if it was me, I'd run some SeaFoam through the fuel system. Put just a little in the gas. It pisses me off when I see all these tutorials on YouTube where they dump half the bottle down the carb. Just put some in the gas and put a new plug in it and let it sit and run for a while. If that doesn't fix it, I bet your coil is getting weak.
All of this is assuming, of course, that you have decent compression. If compression is bad, new rings and a hone may be in order.

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Well if it was me, I'd run some SeaFoam through the fuel system. Put just a little in the gas. It pisses me off when I see all these tutorials on YouTube where they dump half the bottle down the carb. Just put some in the gas and put a new plug in it and let it sit and run for a while. If that doesn't fix it, I bet your coil is getting weak.
All of this is assuming, of course, that you have decent compression. If compression is bad, new rings and a hone may be in order.

I'll probably try seafoam and plug, but it has good compression and if it didn't I wouldn't do rings and hone probably just find a 12 somewhere. I usually have a couple laying around but I'm out at the moment.

Finally got the right gas tank for it, cleaned the carb again, ran it for a bit. All that's left to ride is a belt and maybe so tuning of the brakes so they work better, will eventually rewire it, but I don't even have a battery for it at the moment so not a priority.

Got a muffler for it, but still haven't gotten the right size belt. I tried a 92 and it was way too long so I tried an 89 because they didn't have a 90 and that was too short so then tried a 91 because they still didn't have a 90 and the 91 is too long so I guess 90 is probably what I need.