Mighty's Li'l Red Murray

I shared my Utility build tractor project Sasquatch Here, but this is my Off-Road build.  

Here is my current project, Li'l Red "Murray" build.  I had been playing with tractors, modding some.  The more I learned and more that I read in forums across the net, facebook groups, and YouTube videos, I decided to try my hand at a Muddin', Off-Road build.  I toyed with converting Sasquatch into this, (still am), but an integral part of these builds seem to be the "locked" transmission.  1) I am not a "good" welder and 2) I wasn't sold on flipping gears to lock the Craftman's transmission.

I found on craigslist, nearly 3 miles from the house, this Murray.  The PO purchased it for the engine and could not get it to run.  Poor guy try to run diesel in it.  Got it all cleaned up and it runs decent.  Had some scary hiccups along the way like it puking a water/oily residue all over the garage door.  The engine does not blow or burn oil now.  I figured it was due to the Diesel or the guy I bought it from put oil in the chambers to prohibit rust? Thankfully a good soaking of purple power got that right off.

Here it is after I unloaded it off the pickup.



I decided to strip the thing completely down and start from the frame up.


Changed out the clutch single pulley for double pulleys


Doc Locked (Weldless 2.0) the transmission and pulley swapped and vented. (Could go smaller, but wasn't looking for speed, just faster)


Some shots of it coming back together...



Added some tail lights,


Created a gas petal from an older Murray hydro that was mangled. (work still in progress)  I still have the dash throttle at this time.




More pix...





Things I still have in work:

• Finish foot throttle.  Having both, dash throttle and foot isn't working that well at this time.  COMPLETE!
  

• Mount new tires to rims. (can be seen in walk around video below) **COMPLETE
  

• Fix an oil leak in transaxle.  Appears COMPLETE!
  

• Engine still needs some fine tuning (I think it is starving for fuel a bit *COMPLETE...Didn't have cut off all the way open
  

• Build a bumper that I can mount my dad's old wench that I need to fix input post
  

• Build a back basket? storage for tools, etc.
  

• Exhaust!!!
  

From there it's whatever comes about!  I figure this type of build is like an artist's painting.  Never finished.  

Current state of Li'l Red.


Enjoy!

Edits: Marked off Completed items in list. Added exhaust to list.

Lookin good. Those are some seriously long axles! The wide stance looks good.

Yeah, I did the go-kart axle like the weldless doc locker 2.0. It's 36 inches. I'm still waiting until I get my new tires on the rear before I make any decision on axle length or ends.

Ah right. Good luck, that rear pulley should get you some pretty decent speed.

I was getting 13mph before I cleaned out a clogged port on the carb.  I expect at least 15 after my tire swap.  So far one down.  One to go.



That dent may drive me nuts seeing it now.

I personally would have the tires narrower than you have them there. Both for style and fender coverage. I know its doc locked, but the longer the axleshafts are, the more leverage it has to break the case. Doc broke a case with his 1 piece axle, so its definitely not impossible.

Yeah, I was already thinking of bringing them in a little bit. I agree, less stress on the axle and case.

Nice tyres. Are those 22's?

Yes, 22x11x8  They are much bigger that what I was going for, but I seen them on craigslist for $40 and could not resist.

Got the other one mounted too. I also brought the wheels in quite a bit.  Just a little over 0.5 inches from the transaxle.




Not much in the mudder fund right now, I beat the dent out a little on the back, it's still there.  Still need to figure out how I will do the foot throttle.

You'll notice with the bigger tires you lost some caster in the front axle so its going to feel more 'darty'. I run my back tires at a really low pressure to both soften it and level it out some, and I have I think 16 inch tires on the front. Handles like a dream.

Thanks for the info!  Yeah I am running tubes in them so I can keep a low pressure in the tires.  It helps a lot.  I had lots of turning issues at first but a bit easier now.

I think I may need to upgrade to 8's on the front. Those 6's are mighty small now. Although it is nice climbing a hill.

Nice! Yeah, you should upgrade to 16-18" on the front. Will help the handling a lot.

The biggest tires you can get on a 6 inch rim is 15.5, which is stock size. I put front 8" rims and 16" tires from a sabre garden tractor on. Fit perfect with no spindle mods, even used the original e-clip. Helped handling immensely!

I've done a mod on my Suburbans (my 77 Hydro in the avatar) and Sasquatch (linked in signature) where I have adapted a go-kart 4 on 4 hub to work on the existing tractor spindles un-modded. I am contemplating that on this one as well. On the flip side, I do have two 8 inch front wheels that I could slap new rubber to if needed. Weighing my options, have to wait till payday.

Those 4on4 hubs are pretty neat. Do they have bearings in them?

Yep! They come with 5/8 bore. I shrink the barrels by about half inch change the bearings to 3/4 and added a zerk for my sears'. Bmikarts.

Ah right. Gonna store that one in the back of my mind until the time arises

Finally got around to fix the leak in the axle ends.  It also gave me a chance to see how the Doc locker is holding up.

Trans dropped.


on the work table...
getting ready to bust open


Cleaned up, everything appeared ok.  Hub however looked to have slipped a little.  Fixed that.


JBWelded the area where the axle ends are.  Cleaned it completely and with acetone.  Cured up well and filed round using the thrust washer as a template.

All buttoned back up.


Reinstalled and 4 hours no drip.  Here's hoping it's resolved.  

Nice. Transmission looks super clean inside.

thats not an aluminum pulley is it? they don't last....

eventually it'll split apart and take the belt with it. Ive seen it happen in person. it ends the fun pretty quick

No, it's a steel one. It's China steel though, so I will monitor.

gotcha, it just looks kind of thin. I'm using cast iron

What size is that pulley? 6 inch?

Yeah, I believe it is a 6 if I remember right. Wanted some speed, but not "fly" :-)