Craftsman GT3000 "MUTT" Part II

Jeremiah R. Cooper wrote:

@SebastianAlbrecht that be cool to see if a time transaxle will hold up

IDK Y it shouldn't...

22" shouldnt be too much force to the MST when its rebuilt...
& I want to pull a trailer with the AYP in it....

@SebastianAlbrecht you said you wanted to do something similar meaning high speeds with a heavy trailer. A three-quarter inch transaxle won't hold up. If you leave it unlocked all that weight on the hitch plate will snap the transaxle in the middle. If you lock it and have real wide 22s pulling a heavy trailer like that at high speeds it will snap. The only chance of something like that holding up is if you did it on flat land but if you're going to try to pull it up a hill there's no way. It's one thing to drag something heavy with rope but it's another thing to hook a trailer straight to your tow hitch and you got all that tongue weight pushing down on your rear end.

Updated the exhaust a bit. Shortened the extension I had before and made it push out in front of the tire.


Sounds thumpy, took a lot of the sharpness away

Forgot i made hubcaps on a CNC mill at school. Not great but better than before.

The exhaust sounded good. Is it a 2 into 1?

Yeah. Not a very good one.

I have some questions about how you did your front axle and spindles to take the 21in fronts. I went looking for that in the thread but remembered that the first have of your thread got chopped off. Are you using the stock pivot point? Hod did you do your spindles?

You can find pics in the first half of the thread (the one you see in the most popular or top threads or whatever on here), but basically the front end is completely custom, first i made a custom front end that sat in the original axle slot, then i cut that axle slot out and made one with a lower pivot and better articulation out of 4" C channel i made into a sort of U shape(I added some caster to help steering too). Some time after that I got the 21x7-10 fronts to replace the 18x6.50-8s I used to have. I cut the lip off the side of the stock 6" rims and welded bolts on for studs, runs straight enough for what I do. I also chopped off the spindles i had at the time and welded on some new ones(just ¾" bolts) as sort of a leveling kit so my from end didn't sit up so much.

Okay thanks for the help. I probably gonna be doing something similar the the Craftsman GT because It is probably gonna get bigger fronts. And I want it to sit fairly level.

Just noticed i popped another wheel on this thing. Dang it. I gotta turn a sleeve on the lathe so I stop doing this. Or some 5x4.5 hubs.


Oh well it'll survive til tomorrow. Or else I'm driving one wheel peel.

HOW do U destroy Rims like that???

Well i actually take my stuff offroad and use it. So it happens after a while

Turning a sleeve might work and would be fun with the lathe. Don’t you have some wheels with a lug pattern that you just have to buy hubs for?

Sounds like I might should reinforce my Rims as well

There's no reason a sleeve won't work. I just don't have the material yet. I have those rims yeah but no hubs.

I've seen 8" rims bust too, maybe you should Seb

I think i gotta clean the carb again, or maybe there's a pinched fuel line. Couldn't get her to start for anything besides a few pops. I think I'll just put one of my spares on for now and clean the one i take off

MUTT!  Been a while.

Been a while since I've done anything to her. She's been near the bottom of the list since i got budgie and the gt6k

I swapped the carb. No better results. I think I'll drain the tank tomorrow and see if there's any water in the fuel. I'll put another carb together too and see if that helps.

Short video on the state of Mutt I guess

Lel I told ya man...those damn oppy carbs

I've not had luck with engines on this thing at all since i first put the pressure lube on way back when. Dunno what the deal is.

I wonder if someone put a curse on it?  

Seems like someone's put a curse over my entire life recently lol.

Didn't get to do anything with mutt today, got a workbench in the new shop to work with so that's nice.

Water in the fuel, now a days that is actually feizable to do. With the ethanol in fuel now a days, holds or absorbs the water in the fuel. Looks cloudy to where you can't see through it. If there is just a little bit of water in it, the engine will still run. A lot of water, then no fire. Use to be a joke back in the day, the gas station owner putting water in the fuel for more profit, but the water would not mix with the regular gas. Kinda ironic, there is an additive to put in the fuel to absorb the water on the bottom of the fuel tank so you can burn it, but now a days you don't even need it.

So what are you saying you seemed to contradict yourself there

Drained the tank. Some real gross wood chip looking stuff came out of the fuel filter. The hell. Cleaned the carb. Fresh gas in and she's doing the same thing. Won't idle for more than 30sec if I don't turn the idle mix way out or choke it. I just put together a 4 screw and I'm gonna try that tomorrow. If it doesn't work i might throw this whole thing in a ditch somewhere.

Actually I'll probably swap in a new coil if that doesn't work

It really looks like it's getting too much fuel when i step on the gas. Like, gas sprays out when i hit the throttle.

I should try any of these carbs on the horizontal on budgie. At least the governor will give me a good indication if any of these carbs are kaput.

@AllisKidD21 i think you'd know about this- does this sound like a valve lash issue? What even are the symptoms of that on a flathead? I've never measured the valve lash on this engine, maybe I'll do that.

Hmm... If you had a leak down tester that would give you a for sure answer to the valve lash question, so you would know before you tear everything apart. I'm not so sure that's the issue though. Usually valve lash being too tight can cause things like hard starting, rough running once hot, low power, etc.

The idle issue sounds like a vaccum leak to me... Does it stutter upon hard acceleration?