98 craftsman lt1000 Mudder/trail rider

Any obvious things on the outside? It could just be the pulley spinning on the shaft. Check simple stuff like that before you tear into it.

Eh I doubt it but I’ll have to check since the belt was clearly slipping and the pulley wasn’t moving at all

Oh i misread that, i thought the pulley was spinning and nothing was happening.

nope I wish

Alright I went and looked and the tires spun separately so the welds on the diff must’ve broke

Alright so I’m finally sick of this trans so I’m gonna end up taking the plunge and putting my money into a doc locker on this so hopefully I don’t have to go through this again

I personally like the DOC style as it seems pretty sturdy.

the only complaints i've heard about the doc locker is shearing the key where the axle goes through the hub, or stripping the keyway on the axle itself, but i've only heard one person say they've had that issue

Common solution to that is welding the hub to the axle.

Well a little update here, I got the old spicer put back in Temporarily till I get the mst fixed, this week I’m hoping to wire up some lights i have laying around and I’m also hoping I’ll be able to get a new hood and some 18” tires on 8” rims for the front to hopefully give me more float and traction. And I’m thinking about putting the old rack on there but I may end up redesigning it first so it looks better

So recently I’ve been working on this more and finally have it to a point where I’m almost done with it (for now of course) I got some 20” atv tires from another member and used them to replace the ones on the rear and I put the old ones on the front with 8” rims from the mtd I sold. I also put a 6” pulley on the front so now my ratio is 6-4 and it gives me a top speed of about 30 but still gives me torque In the mud. Also got a new grill for the front of it that’s in much better shape and put the rack back on

Here’s a couple romp pictures, the top one is when I was on a creek forge to get to a field and the second one is from today when I tried to cross a creek and I got stuck for the first time in a while. Mud was a foot deep and the rest was water up to my fenders

Looks like a lot of fun, nice work!

Alright I need some major advice about what to do with this thing, the current spicer is on its way out and the steering is terrible. I’m gonna be getting a gravely 1138 soon and I was thinking about swapping everything off this mower onto the gravely. I would also swap the mst into the back of the gravely. Should I do this or am I better off trying to redo the steering. I was also hoping the gravely would be stronger

So I’ve decided I’m gonna snorkel this thing and hopefully get it to drive underwater, my plan is to seal the stock airbox up and to drill a hole in it and have the snorkel hooked up to there, I was gonna use pvc glue to hold it together. To seal the airbox I’ve got sheet metal jb welded over the stock intake holes. Is there anything else I have to do so this will run underwater?

Dialectic grease on the plug caps if you have it, I've heard it helps keep the plugs from just grounding out in the water. Then I'd seal the PCV hose too, with grease or JB weld if you don't want to take it off ever again lol. Good luck!

I’ve got it sealed up with silicone right now and I’m gonna put some grease on it before I go in

Might also want to seal the dipstick tube. Make sure the seal where it goes to the crankcase is in good shape and maybe see if you can add an o ring where the cap seals against the tube. Also make sure your fuel tank seals well. Might have to seal the vent which would limit your time running under water. Maybe attach the fuel tank vent to the snorkel so you don’t create a vacuum in the tank and starve it for fuel in the middle of the pond.

Also, might wanna hook up a chain or long ratchet strap to the hitch before you drive in so if it stalls or gets stuck you’ve got an easy way to get it out without having to dive under to hook up

So I took it out into the swamp and I got about fender deep and got stuck then after a bit it died. After looking at it we found my problem was the exhaust leaks let water into the engine and eventually it died. I flushed it with diesel about 5 times and now it’s running great

Pics or it didn't happen.

So I did what I said I’d never do, I got rid of the oppy and I put a 20hp v twin in this. It’s got much more power compared to the oppy. I also swapped the old front end for a John Deere front end out of a hydro 165. The front end swap made it sit about 3” higher and stretched it 2”. I also have a new snorkel in the works for this thing but I’m still looking for suggestions on how I can make an airbox for it.

Also I put a locked mst 205 in it since the 206 ended up sending 2nd gear into 3 pieces. And this thing is now running 7-4 pulleys so it can keep up with quads. It does a good 40mph and can cruise at 35. I’m hoping for it to go faster but first I’ve gotta fix the speed wobble in the front end.

holy crap dude 40mph on a mower dont scare you? hows the steering holding up?