General mower builds

I checked out the prices... DANG!

Been working on the murry widebody for Griffin. Has anyone else had issues with putting smaller pulleys on the transaxle? I put a 4" on since it is what was sitting around and the belt dumped into the shifter rod.  I am in the process of making a larger pulley to work around it, but I was wondering what others have done. I think there was also a height issue, but I can work around that too with the custom pulley.

I had to make some new belt guides on mine when I went smaller.

Yeah changing pulleys on widebodys aren't as easy as Craftsmans. Mine rubs the shifter on the MM, but I plan to do something to fix that on my other widebody.

The rubbing on the shifter isn't THAT big of a problem, but it could still be fixed. When you put your idler in, make sure you have the belt running on the INSIDE of the shifter instead of the outside. The belt will cover more surface area of the pulley that way hence less belt slippage. You may need to build a new clutch that way though.

Got any pics or links to build threads?

Here is how I solved the belt rub on the shifter.  Pretty similar to Fearlessfront's.

Your pic gave me lots of hope, even though it turned out not to work in many ways. Tried an oppy on the mower, no dice, too much hood cutting. Went with a 15.5 Kohler. I did do a similar idler, but its wide, so it pushes on both directions of the belt. I measured with a worn out 1/2 inch belt and got 92.5 inches, turns out a 94inch 5/8 belt is what is needed. Now all I need to do is create a wire harness for power on, start, and stop. Not too worried about aux lights just yet.

I also tried an oppy on the gimphorse, no go w/o lots of hood modifiction there too, so it'll probably get a 15hp Kohler too. Aside from that, tires and an idler pulley, it'll be mostly the same.

OH! I need a shifter boot for the gimphorse, anyone have any leads or hacks for those?

So the Gimphorse now has a 15hp briggs I/C on it. Just need to install the drive pulley and belt. Then wire up the switch and it should be good.

The Widebody is good to go minus the wireharness. Going to be working on that next.

Those OHV briggs singles are decent. Their one weak point is the head gasket. They like to blow between the pushrods and the cylinder. Lot of space between bolts there for a relatively narrow section of gasket. That and the dog bone, but that’s any briggs single

Both the widebody and gimphorse were LOUD with no exhaust system on them. Got the gimphorse done yesterday and will work on the widebody this weekend. Getting a lot checked off the list for Haspin!

Lookin good. Yeah loud pipes are ok for a few minutes, but after that.... it starts to get old. I need to quiet mine down a bit more one of these days.

Well, the tractors have served well up to this point.
I managed to strip the teeth off the pinion on the gimphorse.
The lack of brakes on susans craftsman led to its demise.
Griffins Murray never shifted right from forward to reverse.

SO...

Susan is getting a newer craftsman with iron front axle and better steering. The v-twin and tires will be transplanted to the new mower. there will be an 820 5speed installed and better pulley ratio installed. Her first tractor couldn't crawl and that was another reason for it's demise.

Griff's tractor will get his mom's old trans that performed well.

Not sure whats happening with mine. I may try to adapt the 820 six speed to the gimphorse, or I may try to graft the steering from the gimphorse to a craftsman.

One thing for sure is they are all getting upgraded brakes. I spoke to stretch and he isn't really fond of his disk setup.
What do you all use and would recommend?

I liked the band brake on the gimphorse, but don't think I can adapt a band brake to the input of the 820. I don't think a band brake on the axle would be good as it will probably eat lots of mud and sand.

anyone use hydraulic brakes?

Thanks for helping - offering any insight.

The best idea I've seen so far and is something I'll be doing also (have the parts but not the time) is front drum brakes from a offshore ATV.

https://www.atltf.com/t4042-front-drum-brake-conversion-for-your-atlt

Seems like that is on just one side, I would think it would pull that way on heavy braking. I might try a wildwood caliper. They're $100, but if it works, I'm ok with it. I will be calling them tomorrow.

No he did both sides, stated they work really well and highly recommends this mod. I think having front brakes will be brilliant on my woods machine I'm building, lots of hills around here.