Alfredo Murray

Guys, I've done it again...



YEP. Yet ANOTHER Murray Widebody gets turned into a mud mower. Why? Good question. I really don't know. Idk why I chose another Widebody, idk why I needed another ATLT, idk how I got 12 different Murrays, idk how I plan to build it... I just don't know. All I know is I got two Widebodies for parts, and 1 of them I think is good enough to become a mower to sell. This one however was missing a motor and seat, but everything else was there. And me being myself, convinced myself that I need 3 Murray Widebody ATLTs. So now, Alfredo here completes my trinity of Murray Widebody ATLTs.

So I guess we might as well talk about the mower a little bit. I got it for free the other day for parts. But obviously that has changed. So for a powerplant, I am going to use the 12 horse Kohler I built for the MM a year ago. It has an MST-205, burned solenoid, missing the same parts every Widebody is always missing. Nothing really interesting. Just a plain ol Widebody with a Kohler on it and the stamped frames original seat.







The plans are simple right now. Get the Kohler all hooked up and running good, get the wheel setup situated, put a 4" pulley on the trans and changed the belt and idler pulley, and put a solenoid, ignition switch, muffler, gas tank, and gas pedal on it. Maybe some headlights. Other than that, I have no plans for it yet. Definitely will be brainstorming.

Looks like a fun project love that connection on the starter solenoid

Do a lowered, stripped down racer for dirt and ice and I'll race ya once I've built the same out of my "Partshorse" LT11! Lol

Brianator wrote:

Do a lowered, stripped down racer for dirt and ice and I'll race ya once I've built the same out of my "Partshorse" LT11! Lol

I second the motion!

Brianator wrote:

Do a lowered, stripped down racer for dirt and ice and I'll race ya once I've built the same out of my "Partshorse" LT11! Lol

Mannn, I would but that’s what the Scat Rat will be for… if I ever do get around to that.


Nothing much done, but I did get the rear tires swapped over to the bald ones off of Ole Blue…

Ah, nothing like a set of bald tires- wait - Why would you want bald tires?

Lol, mainly because they’re free and they can’t be used on a mower to sell. But also because they make for great drift tires, and the worst mud we have can be taken care of with some extra speed. Only limits me on hills and stuff. But like I said, nothing beats free

Spent a solid day working on it! Got some decent progress made on it! Got the engine mounted and all the safety switches deleted. Got the front end all cleaned up and reverse rusted and greased.




As you saw in the LT Repair thread, Alfredo is blowing fuses. Still haven't had a chance to look further into it. Still gotta drop the trans and completely offroad prep it and lock it. Also need a gas tank and get the motor up and running. Got a little bit to go but I'll get 'er done! The 3.5 inch pulley and lights came in so I'll be getting it up and going soon!

Little update on the wiring here… some interesting things going on. Please watch the video…

You get both from the same location?  I forget.
If so, do they have the right switches?  Like not trying to feed power down the magneto wire?

Just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.

Yes I did. Both from the junkyard so it would be hard to tell where they were originally from, but considering they were identical in every way shape and form, it’s safe to say they’ve been together from the factory.

However it turns out you’re on the right track with those switches. Alfredo was feeding power down the ground terminal. Dunno why. Now I’m having an issue where the start wire seems to be grounded. I’m thinking it’s all solenoid.

The other one turned out to be the same thing. I put the original switch back in and now it works correctly. Just gotta replace the solenoid on that one too.

Stuck solenoid?  I bought 2-3 of them "solenoids" back a year or so ago that were all faulty.  Maybe corrosion in the switch.

I don’t know. It’s an old Murray solenoid and it sounds like it’s working when the starter is not connected. Might just stick with jumping it if I must.

I was able to finally do a little bit more to it the other night. Pulled the trans and brakes, and I figured out my light configuration… gonna have them on each side in the general area they are placed in the pics.




The trans is simply going to get some of the grease dumped out and some oil put in and let it mix itself, a 4 inch pulley put on with the holey mod, a grease fitting on the input and possibly a vent tube. After that it goes back in the tractor.



And here’s how Alfredo sits now:



I am ready to get this wiring and drive train done so I can go ahead and put the dash back together and work on getting it running.

Use a light to test your solenoid to know for sure, put the bulb in place of the starter (with a ground connected of course) and if it turns on you're good, if not the contactor in the solenoid is shot (you did say you can hear it). I actually have a 2 wire 1156 automotive bulb in a socket with alligator clips attached for just such and occasion. Guess you could just use a test light but that's way too easy! Lol

Haven’t tried that yet. Kinda took a little break from the wiring for a bit. I’ll try it when I get back to wiring.


Anyway, got some more progress made on it last night! This thing should’ve been up and running long ago so it’s time to get this thing to breathe some fire. First thing I did was pull the hood back off and motor with mount plate still connected. That way I could reach the steering plate below to cut it out for the big pulley. Makes it much more accessible and easier to cut. It was only 4 bolts to pop the motor off so I thought I better do it before I start hooking the engine up to stuff.





Second thing I did was get the seat finalized, mounted up and took all the extra junk out from under it. Sits pretty good I think. By no means is it comfortable tho cause this seat has always been one of the most uncomfortable seats ever. Maybe it won’t be too bad but if it is then maybe I can try to modify it and make it better.



I also worked a little more on the trans. I had made a cut around the hub a few weeks ago and then left it. I beat on the shaft like heck yesterday and got the pulley to come up flush with the top of the shaft. Haven’t got it past that yet, but hopefully I’ll be able to just knock it out without having to cut the pulley anymore. I hate cutting pullies and rims off shafts.



And as she sits now:




Anyway, there’s a little update for y’all. Planning on working on it quite a bit this week so I think I’ll have some more updates soon!

Well turns out I didn’t work on it quite a bit that week… however I did get the pulley off and drilled the holes for the grease fitting and vent tube. Yesterday I finished up putting the new pulley on, installing the grease fitting and vent tube fitting and got the trans reinstalled.







If I get a chance today I’m going to put the clutch pulley on and install the gas tank. If I end up with extra time then I’ll put the engine back on and sort out the front pulley and belt so that way I can have steering again and maybe sort out the electrical. Anyway, I finally got it on 4 wheels again so I’m happy. Hopefully I can have it up and going by the end of the week but we shall see.

Well I unfortunately did not find time yesterday to work on Alfredo at all, but I took today and spent around two hours messing around with some stuff. Ended up getting a good bit accomplished actually. As you can see from this pic, Alfredo is wearing Ole Blue’s shoes, gas tank, and you can’t see it but also an idler pulley and the vent tube from ‘em as well. Yes some stuff happened to Ole Blue today but we’ll keep that to his own thread. Anyway, thought I might as well not let those beautiful 16” Ags go to waste, so I swapped em on and as I did what I did to Ole Blue I realized the vent tube and gas tank and idler pulley would fit perfectly on Alfredo, so I did not hesitate to swap those on too.




I also got the electric gremlin sorted out finally! There’s something for all of us to learn here. 5 prong ignitions with a ground are not interchangeable with all 5 prong ignitions. There’s many different ways they were built and transfer power. If you need to change your ignition, make sure the numbers match. It’s the easiest way to not screw it up.

Anyway, I got the right ignition and popped that in and now it works. I attempted to put Ole Blue’s engine pulley on the Kohler so I could dig around for a belt, but the pulley isn’t quite fitting. I goofed and beat it on with a hammer a little ways and then immediately realized it was upside down. So I need to get that sorted out so I can get a belt ready for it. The only other thing I’m waiting on now before putting the motor back on is wiring the running lights. Might work on that a little tomorrow night. But speaking of that, that was the last thing I got done on it tonight. I drilled 8 holes for the lights.



Anyway, I’m getting excited to finally rip it! Thinking of some mods to do in the near future once it’s going to make it a little more practical. Thinking about a cargo rack, a push/pull bumper, lock the diff when I get tired of the unlocked diff lol, and if I get tired of the mud and dirt slinging up on me I might have to do the infamous mud flap mod, and maybe skid plates if I feel like it. Probably the MMs which became Ole Blue’s skid plates. Anyway, making some progress again!

MightyRaze wrote:

You get both from the same location?  I forget.
If so, do they have the right switches?  Like not trying to feed power down the magneto wire?

Just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.

Hmmm.... LOL  Glad you got that figured out!

Murraymountain wrote:

However it turns out you’re on the right track with those switches. Alfredo was feeding power down the ground terminal.

I said you were on the right track lol. Glad it’s fixed too lol. Maybe I’ll be able to get my lights wired in tonight and call it good.

Welp, woke up early today and somehow wasn’t half asleep and was feeling pretty good so I got out to the shop early today and got the whole thing fully wired except for the headlight side of the headlight harness. I think it turned out pretty well! Only thing is, I wish the lights were brighter because they are cheap China ones and are pretty dim. But it’s all good. They’re not that important anyway. As long as they look good lol. I got the wires tied up underneath and tried my best to keep them tight to the body so debris doesn’t kick up in it and rip them apart. I forgot to take pics of the underneath.




Once I finished up the wiring, I forced the pulley off of the engine and put the engine back on. It finally turns over correctly!



After that I experimented with like 10 different products to try and bring the faded paint back around a little bit. Ended up just slathering the thing in WD-40 and rubbing it in a little. I’ll hit it a few times in the future too so that it stays. But it definitely helped out for the time being!




Anyway, that’s what I got done today! I’ll get some pics of the lights tonight.

Well done! Hey IF you do want brighter headlights these are ridiculously bright, basically as good as car headlights and were only $20CAD. You won't regret buying them (you want BA15s base).
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09MTBZWX6

If I was sticking with stock headlights then I would but I have pods for it. Unfortunately I found out one of them doesn't work today.

Anyway, yes I did get the headlights installed today:




As you can see, I put a muffler on it as well, and both the muffler and lights will interfere with the hood. Yes the plans have changed. Not much but mainly just a time delay. I have a whole list of things I want to do, but they will have to wait as I have no more time to play around with not working on the MM. So I've decided to just go with the necessities from this point on to get this thing running and driving and that's where I'll stop until the MM is finished. So all that's left is wiring the alternator, installing the engine pulley and putting a belt on, fixing some fuel leaks, and installing a gas pedal.

Been a while since I updated this but here we go! First off, the long overdue night-shots of the lights:






I didn't get much done on it for a little while. Eventually, I got the pulley and belt on, put a brand new carburetor on it, and made a gas pedal for it.




This is where things got interesting. As some of you may remember, I rebuilt the Kohler I've had on this about 2 years ago. I got the block honed and there was a mistake with that. There was some pretty bad pitting toward the bottom of the bore, and I just wanted the surface rust taken off. Well apparently the guy who honed it didn't know it and knocked those out too by honing it until he had taken enough off. So now the stock piston is undersized and has lots of play. I really was not feeling like buying a new piston, so I just told myself that it would be fine and went with it. Well, when I finally got this thing going, it was very loud. There is lots of piston slap and a LOT of valve train noise. In total, I probably have close to an hour of runtime on this engine. When I finally took it on the first test drive, it felt pretty good. So I came back to the shop and revved it up a little cause most of it's runtime has been at idle. When it got the RPMs up, it locked right up. The odd thing though, is that it will immediately start back up and run fine.

So I've probably had it lock up 3-4 times now and it only happens when I rev it, clutch in or out. So due to the noisy lifters, I decided to take the valve cover off and see what it was looking like in there. There was no oil on the lifters. Only in the bottom of the head was there oil. So I started it up and wouldn't you know, there was no oil getting to the valves at all. So I started suspecting there to be something wrong with the oil pump. Either something is not hooked up right, the pump is bad, or the passages are clogged. Regardless, knowing the magnets on the flywheel probably won't cooperate with the stator due to polarities being switched, needing the regulator to transfer AC current to DC current, needing an oversized piston, and now having oiling issues and probably a warped head, I decided the best way to go is to ditch the Kohler for something else.

In the end, I've planned on putting Ole Blue's Briggs on it, and since it was already off and in the spare engine lineup, I figured why not put that on. It would allow me to run a stock Murray muffler and leave the hood on. So I pulled the Kohler and swapped on the Briggs. Got it all hooked up over a few days and also got that flywheel that kept chucking teeth replaced with a steel geared one and a new starter gear to match it. I also decided to put the Craps-mans fan shroud on it as this is the replacement flywheel I had put on the Craps-man. Then I redid the pick up tube for the fuel pump with JB weld this time. Alfredo did not have a fuel solenoid from factory and a different kill setup, so I realized I could do away with the harness Briggs installs on their singles that have fuel solenoids and just go straight to the kill and swap in a cut solenoid. So that's what I did as it was the easiest and probably most reliable option.



Finally, I figured out my gas pedal and decided it was good enough for a test drive.



It did very well on the ride! Feels pretty strong for it being a stock Widebody frame and body. Fuel pump works good this time! I was right with it being a faulty seal at the pick up. All I've done with it so far though is make a couple runs to get the mail, one little run through the trail, and that's about it. I have a few other things to do before I drive it often. Some pics from the couple test drives:





Overall it was pretty good. Definitely a few kinks to work out. It is quite difficult to shift to 5th gear and I hear something rattling when I do, the belt is rubbing on the shifter a little too much for me to let it slide as I can clearly smell it burning, the clutch gets caught on something in the parking brake assembly and doesn't go in at random times, and the gas pedal is a little too touchy and could be a little bigger.

So I need to fix all of this. Mostly minor things but they have to be done. I also still need to pop some headlights in the hood and possibly fix the loose connector if it was on the tractor side, I need to put a catch can on it because the blow-by coming from the PCV is heavy, I need to make an intake for it so I'm not sucking dirt down the carb anymore, and I need to run some type of exhaust on it so it's not in my face and whatnot. Once all of the above is done, then I will drive it more often lol.

For the future, I plan on installing a rack, putting real rear tires on it, mud flaps for the rear, skid plates, belt guides, and a brush guard. Yes it sounds a lot like my other Murray builds, but they're the tried and true mods for me lol. The must haves if you will.

Anyway, there's the ol' update for y'all!

Quite the write up.  Nothing an idler can't fix on the belt shifter rub.

I love that stretched stance, it looks really mean!