[23] Brianator's "Silver Bullet" ~ Super Stock Race Mower

Okay, so I have good news and "other news". Lol

First the good news!

The (weld on) pulleys and engine hub came today! I settled on 6.5" front and 4.5" rear which works out almost the same a 6"/4" but with more belt gription and a slightly lower ratio for more speed!


In "other news":

With the front pulley sitting flush at the end of the PTO there's quite the void to fill but I need the pulley there for alignment... I'm thinking that if I get a new front pulley for The WarHorse, cut it's stock pulley tube to length then weld it onto the engine hub so it's full length then I can bolt it down as well as use the keyway and set screws so no biggie right? I think that's a decent plan anyways! This should also allow me to extend the pulley past the end of the PTO if I need to.  


While we're talking about pulley alignment check out how the rear pulley sits about 1" lower than the front when it's sitting directly at the base of the input shaft, theoretically where it could with a hub... 

...which brings me to my next points:

~With the tops of the rear tires already almost touching the fender pan (which is at stock height) I can't raise the trans in the chassis much more to get the pulleys to align... a little perhaps but not alot.
~The 5/8" hub for the rear pulley will work great for the MST that's destined to go in but it won't for the FNRs 1/2" input shaft and I'd like to run the FNR at the start.

So here we have a dilemma within a dilemma, even if I got a 1/2" pulley hub it still couldn't get the pulley where it needs to be nor would it on the MST... but with the pulley sitting as close to the case as it can alignment looks decent.

Luckily I'm pretty creative and have a bunch of parts kicking around! 

First I measured the case around the input shaft, 1-3/16" at its largest.

Okay so maybe I could use a 1-1/4" pulley hub to lower the pulley? But then how to attach that to the input shaft? Well wouldn't you know, both the stock FNRs and MSTs input hubs outer diameter is... you guessed it - 1-1/4"!! I know it's possible to remove the hubs without destroying them or the pulleys because what you're looking at is 2 FNR pulleys, one stock and the other with the MST hub welded in!


It looks to me like all I'll have to do is bolt the input hub on the trans, install the pulley with a 1-1/4" hub on it, add threadlocker and tighten the set screws... I could even weld the hubs together if I want. I should be able to adjust the trans' height in the chassis to fine tune it as well so I'm hoping this is a big win!

So I guess the "other news" is also good news just more work!  Lol

Not really picture worthy but I did get the 1-1/4" hub for the trans today, after cutting the FNR pulley hub out and cleaning it up a bit it fits good and snug inside the 1-1/4" hub! The pulley alignment is close and I'm sure I'll be able to dial it in with trans height and the front pulley as well so I'm feeling really good about it!

What is picture worthy is the hood locking pins that came in today, nice and sleek and aerodynamic plus they'll fit in with the 3/16" fat head rivets that will end up throughout this beast!

I'm really hyped about this build if you can't tell! Lol

More for fun I'll admit but I mounted some old as dirt (but in decent shape!) Goodyear ribbed tires on wheels for the rear which will match the front! I think these will be my pavement tires for grip/speed and for grass/dirt drifting as well!


I'm not 100% what I'll be up to with this today but I'm motivated to do at least something! Lol

I did a little tinkering and made some progress!

I massaged the flares on the fender pan just enough to tuck the rear wheels in and discovered I had way more space from the tire to the fender pan than I thought, about 2" which is super!


So I slotted the trans mounting holes and moved the brackets up about an inch which still leaves about an inch from the tires to the fender pan and boy I think it looks good with the tires tucked up in there! More fender flare massaging will happen in the future to shape them but for now it's good.


As for pulley alignment that's all looking great, notice that the rear pulley sitting exactly the same on the trans as last time actually sits below the engine pulley now and there's still room for the belt to clear the footboard support rod so it won't be hard to dial it in at all!


I wanted to see it mocked up and on it's wheels again so here it is sitting about 4" from the frame to the ground and the top of the hood is 24" off the ground. If you look for it, you'll notice it's sitting back to back with The Warhorse which is the EXACT same make and model of tractor... check out the differences in the fender pan and seat heights! I need get them out and sitting side by side one day for fun!


So now I have a true roller! I should get working on the steering soon so I have a steerable roller, I have a feeling that it's going to take me quite a while to get it done and I don't feel like rushing it! There looks to be more than enough space above the engine pulley to work with, everything just seems to be working out really well so far!

Guess it's time for a little update although there's not much to update at the moment...

It's been a busy few weekends so I haven't had a good chance to do anything with it and this coming weekend is also no exception but I am hoping on moving forward soon.

I have all the pulleys and hubs I need but am still waiting on the last set of heim joints I need for the steering, funny how the first 2 sets showed up within a couple of weeks but the third took 3 weeks just to ship...

Regardless, I'm happy with what I've accomplished so far and look forward to getting back to work on it soon!