[Winner] [23] [rally] Craftsman Mudder -- Project: Anne Murray

Brakes are finished, just need to be bled. Finished the headlight bezel with some diamond plate aluminum, looks wayyy better i think! Whole tractor looks funny in the pictures just cause the back is up on jackstands, and one front tire is flat. Just waiting to get a atv rack from a friend, mount my rear D ring, and a belt. Then i can start testing and tuning! 

Looking good! I love the caliper on the 2300. I hope that handbrake is in a natural location for you to grab quickly. Definitely need to be able to grab your brakes in a hurry.

Did lots of test fitting for that, off and on about 30 times lol, wanted it to be low, so i dont have something to impale me if i roll it, but tall enough that it was in a natural position and would offer some leverage to help weight distribution. I ended up using the end of a AYP "deck raise/lower" hand control.

Found a belt and took it for a test drive around the block, worked good, pretty happy with it, except it aint fast enough. Currently has a 1-1 (6"), but gonna drop the back pully down to a 4.5" for a bit more speed. Gonna be getting a new belt sometime this week and try it out again. Still want a rear rack for some storage, but its nearly complete. Would still like to wet sand the paint.

Rear rack + braces are on. Repourposed some of the quad brackets already on the bracket, aswell as a original murry "rod" from the mower deck. Looks good to me! Just need to get another belt for the change in rear pullys, down from a 6" to a 4.5". Just need to find the time for a attempt at a wet sand of the paint, before i apply my ATLTF decals
Also wasent happy with the engines idle quality, and for the life of me, couldent remedy it. Luckily I have 4 of these oppys off various parts machines, one of witch had a brand new carb, and single piece intake manifold. Cleaned it up and fired it on and it runs great! Also figured why not and just tied my throttle cable directly to the carb butterfly like  a man

Lookin good!

That's looking awesome man great work! The tires, the stance, the amount of ground clearance are all looking great and I love the Grateful Dead sticker too!

Now that it's running and driving it's in your best interest to upload a quick video showing it starting, driving, stopping and that all controls are being used remotely to be eligible for voting. This just ensures that if anything happens between now and then that you're still in it and it doesn't mean you can't continue to work on it or post more videos.

@Brianator
Thanks! Speaking of ground clearence  that reminds me i do want to fabricate a skid plate. Got a few old street signs (legally obtained lol) and thinking of those should work fine with some other scraps. As far as the sticker, i figured id throw a picture up of it and see if anyone else knew what it was hahahahah

I've always thought of using a street sign to do a skid plate as well.  I think that is a cool idea.  I always was thinking of using a one way sign

or a center object sign.




What kind of sign you thinking?  I bet you guys have some we do not.

Il have to see what i got. I can always get damaged ones through work for free. I work in infrastructure maintnence, and once a sign is retired they just go in the scrap bin. I do have a tall/slim,  "MAXIMUM 60 KMH" , would be similar in size to that yellow/black chevron pictured.

I know a fella that made a full length skid plate for his wheel horse out of a big ol stop sign. It turned out real nice.

My other project "Saber" has a skid plate made from a chevron sign, same as pictured above. Works great and used studs with hitch pins for instant removal. Defidently wouldent survive a hard hit but greatly reduces mud/snow from getting into the belt, and defidently serves as a barrier vs bottoming my driveline out over obstacles

Got my new used 4.5" pully mounted to the transaxle, had to make a new rear belt guide from a scrap shelf bracket. Took er for a test drive and seems faster, probley does around 15mph, perfect for now! Still has tons of low end power. Did some wet sanding on the hood, but seems the paint is just way to dead so il leave er as is! Nothin wrong with that. Gonna still need a few small things before its done. Gotta look into the starter, seems to growl and wont spin the engine fast enough. Worked fine last year, been using the pull start for now. Iv got a few other starters if i need. Gonna also change the rear end fluid and curious what others use. Figured id go with a 85w140. I do have a peerless transaxle manual i should refrence. Will add a link to my test drive video shortly

Noticed a big ol oil stain under this beast once i got home from work. Seems the PTO seal is shot and the pully is full of oil and leaking like a siv. Figured screw it and ripped the engine out in 25 minutes, got a new PTO seal & crankcase seal il throw at it and toss it back in tomorrow! 

Nice man! Ya 15mph on a tractor is enough to get into trouble that's for sure! Lol.

80w90 gear oil is the standard and what most GT transaxles call for, not sure if the extra viscosity of the 85w140 would hurt or not?

If you want to bring the paint back lightly wet sand it with 2000 or 2500 grit then clearcoat it and it should look almost as good as new!

I fixed the video link for you, you'll notice in the message header bar there's a YouTube button. Copy and paste the link in there then hit "insert" and it will embed it into the message like above.

Damn near done. Added this tall back seat from a go kart, and some springs for some susoension aand to hopefully save my spine lol. Works great! Only about 1" higher than the factory seat so shouldent be too tippy. Added the sweet steering wheel and just finished up a skid plate from a large piece of steel i found laying in the road at work, should work great! Also made a pully protector from the deck lever off the  original deck  just to prevent them smashing off rocks n whatnot

First test ride was a success! Just need to build one extra belt keeper/guide, and put tubes in the front tires  then it will be complete. Should be done next week. Will update this thread and upload a video once its done. Also dident end up liking the high back seat, felt like it always wanted to dump me out of it. Went back to the stock seat, and made some brackets for some suspension in the seat. Turned out perfect! 

Project Anne Murray is complete! Il include my video showing it off. This winter, once i get some more time il definitely lock the transaxle and possibly build a better engine for it! 

Good job man I love what you've done with it, lots of well thought out and executed mods. She's a real beast now!

@MightyRaze will have to officalize it but I think I can safely declare this build...

[mod]Complete and eligible for voting! [/mod]

Great work @CRAFTSMAN MUDDER and congratulations on a successful build! I look forward to seeing more of it in the future.

[adm]The tractor appears to meet the requirements of the build-off. You will be a finalist.
[/adm]

Don't forget to post some of those pix in the video here so we can use one for voting/etc.

Just adding a few photos for voting time.
Also been working on my poor mans snowblower, funded entirely from the dump! Old walk behind MTD snowblower  all hacked apart and mounted to Anne Murry with some bed frame. Using the winch to low/raise the entire blower. Still a work in progress!

@CRAFTSMAN MUDDER looks sweet Great job man!

[adm]Topic is back open for continued progress!  Great Job and congratulations![/adm]

Already working on a new power plant. 20hp intek v twin, kinda dug into it this summer, seemed to have weak compression, and a stripped spark plug hole. Been working alot on it lately. Rings were toast, but pistons and cylender walls seem fine. Cylinder #2's connecting rod journal is pretty beat up to, too grooved to save, crank hhad some light witness marks that cleaned up good with a shoestring style polish job.new rings, gasket set, connecting rod and carburetor on the way. Did a quick hone with my glaze remover to. Gonna do a quick valve job aswell. Got those spark plug treads all fixed up now. Everything's all cleaned and just waiting on parts now!