The GT 2.0 Build.

Well I've been going on about doing this for a while, so I guess it's time to quit dreamin' and start wrenchin'.



My ol' Gt6000 is going to be taken apart and get a total refresh. First changes I wanted to mock up were new engine orientation and return of the original grille:






I like where this is going!

Also doing away with the front axle setup completely.



I loved the leaves with rack and pinion, but it's time for something new.

The front axles are really great in these tractors though so I wanted to keep the ends and reuse the knuckles along with some box steel to widen it a bit:



Add a pair of old Sears spindles modified with 4x4 hubs and this is what it looks like so far:



Planning on bracing the welded joints as well as the spindles, but it's good enough for a mock up:





Not using those old front tires obviously, but it gives you an idea of what I'm going for. It will end up with a nice pair of 21x7-10's on the front.

For front suspension I'll be going for probably a Y-link setup with coilovers, and the truck steering box out of my old MTD build will be going in this tractor, tucked up under the frame for bulletproof steering.

Lots of changes to come, thanks for looking.  

Excellent. Love that build. Good to see some of the old MTD being passed down to newer builds. (rebuilds) I'll be actively watching this topic. I like where you are headed.

Super cool seeing the old GT6000 refreshed! Look forward to seeing some new rusty angle iron engineering

Thanks fellas. Hope to get back to it this weekend.

Looks like it's going to be a beast!

Got a little time this weekend to tinker with the GT. I found out the 10" rims I had were aluminum, which wouldn't work for what I had planned, so I picked this pair up:



Cut the inside out of the old trailer rims then centered and welded them into the ATV rims:





I also wanted to weld a plate over the seam in the axle where I had to shorten it. (Made it too wide the first time ) Did that and and a couple small plates on the ends where the pieces of the original axle are welded in.






Here's what we're looking like now:



There are going to be new tires on the front, but these will do until it's ready to roll. Next I did a little mock up for the steering, some of you might remember this steering box from my MTD build:



I will be reusing it here, and tucking it up under the frame like so:



The tie rod is temporary by the way, haha.



Should work pretty slick! Nice and tucked out of the way, looks like I'll be able to reuse the current steering shaft too which is awesome.

Hopefully some suspension work next!

Don't you love it when things just work out? The suspense on the new suspension is starting to eat at me. Can't wait to see it come together!

Putting that big steering box up front should really help on the hill climbs too! That was an unintended benefit of my PTO winch on Mutt, as I found out shortly ago.

That steering is super heavy duty!

Yeah it should really work great!

Anyways I got a little bit of suspension planning done today. I bought a couple small 3pth centre links to modify for use as my bottom arms of the Y-links:



This is pretty much what the axle location and ride height will look like:



Should work well for clearance and what not where it is now. I was hoping to use the rear leaf spring mount for my new Y-link, but unfortunately I think they're too far forward to achieve proper goemetry, so that's out. However I did mock the links up using these deck lift brackets:



Those pins are spot welded in, and if you smack 'em a few times they pop out and leave a 1/2" hole. That should work good for hanging the links on, and I'll weld a brace between the two to solid them up a bit.

Will a brace between the two interfere with the belt?

I don't think it will, but if it does then a flat idler should take care of it.

Well didn't get as much done on this tractor during the weekend like I had hoped, removed the drive idler assembly that will not longer be used with the new belt setup:



Frees up some room. Also this is one of the brackets I was talking about after pounding out the spot welded pin.



The hole is 1/2" as I mentioned, but I'm using 5/8" bolts so I'll just drill these out slightly. Should work good.

Alrighty I finally got a decent front end update here. First of all I got looking and realized that the way I'm designing this actually made for a perfect opportunity to build a 3-link front end. So I'm going with that over the Y-link setup.

Got my frame brackets drilled out and tacked a crossbrace to them:

Then I cut my center links in half to make them into the lower radius rods.



Cut apart an old Craftsman seat bracket which worked great for the mounts on the axle:



Spacers for maximum joint movement:



Tacked 'em on, then mounted all four rods ends, measured the length I needed to make my arms and fabbed them up:





Then it was time for the upper link. Used a couple smaller heim joints and some pipe for that:



Found a nice bracket to use on the axle and welded it on. Then I added a piece of flatstock to the frame mount crossmember, and made up a frame mount for the upper link:





Pretty cool being able to work on the whole assembly off the frame. Jeep style

I had to cut out the old leaf spring rear mount before I bolted it back up:



As you can see I'm missing a spacer on the axle mount for the upper link, but it was good enough to bolt it up and do some checking



Letting 'er stretch out:







Looks promising! No binding or major clearance issues, only have to grind a bit off the upper link frame mount as it's hitting the clutch rockshaft. I was also surprised to see there where no issues with the grille:





Pretty cool, haha. So obviously with the coilovers and steering all done, I'm not going to have that much articulation. However it is great to know how much room I have to work with.

Next thing on the list is to get a new pair of front tires on so I can officially set my ride height, fab track bar setup, then work on getting the coilovers mounted.

Getting good now!

When I was going to do that originally with Kal, my lower links were running into my tie rod on flex.  I guess you are able to put the mounts up higher? ...or maybe smaller link diameter?  I was trying to use massive links.  LOL  Loving the work on the 3 link!

Well I have a new pair of front tires on order, so in the meantime I thought I'd tackle a couple other things

Clearanced that centre link frame mount like I mentioned in my last post, and braced it up a bit as well:



New hardware installed too. Then I thought I'd do the track bar setup to get 'er located.

Axle mount:



Frame mount:



Next I centered the axle and made up the track bar:



Bolted up and checking for potential clearance issues:





No problems that I can, that's another thing done. Hopefully new tires in the next update!

The GT is coming along nicely! Such a sweet build. Great documentation should someone else want to try!

Alrighty so I got my tires in and mounted up:



They're actually more aggresive than they looked in the pictures, should work great! Oh yeah except I realized that I mount one backwards    That will be addressed eventually, haha.

But anyways, that meant I could start mounting up the coilovers, which involved figuring out the amount of sag when the tractor's sprung mass is applied. So I threw the engine back in and did a little messing around to see how much they would give when I let the jack down:



Turned out to be not much, which is good. So then I found where I wanted the final ride height to be, measured it, and then added the measurement from the spring sag to the ride height. This makes it so the tractor will sit exactly where I want it to even after the coilovers give under the weight of the machine.

Wanted to do a bolt-on roll bar type of deal under the hood, and use it for the upper coilover mounts. So I fabbed that up:



It will definitely be braced up later on, but good enough to get 'er rolling again. Roll bar thing bolted up:



I used the two factory drilled holes in and a couple 3/8" bolts to mount the coilovers to the axle. Next was to make an upper mount, and center and weld it to the rollbar:



Now this part will actually end up being redone, as I'm not really happy with the way it turned out strength or appearance wise. I can come up with something better. Nevertheless, I bolted the coilovers up and let 'er sit on all fours once again:







Gotta say, I think she's got a mean looking stance so far! I'll feel better when I get that upper mount re-engineered, but I'm real happy to see it as a roller again. Let me know what you guys think!

Looking awesome! I'd like to build a suspension setup one day myself.

One word of caution though, the way you have the shocks upside down they'll collect dirt and eventually destroy the seals so if you have enough room to flip them around that would be for the best.

Looks real mean Allis! Is the steering box still gonna fit in there pretty good?

Thanks fella. The steering box should still fit up in the spot I planned, as long as the linkage doesn't cause too much trouble.

Regarding the shocks, I appreciate the advice but they're not mounted upside down. Adjusters at the bottom and rams up is how they are supposed to be, no different than the front shocks on an ATV or what have you.