What do you think building a mower with a truck driveline!

Iv'e got two old four wheel drive Nissan pickup trucks with 5 speed transmissions one has a locked motor... Iv'e also got the frame from an old craftsman lawn mower and a 212cc Honda Clone From Harbor Freight. I'm gonna be getting a welder soon (hopefully) and an angle grinder. I'm thinking extend the frame a few inches weld the differential to the frame or use U-bolts, hook the tranny directly to the diff (no drive shaft) then weld a pulley to the input shaft lets say a 5 inch pulley and then have a pulley on an arm with a spring attached for the clutch and a 4 or 5 inch pulley on the motor. this is going to be more of a speed machine without much low end power but i might try to put the other trans behind the first one it depending on how hard it is to take of in 1st. What are your thoughts on this?

You would need a custom rear end and whole new frame if you were going to try this. The engine doesnt look big in the truck but I bet the engine and tranny are the same length as the craftsman body. I have an old |6 engine and 4 speed tranny from the eighties and its just as long as my Agway. Not to mention the engine will weigh a ton so you will need better front tires and proper mounts for the engine and steering.

Putting a truck engine into a lawnmower size is full custom work.

Now if you are talking about using your 212cc engine on the tranny, I highly doubt it will push the rear end. Not to mention you will have huge clearance issues with the rear diff and tranny.

I measured it. The tranny and rear end go almost all the way to the front of the frame so i'm extending it a few inches i'm also going to weld some frame rails into the craftsman frame i'm going to use pulleys to gear down the motor a little bit before it hits the tranny probably a 3 inch on the motor and a 4 or 5 inch on the tranny. Its basically a modified version of the pow r pup except built for speed instead of work.

Pow R Pup- http://www.longwood.edu/staff/riderkb/tractor/doddlebug.pdf

The axle is still shortened in the PDF you sent and the parts are also suggested from before the 50s. You need to remember the tranny you will be using will weigh more than the ones used then, and the tranny you are using is rated for a higher output engine. Not to mention the axles are longer so you will need to shorten them up, and your steering will need to be rebuilt.

Not to knock you down, but I dont think it will work. You could probably get away with using a 6.5hp engine on a pre-40's tranny, but I doubt it will pull a more modern one.

Plus its a ton of fabricating work, lots of custom parts and money will be put into what you are thinking of doing.

Doug Fackler wrote:

The axle is still shortened in the PDF you sent and the parts are also suggested from before the 50s. You need to remember the tranny you will be using will weigh more than the ones used then, and the tranny you are using is rated for a higher output engine. Not to mention the axles are longer so you will need to shorten them up, and your steering will need to be rebuilt.

Not to knock you down, but I dont think it will work. You could probably get away with using a 6.5hp engine on a pre-40's tranny, but I doubt it will pull a more modern one.

Plus its a ton of fabricating work, lots of custom parts and money will be put into what you are thinking of doing.

Actually, I had one of these trucks, lifted on 33's, and kept blowing parts up. Mainly because i off-roaded it too hard. I had a 2.2 litre hemi out of a 200 sx, a buddy of mine had a inline 6 from a 240z in his

It is entirely possible, it will be pretty easy, since these trucks had fully flanged divorced drivelines. Everything was flanged to the next piece including the front CV shafts right back through the trans, t-case , and rear diff. Also, consider, those rear diffs were the same as the dually nissan diffs. based on a smaller version of the Ford 9" rear end. Thehardest part will be fitting a pulley to the input shaft of the trans. If you have room, it would be sweet to include the transfer case for low range.

I want to get one of those old 720 4x4s to build a 4wd tractor.

If you go to the smallest engine pulley you can, it will pull like a bugger, A 6.5 won't make enough power to turn the trans and diff for any serious speed. 1:1 won't work. It is still a small truck driveline.

if you used two front diffs and torsion bar systems, you could have a crawler with 4 wheel indpendant suspension and 4 wheel steerin g

Im not gonna shorten the axles. I am putting the steering gear from the truck on the frame and welding the front axle solid

I am also planning on building a 4x4 tractor out of the other truck and selling the motor from the truck for gas money.

It will be something like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lDnSH-_Afg) except built for speed without shortened axles. The 6 horse motor will just be used to get it going and make sure everything works because i have that motor laying around. and as you can see on this site (http://www.longwood.edu/staff/riderkb/tractor/index.htm) that guy adapted parts from a 1985 Mitsubishi Pickup truck. My trucks are both 1983 so it shouldnt be that hard. If everything works out with the 6 horse and a low gear ratio im going to look into getting a 13 horse from harbor freight or trying to find an old 18 horse brigs horizontal twin such as the one on this homemade tractor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JjuU26Jod4)