Been lurking awhile, first post with new project. Lifted Craftsman!

Yeah mine had the same thing. I'm saying is if the bottom pulley was level with the trans pulley than you wouldn't have to do a extended shaft at the rear. Plus get a more speed.

It looks great.
It a very clean tractor and lift.

Spent a few hours today down in the shop. Mocked up the steering to see what I needed to do to make it work with the lift. Had to go down 2 1/2" and forward 1". Made a temporary plate to try it and it works great. Now I will cut and add a piece in to the steering rod to make it match the original bracket.

Then I tackled the drive setup. Made a new extension shaft and milled in the 3/16" slot for the key. Added a cross member and mounted the bearing. I had to make a temporary coupler out of a hub I had laying around because the one I ordered hasn't come in yet. All in all it looks like it should work perfect.

If your using this thing for show, might wanna shine up the transaxle, a wire wheel on a drill will work good. And this is probably worth the home page picture when its finished!

Very professional. Might want to weld in caps on your diagonal supports or drill a drain lower so they dont fill up with water and rust from the inside out.

Looks good.
Are you gonna build bumbers for it?

looks real good, i started on mine to day cause we were out of school and i borrowed your idea for the front axle,except i moved mine forward 3 inches to give a longer wheel base,

Doug,
This thing ain't gonna see no water that's for sure. Purely shine and show!

Murray modder,
When I pull this all apart for paint, I will degrease the transmission and either try and buff it out, or paint it. I hope it makes the home page picture when it's done. That would be great.

High temp paint, but still, cleaning it would be good, and good grease to make sure it lasts...

Haven't done alot since the last post. I just ordered the spindles and hubs for the front end. I need to get those modified and installed before I build the rear hubs so I can get the distance figured out. I fish plated where I removed the original front axle and finished welding up the front end. Currently working on modifying the brake rod. I'll post more updates once I make some more progress.

Spent just a little while in the shop today. Wanted to use the oem brake rod and assembly. Had to lengthen the rod due to the lift. I just cut the head off of a 3/8" bolt then sectioned into the brake rod. I bored out a 7/16" threaded connector and slid it onto the brake rod. Got everything put together and lined up so it operated smoothly and didn't bind. Then I welded the treaded connector to the transmission support. Using this will insure that the extended rod won't bend.

I got the shaft coupler in the mail yesterday and finished up the drive setup. Still waiting for the spindles for the front end. I figured while I wait I would put the stock tires back on and check out what it looks like on the ground. The pictures don't do it justice. It looks so cool in person. If we didn't get almost 8" of snow last night I would take it out for a ride today.

Looks great.
Are you gonna put a bigger set of tires on it.

It's gonna get 23X9.50-12 turf tires all the way around.

Oh ok.

Very nice

Spent a couple of hours in the shop today. Got the steering linkage bent, lengthened and installed. Also came up with a way to maintain using the stock shifter. I just added a length or steel rod and a plate that simulates the original shifter tab on the transmission in it's original (or close to it) location. It works good. Just can't whale on it and take my time putting it in gear.

Looks great fireman!

Looks good! well done

So far it all looks good and solid, add support bearings for the extension shafts and it should be rock solid

looks good man

Awesome build

its looking good man

This build is awesome
I followed all through your post but failed to see if you told us how much lift is on the mower. Or what is the distance from the top of tranny to the bottom of frame in rear? I understand it will set nearly level when completed. I am considering a lift also. Thanks!

Snow melted enough today to roll it out of the shop and take it for a test ride. Engine fired right up and she drove and handled perfect. Now just gotta get the spindles on the front and then build the hubs for the rear.

First a few pictures in the sun. Last one will be the video.

genegillis5,
The amount of lift is different from the front end to the rear end. I took a ton of measurements before I started and created a drawing in a CAD program I have. I worked with the CAD program to figure out what it would take to get the frame to sit level. The program gave me the numbers. Unless your tractor is the exact same model as mine I don't know if my numbers will work for you seeing as every tractor is probably different. How much lift I gave it was just an arbitrary number based on the drawing I made in the CAD program of how I wanted it to look. You may want to go higher than I did which would be a different amount of lift in inches. I believe for the rear I went up 9 3/4". Once the rear was lifted, I jacked up the front of the frame till it was level with the rear and figured out how high I needed to cut the pieces to lower the front axle so it was even with the rear axle.

If you want something that's done right, it's not just as simple as cutting a piece of metal and welding it in place. I spent a few hours taking measurements to assure that both axles were on the exact same plane as well as the frame being level when I install the same size tires all the around. I am a bit of perfectionist when I build something and probably more so than most. Unless you have access to a CAD program or can draw and do the calculations on paper, you will have to mock everything up. My advice to you is take your time and measure twice and cut and weld once. Get the tractor jacked up in the air to a height that is to your liking. You will need to know what size tires and rims you want to run so you will know were the front and rear axles will have to end up (In reality, you are lowering the axles in order to raise the tractor.). Once you are happy with how it looks in the air, then unbolt the rear end and get it set in place at the height that matched your rims and tires. Now measure the distance you need to make up. Once that is done, move to the front and repeat the same process. I not only ran the numbers, I also did the mock up method to double check everything.

This may not be the best way, or the way others have done it. It's what worked for me and you can see by the pictures and the video it seemed to work well.