Craftsman Rally Mower Project

Me posting this in a project build means one thing: I got it home.

So I took the time today to go with a full box of tools to my friends and disassemble the Craftsman enough so that I could fit it in my 32" high inside Jeep (the Craftsman was about 42-44" at the highest). I made a video of my unloading it, which will be uploaded sometime soon.

I plan on using it as a rally tractor, meaning speed on and offroad. Its already pulley swapped to have a stock front and a 5" rear. It has an 18.5hp Briggs & Stratton I/C Platinum Intek v-twin. Nothing else has been really done other than a totally ghetto wiring and shifter job.

Have an old pic of the tractor.



Checklist.

Quote :

Moped shocks.

Larger front tires (if possible).

The hood will be modified to tilt forward as a whole unit.

Front bumper will be held on using springed hitch pins or something similar.

Might use the deck lever (shortened) to shift.

Direct steering. Might use handlebars or a modified steering wheel.

FF starting system.

Tether switch (later on).

Nut axle and spindle ends.

Straight pipe dual angled stacks.

Headlight and taillight upgrade w/ reverse light. As you can see the headlights got plinked out by a BB gun.

I like the fenders, they look higher then most tractors

The fenders arent even on actually. When we modded it, it was at Auto and we didnt have enough time to bolt them on. The back sits about 2" higher.

The big thing is a kiln to dry wood. My friends dad cuts trees, splits it and uses half of it to boil sap and sells the other half. Not sure what it is actually but its I think all 1/2" steel.

Nice, I like those old craftmans.

I like the look of them too. Unfortunately it has a Foote unlike a Peerless like I thought. Oh well. Might switch it with the racer anyways.

Just finished editing my video, ill upload it tonight.

is it a fourspeed? i miss mine lol it had so much freaking torque

I believe its a 5. When he modified the shifter arm he cut out the numbers so I dunno.

if its a four id leave it in there for the torque lol or you could mail it to me i miss mine i wish i had one for the lifted craftsman

I might switch it with my Peerless because the Peerless is locked and this isnt, and since the racer goes faster I might want a diff. Dunno yet.

after i finish my lifted one i want to try and finish my racer, ive changed how im going to do alot of it and got a 29 hp kawasaki for it that just needs a starter lol i wanta try and hit 90 with it eventually

Thats a little too fast for me on this platform.

So far for the rally I plan on finding some matching rear tires for the front and using some shocks off a moped I have for the front. If I cant find front tires (cause the rears are pretty big) ill just leave it stock and use shocks.

The hood will be modified to tilt forward as a whole unit.

Front bumper will be held on using springed hitch pins or something similar.

Might use the deck lever (shortened) to shift.

Direct steering. Might use handlebars or a modified steering wheel.

FF starting system.

Tether switch (later on).

Nut axle and spindle ends.

Might be more later on. Im gonna do the easier stuff first, like shocks, shift lever and FF starting system.

if you lived closer id say wo could trade hoods ol the on eon my lifted mower is the one piece one and i wish i had one like you got lol

Hell no, I love my square hood. Thats why I own the tractor lol.

Im not gonna put a crate/ rack on it though.

Might do dual straight pipes angled up but no higher than 6" off the top of the hood.

thats what im talkin bout lol mine has is one of the green ones that had the square one piece hood lol

My racer had one but it got crushed (it was moved by a skidder claw at one point). It can still be sued, just needs a bit of hammering, but I prefer the MTD hood over it since its squarer.

im trying to stock up on all the square body craftsmans i can, i love them, my lifted one and my racer both are, but i dont think the motor for my racer will fit under the hood lol, and on my lifted one i had planned on exhaust like you were saynig, ima go from stock pipe to 1-1/4 to 2" pipe with flappers

It should fit, Fearless had enough room to put his shock towers inside his rock crawler.

But I agree, I think the square nose tractors look the best. The only curved nose ones I like are the 2010ish Craftsmans when they had the red hood.

Yuck, flappers. Ill just make a raintrap at the bottom and maybe have a removable drain plug for the off chance I do store it outside.

Here you all go!

Well I got it put back together and running today! Drove it around for a little bit cause I needed to go and see my neighbor up back cause I got the Jeep stuck. He wasnt there but I got ride time.

Right now its parked. Until I get direct steering ill use a gas pedal using a moped brake handle and brake line. Would have worked on it more but I had to bail (so far) 18gal of water out of my garage over the course of the day. I think I pinpointed the problem so it leaks in less now, so I squeegeed and set a fan up to dry the floor. Hopefully get a few things done tomorrow.

I capped some video today, ill see about editing it if its usable (its not my best work). If I dont ill see about doing some more riding tomorrow as its supposed to be warmer.

Got it together as I said, and I did upload some of the video I capped. Not my best work, but its supposed to be low to high 50s today so ill cruise for a bit.

Lots of work done today. Drove it for a bit, then went to work on it.

*Gas pedal.

*Replaced my electric with an on/off button for the kill, no push button yet so I just jump it to the starter.

*Found out the stator doesnt work.

*Hooked the fuel plunger up to a switch, although I need an actual switch (just using an alligator clip), cause I couldnt figure out how to disable it and I didnt want to ruin the OEM part.

*Got it to go into 5th gear. Lots of hotshifting practice. 5th is wicked fast so I need to stiffen up the front axle with either shocks or welds.

All I really did today. Drove it over the ice in the ditch where I had built a dam because I could, and also drove it up and down the muddy driveway and did some drifting around my driveway.

No vids unfortunately of that, ill have to try and get some next time. I also managed to break my camera screen but my camera still works so ill see about getting a new one.

Some "after" pics.





I would of had the hood on but I need to modify it a bit so the throttle cable fits under it. Right now its rubs.

That's huge, and nice and muddy

Well it was raining today, but that didnt stop me and my friend from playing with it.

Something went wrong though with the transaxle. It doesnt engage gear. Im really hoping its just the rear pulley, as I dont think my friend put the key in when he rebuilt it. If not, im hoping its something minor. Ill take the fenders and gas tank off and see what it is later on. Right now im wet and cold.

If it is broken inside, ill take it apart, assess whats wrong, lock it while its apart and if its not savable, ill put the racers Peerless in.

Doug Fackler wrote:

Well it was raining today, but that didnt stop me and my friend from playing with it.

Something went wrong though with the transaxle. It doesnt engage gear. Im really hoping its just the rear pulley, as I dont think my friend put the key in when he rebuilt it. If not, im hoping its something minor. Ill take the fenders and gas tank off and see what it is later on. Right now im wet and cold.

If it is broken inside, ill take it apart, assess whats wrong, lock it while its apart and if its not savable, ill put the racers Peerless in.

Turns out it was just the key. I took the one out of my peerless, put the pulley back on and away it went. Stalled it like 5 times cause im not used to geared transaxles or having a gas pedal on a mower. No biggie though. Drove it through a ditch a few times, in my yard (which is literally about 6" of slush) and through a ditch in my yard with over a foot of slush in it. Didnt cap that last run but capped most of it. Ill see about uploading it tonight.