Montgomery Wards(MTD) trail tractor(Now Murray Widebody LT)

MTD's are the worst wheels to take off - theyre held on by a press fit between the wheel and the axle.

I used a can of PB blaster, a steering wheel puller and a large hammer - best way is to remove the trans from the tractor. if that doesnt work, you might need some heat from the back side of the wheel to loosen it up.

Since i planned on taking my wheels off again , i used a grinder and lightly ( cant stress how light- otherwise the wheels will wobble) ground the axle off and never seized the heck out of it - they slide on and off by hand now. Heres my mod MTD thread:

http://atltf.forumotion.com/t37-mild-mod-mtd


It wasnt easy.

I worked on the Murray today. I put a centrifugal clutch on it to test out how it will work. Since I had it tipped over I took some pics. I would have test drove it but the starter needs rebuilt. I took it apart and it was full of black dust. The brush holder, plastic piece, was in pieces so that will need replaced. One brush wasn't even attached. I'll try and swipe the starter off another motor and test it tomorrow.

With the clutch setup it can give you the room for a couple more inches of lift in the back w/o a jack shaft ( if y spin it around). By all rights it should work pretty good, thats the shift on the fly trans?

No, this is a 5-speed manual. That clutch wouldn't fit the other way around. I would have to space the motor up at least an inch. The belt wouldn't get past that plate with the steering gear on it. I used all the tension pulleys and even the original manual clutch so I could use that new belt I had. The ideal setup wouldn't be so elaborate.

Well, it moved. I'm having trouble with my throttle setup. I started with a plastic bicycle brake handle, which just wasn't cutting it. So I swapped to a metal one this evening. Then I had problems with the return springs. The throttle wouldn't return to idle completely, which as you can guess messed with the clutch releasing. So I had it cobbled together enough for a test, and I think it will work out great. As soon as the throttle setup is fixed I'll test drive it on video.
I also worked on another little side project. Have any of you heard about using a bicycle speedometer as a tachometer? I ran across it here.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Tachometer-made-from-a-bicycle-speedometer-cycloc/
I mounted the magnet to the screen on top the flywheel and held the sensor near it. It read pretty accurately, around 1800 rpm at my high idle, due to the linkage problem I mentioned above. This seems to be an accurate measurement also since the cent. clutch was turning the belt, in neutral of course. I need to mount the sensor permanently on the engine shroud. I thought it was a cool and cheap mod.

What if you weld a spacer onto the clutch itself to lower it further down- then it can be used direct and also able to raise the tractor height. Just make sure it doesnt wobble. Or use a smaller diameter sleeve inside the clutch, bolt the clutch to it then bolt the new spacer to it.

The spacer would need to be keyed for the crank ( like part of an old engine pulley) - to hold the clutch onto the motor , just weld a stock bolt to another longer bolt and thread it in ( put the original pulley bolt tward the crank end and weld another longer bolt to it so it can be tightened) .

Will it hurt anything to run the clutch as I have it now? Everything works, as long as the throttle works right. This is probably temporary as I want to swap all the drivetrain into my 2-seat buggy project/idea.

Did some work on the linkage this evening. RC rodends and all thread. I didn't have time to hook the cable back up.

I got the throttle hooked up. I used a short piece of brakeline and notched a slot in it for the cable. Slid that over the bolt and adjusted the sleeve length. It works great so far. Since it was fixed I test drove it around the yard. It's slower than I'd like since the clutch pulley is 3" compared to the 5" pulley I had on the motor. You seem to loose a little speed with the centrifugal clutch also. Other than the gearing being a little off, it worked great. The locked rear won't turn very well, balloon front tires doesn't help either. But this clutch setup isn't permanent, just a test for my buggy project. I took some video which is converting at the moment. I'll post it once it's up on youtube. The motor isn't 100%, occasionally backfires.

Here's the video. I was out of the shot for most of the test though. I almost flipped it in the ditch to the left, by the road. Here's a couple pics of how I hooked up the throttle cable also.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5QKXUUVwIo

I decided to swap in a 16.5 OHV briggs in place of the twin. The OHV runs better and I can swap twin for twin in my other projects, which is easier. So I got it all bolted up, just need wiring, cables, and exhaust. I'm working on a homemade muffler/stack. Here's the progress so far. I need some large fender washers to fit the diameter of the larger pipe, which is fence post.

Well, it's time to remove the centrifugal clutch and set it aside for my frankenbuggy project. I wanted to try a double pulley clutch like Fearlessfront did in a couple of his videos. So I went to see what idler pulleys I could swipe off my automatic murray widebody. I had never looked at the clutch setup on the hydro automatic. Well, it has a double pulley clutch and it all bolts to the frame of my 5-speed offroad murray. So that's what I did, swap it all over. Who says a hydro is junk. I found all kinds of useful little parts too.

this thing is awesome nice build

Thanks. Belt is on order so as soon as it shows up I should be able to get a test vid up.

Belt came in and is on. Got everything put back together and test drove it today. It's a little scary due to a flat rear tire, haha. The tire has a tube, can you use green slime in a tube?

"Who says a hydro is junk. I found all kinds of useful little parts too"- hydros are junk when we say hydros are sh*t we mean the hydro trany its self is junk lol not the rest of the tractor it has alot of useful parts on it even though all the hydros ive acquired havent had many useful parts on them lol besides pulleys and tires

Oh I know why they're junk, got two of them, haha. It just really surprised me that the pulley on the engine would be different as well as the clutch setup.

understood, actualy the one hydro i had i liked it was a tank, besides the motor was a pain in the ass and after like the 2nd time it neededs a new piston i scrapped the tractor for parts

I have a problem guys. It's either my mower, or me. I have a 16.5 OHV briggs on this murray, 5-speed, 5:5 gearing on the pulleys. Friday I back it out and try a test run. First is nice and slow, I go to shift into second(at most I hit 3rd) and the thing does a backflip on top of me. Now I might not be letting the clutch out easy enough, but I never seen anyone on youtube videos pop wheelies like this on level ground, grass even. So what do you guys think? Change gearing? Add weight to the front? Learn to drive?

The thing that get's me is that it acted like it was in a much higher gear, and at most I might have skipped 2nd and went into 3rd. 4th or 5th are just too far away for me to have hit them. I guess this means my clutch setup isn't slipping though, haha.

throw a strong ass wheelie bar on there and just letter fly

whas your trany locked

Yup, welded solid.

My murray would do that even with an unlocked trans - i didnt like it. Locking the trans probably amplified the wheelie ability - i liked my shift on the go because i didnt have to stop to shift, could just rev it and shift - when i first started out it had the tendency to go nose skyward, while moving it was fine.

If you could make the belt slip a bit more, itll help with the front end comming up.

That's what I've been doing, slipping the belt on the clutch. It might wear the belt faster, but it's easier on my back, haha.

I got some updates since I can get onto this site once again. I got the wheels/tires off my $40 atv put on the murray and it seems to run pretty good. I also made a video pretty much summarizing what I've done. Though now I have all new plans for it.
- ATV front suspension
- narrow front tires
- reverse clutch
- change sheetmetal(I have another murray body and hood that is the bigger style, might swap, might not)

Anyway, here's some pics and the video.

tractor is looking good. I like the addition for the TX. Does it tie to the front of the TX? If not , a few extra tabs will help support it.
just a flat strap across the top of the battery secured with wing nuts might work better than the bunggie
did I hear you right in the video? its a 2009 atv? how does anybody trash a $5000 4 wheeler in 2 years and then turn around and sell it for $40?

Yup, 09 for $40. Guy needed money for smokes, haha.

No, the transaxle isn't tied in, but it will be now. Thanks for the idea. I might swap back to a small mower battery in the future, really depends on if I add anything electrical that needs the larger battery. I have an alt laying around I could add to the motor as well. Who knows, they're never finished.