1st attempt at a MTD vari drive and 3 speed manual trans mutation

As i mentioned in the other thread about my finding all the stuff to put my 96 MTD together - i decided to build a mutant MTD with both a vari drive pulley and a manual trans- after my inital putting it together, i might need to use my parts 85 mastercut instead- ill tinker some more n try to make it work 1st tho.

Heres some pics ( know everyone likes pics! ) :





Initally the axle was tight on one side and had tons on the other side- moved it around a tad and fit pretty good - then noticed how close the pulley would be to the variable pulley shift lever on the fender( like an inch) .

Ironically i held the trans in there with a set of 2 1/2 muffler clamps- i need a slightly smaller set- too large.

The wheels are way tight to the body as well- also after looking some more, the trans pulley sits lower then the vari pulley ....... but the shifter actually lines up really good as it is - no mods there at least.

So ill have to do some cutting of the chassis in the back or find a pulley( make one ) with an offset to match up with the vari pulley - probably have to cut it to movethe trans over some more reguardless.

So, ill need to do some more tweeking n see what happens..... so if anyone is wondering- yep itll work putting a manual in a MTD, with some tweeking of course....

Cool, I'm rooting for ya.

Just WOW! otherwise i am speechless. I am dieing to see on how this turns out.

Glad someone acautlly did this! Theres been lots of talk about it. Cant wait to see how this pans out. Keep the updates comign thick and fast!

The axle on the right side is longer then the left side- so i can slide it over some - ill just have to notch the chassis ( its a large bodied trans) .

If it turns out ill need to lower it, ill have to pick up some square steel to make a frame to mount the axle from - probably should since im notching the chassis for the axle. Another good thing is the trans uses a 3/4 input shaft with a keyway - so shouldnt be hard to find a pulley for it.

I started thinking about what size motor to put on it- till i get a crank seal for that one 12HP, ill have to put the 11HP on it - all my 14's are currently on other tractors - maybe ill try n fire up that 12HP teccy on it, ugh cant believe i even said that....

No problem- i just basically slapped it together for now , till i sort out allignment issues with the trans pulley and axle location - i guess till i find or make a trans pulley that will work , im up in the air about ride height- wether it needs lowering or leaving 'stock' hieght. And i still need to swing by the auto parts to get smaller muffler clamps- i did however get to harbor freight today n buy a 42pc tap n die kit, the 50pc zerks and a bunch of other stuff - im like a kid in a candy store there......

I'm the same way when it comes to harbor freight. Closest one is about 70 miles away. I haven't decided if that's a good thing or not, haha.

The one we went to today is 15 miles away- before we went over near Tampa about 40 miles away- the closer one is a much nicer store ( not in 'the hood' ) - northern tools is just on the edge of Tampa a few miles from HF. I just go there when we're in the area.

I didnt do too much today- i put my HF stuff away , took a few 'new' RC cars out there i picked up from a thrift store , cleaned up some and found the better dash n steering wheel i had from my 03 bolens for the 'mutant'. I had to cut things short because its storming out.....

Got a few more things done, the front axle i used for the mutant ( didnt notice it till i sat it on 4 wheels) - the pitman arm was on the wrong side- so i tore apart the steering and flopped it around- needed to be taken apart anyway , was all rusted up.

Then i flopped it on its side to see about the trans placement- after looking it over ( and finding the original frame piece i kept with it) i hacked a section out of the frame to slide the trans over enough , to make room for a pulley.

I went into a autoparts store to find some fusion paint ( was way over priced there) and totally forgot the muffler clamps i needed ( looks like ill need only one now).

Im not exactally sure which hood ill use- maybe the spare 85 mastercuts? ( if it fits). Have too many with the sloped newer MTD hood.

Slowly but surely its comming along.

I'm soo happy someone is doing this! This seem like one of those Ideas that should have been done awhile ago. I don't think I've ever seen this done before.

Fingers crossed!

I'm excited to see how the gearing works out. Will you have more high gears, more low gears, or just multiple gears in between the standard transaxle gears. Only one way to find out and you're doing it.

Im having a couple snags- the shifter handle on the fender( stock MTD) is contacting the trans/brakes assembly ( on the inside) - im not sure wether ill keep that- i do still have my 85 mastercut dash assembly i might swap on- it has the vari pulley shifter set into that.

Using this round type heavy duty trans is giving me setup issues - im having to hack more from the chassis to even it out- and still need to on the opposite side slightly- ill have to look thru my pulleys- cant seem to find one to fit this thing- might have to go buy one.

Ugh- wish i had a spare murray or craftsman trans around would be tons easier ( because it has a square mounting point where it bolts to the frame).

Im also going to have to dig out both my mastercuts ( 85 and 97) and see how the varible pulley linkage is actually setup .....

Awesome dude......, i haven't been on the site in a while so i'm amazed at whats new in just a little time.
I have not done much with my mowers to busy working on my new car and other stuff.

Yeah - unfortunately other stuff gets in the way of tinkering too - i spent the other day painting the fake shutters on the house because the original paint peeled off like a bananna - plus changed the color to satin black to match a new skirting we're getting soon ( a fake rock type with black grout lines)- should look 100% better then the plastic lattice the PO's slapped on it.

A slight update : I think i got the trans lined up pretty close - now ill need to search for a pulley in my stuff or go pick up a new one and have the rear all buttoned up/rear wheels alligned with the body.

I believe i found a replacement for the rear fender shifter ( for the variable pulley) - after rooting around in my stuff i just happened to come across a height adjustment lever assembly for a freebie edger that i junked- has the same style lock pins ( to hold it in a certain position) - so i found a linkage rod and did a lil tweeking to both the frame and the adjuster and came up with a similar style to the chassis shifted mild mod MTD i have- shifter still needs a lil more tweeking, but works correctly. Heres a pic of it :



I decided on a hood - the parts 85 mastercuts hood looks cool on it- i started to mount the fenders and a seat setup, itll need redoing because its too close to the shifter and interferes with it, plus im like squished against the steering wheel as well.

A minor issue i might need to change is in order to slow down i need to shift the vari drive pulley as well - otherwise the clutch is locked- ill see how it goes then most likely change it.

Some more tweeking and itll be ready for a test run.

Its basically together, minus the engine and trans pulley- i managed to mount the 85 mastercut hood on it ( surprisingly with very little effort) , had to cut the original rear fenders to fit the lower seating position, bolted a seat pan down ( its pretty comfy) - actually looks pretty cool.

Ill need to lower the front next , put a motor and pulleys on and it should be ready for a test run. Ill grab some pics later of it- forgot to take it out yesterday.

I might throw a paintjob on this one - the old 96 was pretty rusty....

A paintjob would be nice!

I cant think off the top pf my head what the mastercut looked like?

Yeah ill probably just buzz it with some color ( have a cool maroon paint for the body n the chassis black?) paint the rims white , black or bright red or something. Id like to get some white latex paint and do some whitewalls on it- LOL!

Heres my mowing 85 mastercut - the hood i used was the exact one like it that was all rusted out :



It looks neat but different, since its on a 'box' chassis instead of the 'walk thru' chassis- plus didnt even have to cut the dash up to make it fit or mod the hood in any way - was an easy bolt on job - i used my crappy old MTD dash anyway because that needed holes drilled in it for the side hood supports . I thought of using the mastercut rear fenders, but id have to hack too much out of them, plus they were actually in decent shape anyway.

Ill haveta get some pics tomm - we went to Sea World today and just got back at 11 pm and im beat .....

Heres a pic of it :

wow looks good, well, i wish i had time to do that, i probably could, but idk. but also, even though i have a 120v welder(which by the way for the price, works really well. the welder was from harbor freight for 89 bucks plus tax(damn tax) but the welder out of the box, i couldn't hardly make nice welds AT ALL till i went to home depot and bought Lincoln electric, nozzle jell, lincoln contact tips, and of course the wire im going to post a pic in another thread idk if anyone could see the weld difference between hf and LE. but im sure you can its pretty impressive that just the name changes it all, but the welder works good, has a built in fan, so long duty cycles!!!! but also ill have to show you guys all the mods i done to the welder to make it pretty nice. well ttygl on another post so i don't get dangeroustoys post too far off topic, lol
but also on my craftsman, im just waiting to get some gear oil or some red grease, im thinking grease cause if i get into alot of water it may really thin out the oil, but idk ill see what im going to do, but if its grease its going to be red grease not that black junk. and i also have a pulley for the twin engine so once i get the trans in put the pulleys on and go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't wait to see the results from waiting a lifetime, and since i have my own welder, and a grinder i can do a hole lot more stuff to my mudder.

I really havent had alot of time to tinker either - why the things not finished yet- plus the over 90 degree days were having isnt fun either.

After this is done, im thinking of putting my LT11 back together- i need the table space its sitting on, then ill fix the deck for my 85 LT12 to get 2 more mowers.

Speaking of welders- come to think of it i bot some wire and tips at HF for my hobart- my welds might look better if i get new stuff at TSC - lincoln brand stuff- i havent really used it alot, so i havent bothered. I need to get a carb kit for my 99 hydro twin murray.