What have you done to your tractor today?

Last night I pulled the little 6hp B&S Quantum motor out of my Murray. Such a small motor, it's funny that people thought I had some monster motor in there since it went pretty fast. It's all in the gearing, my dear Watson.   

how did you mount that push mower engine on there?

I just drilled new bolt holes for the motor mount bolts. I had to cut a little also, but not too much out of the hole because the Quantum motor has a bump on the bottom. It's a pressure washer motor, so it had no idle circuit in the carb, just made to run at the same speed all day long, so it was a challenge to get to idle. Not the best motor, but it's all I had at the time. It pulled a 5 1/2" pulley with a 7" on the transaxle.

I tried to put one on the John Deere one time, but I couldn't drill the holes right.

The nice thing about my Murray is I don't care how many holes it has in it.    Wrongly drilled and unused holes are just called "lightening holes" they make the chassis lighter, therefore faster.   

I got stuff ready to sell (or trade)

Last night I finished installing the new motor. Looks slightly bigger than the old Quantum POS that was in there...   



Searched through my pile of parts to get some fingers to pucker the belt.  (I don't know the technical term, maybe someone can help me out here) lol...
Welded up the 7 inch pulley to a stocker that I cut short to align. (TSC item)




Realized that the clutch pin was worn about 1/2 way through, so I had to dig again in the scrap pile to find a new(er) one.



Scary comparison.  I didn't realize that they wore so badly!



I wired the new ignition switch, installed the battery and fired her up.  I'm very happy with the motor.  It's strong!  There are a few things left to sort out, but that's expected with a new motor....

Here's a pic of the throttle linkage I made up. Just in case anyone is interested. So-far it works awesome.

Foot throttle, been in use for a couple years. Works great. I designed it to have a hard stop so my lead foot wouldn't be breaking stuff.   


Linkage on the motor: I used sheet metal to make the lever, and clothes hanger wire to make the linkage rods. Used a 1/4-20 bolt and washers, enlarged the top right side hole in the gov plate. The return spring is a piece of a long screen door return spring.    

Closed throttle:


WFO Throttle:

that last pic looks familier (in the first post)...... my MTD's pin was worn a little farther than that one...... was a little scary as on the MTDs' if that pin breaks the vari-drive springs to the full speed ahead position......
that throttle linkage looks good.

Sounds like MTD got their safery factor backwards! Yikes!   

Thanks on the linkage compliment. It needs some finishing touches since it's rough cut still. I drilled a few holes initially since I knew I'd need to play with the ratios and positions to get it right. I wanted to keep the stock cable mount position, and also translate 2-3 inches of foot movement to 1/2" of throttle rod movement. Also wanted fine throttle control at low settings, but coarse movement past 1/2 throttle. Seems to do what I wanted it to. I hope others can benefit from my hours of scratching my head on this one!   

Spent the day shopping for a


Got lucky

Sweet!    Can you post another couple pics of that or maybe tell that machine it's from? I need something like that to lift my snowplow. I don't want to design and build one if I don't have to.

T-Dub13 wrote:

Sweet!    Can you post another couple pics of that or maybe tell that machine it's from?  I need something like that to lift my snowplow.  I don't want to design and build one if I don't have to.  

The leaver is a Countax PGC Lift Linkage



Hope it helps. Am thinking of building a snow plough at some point too as they are frighteningly expensive to buy even second hand

Thanks for the pic. Makes for good ideas. Do a search for "plow" on here and you'll get some great ideas. I seen a thread where a water heater shell was used as well as a 55 gallon drum for DIY plows.

been playing around on a cad program and coming up with some designs

richie thomas wrote:

been playing around on a cad program and coming up with some designs

Sketch up?   

Looks good.

Remember to group and lock parts to easy adjust them as a unit later.

Thunderdivine wrote:

richie thomas wrote:

been playing around on a cad program and coming up with some designs

Sketch up?   

Looks good.

Remember to group and lock parts to easy adjust them as a unit later.

lol i cheated.....i found and downloaded a model some one made and added to it , im no where near good enough on this damn thing to make my own sketch ups lol

richie thomas wrote:

Thunderdivine wrote:

richie thomas wrote:

been playing around on a cad program and coming up with some designs

Sketch up?   

Looks good.

Remember to group and lock parts to easy adjust them as a unit later.

lol i cheated.....i found and downloaded a model some one made and added to it , im no where near good enough on this damn thing to make my own sketch ups lol

lol

CAD is an excellent skill and very useful tool.  Keep practicing and playing with the program.  That looks like a drag tractor. COOL!

Last night I compared the LED lights to an Incandescent light on my Murray.  I posted the results in the Lighting section. It's HERE if you what to check it out.   

Hey yes i did returned just two threads nothing of much interest a video that didnt work and not much else.

Oh that sux. Maybe I saw it somewhere's else. But I did see a 55 gallon drum used. Also a water heater casing. Actually, I saw a guy make one out of plywood once, but it only lasted a couple seasons.      

Yep lol but have heard the plough's are not good and you need a rotating blade thing from the front PTO . I suppose it depends on how much snow you get. Have seen some quite elaborate ones on Utube . Started tractor again for 1st time and had smoked garage out lol. Also noticed I had wired starter and ignition to wrong switch connectors lol

tdub I really like what youve done with that murray, especially the foot throttle, that has a lot of though put in it. I also used to run a small motor, they work alot better than people think. I think more people could see your work if you made a build thread for it, because I dont think alot of people other that the forum "regulars" check this thread

My tractor is waiting for me to prime it and paint it with federal yellow and international harvester white. and cleaning the tranny right now.

@FOSWMT: Yeah, I'm pretty skeptical, but I got a plow for free, so It's begging me to hook it up and try it out.  Even of it doesn't work, it = more time playing on the tractor in the snow!    

@Creepy: Thanks man! I don't have many pictures and I started playing with this tractor years ago, so I don't think I could do a thread that shows the evolution.  But I'm happy to tell folks about the things I've done to it.  I'll keep posting as I modify and learn.   

@Craftsman:  Are you painting with rattle-can or do you have a paint gun?  Pics please!!!

I like this thread.  Sorta like a slow moving chat  

I got some of this stuff....