Had Me A Pretty Good Day

I've been looking at Kijiji and Craigslist for certain things, including good gearboxes, engines, chassis' etc.

I responded to an ad for a Noma tractor that interested me. He got back to me this morning, so I loaded up and left. Here's a couple pics, you do the math!



Can you spot the cool thing? Here... Try THIS pic:



While I was there, we started talking about smaller tractors, and told me he had an older Sears out back. This is what he showed me:



It's pretty small, 8hp. Don't know if it's technically a mini or not, smaller than your regular lawn tractor. However, I flipped up the seat and bought it on the spot. Why?



Yup! 700 FTW!!! I was surprised to see it in a front-engine'd rider.

At the end of the day, I got for $100 out the door:

*6 Speed, rear-steer transaxle. I'll have to inspect the tag later. Peerless, I believe.
*12hp Briggs flatty, siezed from no oil. I am HOPING I can use parts of it to repair another 12hp flatty I have
*Good 8hp Briggs flatty vertical. I may use this for a racer for my son.
*Peerless 700 Transmission. Golden, no matter what I do with it.
*Peerless 100 Differential axle. Another good thing to have.

Woooooo Hooooooooo!

Great find Doc!

Great finds! With all the things ive seen that are really desirable in the junkyard, i havnt seen one of those aws trannys. Maybe make a 4x4 drag mower or something? LOL, or even a 4x4 out of that little 8hp tractor. 2 for one shabang!

Looks like an 820 but i'm unsure. Glad you got it!

Pretty much guaranteed NOT to be an 820. However, it' may be 920-based, or at least that's what it looks like at a glance. Dunno what I will do with it yet, but I gots an idea or two floating around...

"I have no clue why im buying this all i know is that i WANT this!!" <--- me on craigslist

That is great doc! I wish that I could get a Craftsman mower like that, as it would be very easy to speed it up with sprockets and not burn up your transaxle! Now you don't have to worry about swapping in a straight axle! If that all-wheel stear tranny is the same gearing as MULE's you could convince the wife to let you make it into a four-wheel drive that would be really neat! I've been waiting for someone with the resourses to do this.

Indeed, putting it in MULE's frontend is one idea I am playing with. One idea. Another idea just for giggles is to put it in MULE's rear, on a separate control handle. I can then run it straight, steer really tight, or crab-crawl whenever I want. 3rd option- the sexy one is to HOPE the seller can deliver on a pitch he made- He know somebody with another one, might be able to get it cheap. So-

4-wheel-drive, 4-wheel-steer, anyone? Doc be dreamin' 'bout a 4x4x4!

neat!

like a real rock buggy with separate steering would be cool! think of the doughnuts!! Someone with a john deere on youtube had dual aws, but his rear onw doesnt steer. Waste

You lucky dog!   

I think my luck is about to improve. Nice guy, has lotsa good stuff on a regular basis by the looks of things, and his prices are decent. I gave him a partial list of stuff to look for, for me. If nothing else, I made a very good contact today.

The craftsman/Sears is the same frame as mine, same wheelbase as our 80's craftsman, normal sized.

Yeah- I dunno. It's an odd little duck. When I get home, I am going to compare the wheelbase ti The General. The General was a 1980 Sears LT 12-36. I'm sure it's bigger. Naturally, I have so altered the General's track width that there's nothing left to compare.

This thing is certainly smaller parked next to the Noma I bought at the same time, and fit sideways in my buddys truck. It's small next to MULE, too.

There were no dentifying marks as it is missing the hood and upper grille. Somebody sanded down the dash and removed any labels or tags with an eye towards paint. If the engine in original, it's a 1980 as well. I did some google image searches and it could well be. I also found the Murray-branded sister model as I expected to see. I'll have to put up a couple pics. It's a shame I didnt get the hood and upper grille. Quite nice, it was.

I wouldn't mind comparing dimensions with yours.

I know you have some evil ideas with that aws. are you just going to hold onto it and finish other projects, or are you going to spill marbles on your latest ideas?

There will be no marble spilling yet. First, I swore to myself I would finish the General and Reactor before starting a new one. Bad enought that I blew that out by starting MULEII. I actually didnt mean to start it yet. It was a creative accident...lol

Second... the guy I bought this stuff off says he has a line on a second AWS chassis. If he gets it in for me, well- let your imagination run riot... Mine is!

From the pic, looks like the dash, footboards, and fenders are the same. I've seen about 3 different grilles on them. Mine was a 10hp. Should be same as your mule then, mine matches the 12/36,11/36 craftsmans that we have.

Okay- here's what I got. This is most definitely smaller than the '80 Sears LT 11-36 that I'm building the General out of. I believe your tractors are of the same type as the General.

This frame is a stamped pan, which includes the footboards as part of the one-piece stamping. On the general, it's a rectangular frame, heavier gauge steel, pretty flat, and the footboards are a separate bolt-on.

The General's chassis measures 13" outside, this measures 12"
The General's factory wheelbase was about 43", this is around 42"
My other "normal" tractors seem to have a track width around 36" or so, this is about 31"

Measurements are approximate. I have altered the General's wheel positions, but I can still see the factory holes where the axles were. The General had a Peerless800 which is long gone as well as the rear tires so I cannot measure them. At a glance, the rear fender unit definitely appears smaller and narrower, although I think the dash is full size. Looks a little out of proportion in fact.

While I wouldn't really call this a "mini" it is definitely "compact". The lower grille is most definitely different than the General's and the usual Sears offerings of the time, like the Mowron's tractors. I sure wish I had the hood and grille shell.

I say it wouldn't be right to use that rear steer transaxle for anything but a 4wd project. It would be nice if someone made one that looks factory. I've seen a few but they looked kind of hack jobbed.

That would be tough. By nature, it would require the frontend (and therefore the rearend) be lifted some. Then again, what we do tends not to appear stock.

I can tell you this- Whatever end up doing, it's not going to be one of those mowers with 3' of lift and enough ladder bracing to build a condo under it...

4x4 would be cool but hard to keep stock lookin. But, use a mtd frame with tall dash and hood, loft motor, run one belt from motor to transaxle, on trans use double pulley. Run another belt from rear to front. You could even build a second clutch for the 4x4 belt to have selectable 4 wheel.

You could put the transaxle on end and use the steering action to make rear suspension...

I'm going to have to insoect things more closely, perhaps on the weekend. My only concern about using it in the frontend is a potentially very crappy turning radius due to the limited angle of operation of the U-joints.

OOH! Get a second identical transaxle... bam! Quad steer!   lol

TheRainbowBoxer wrote:

You could put the transaxle on end and use the steering action to make rear suspension...

I don't understand what you mean...