Craftsman Lt2000 Project

OOPS! atleast you found out what it was, really, its not too bad

yah I got lucky with this one....no broken teeth either.....surprised me quite a bit, I was expecting much more damage, I just can't kill it haha

Son you got lucky! I'd say 9/10 times the case totally blows in half. Interesting tranny mount how it just breaks in half. Maybe metal fatuge?

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Son you got lucky! I'd say 9/10 times the case totally blows in half. Interesting tranny mount how it just breaks in half. Maybe metal fatuge?

Funny thing is that this is the second time my locker blew up, but the Peerless just hasnt died yet. I think the tranny mount snapped because of the massive frame flex I have.

Today I worked on patching the Transaxle....I ran out of JB Weld half way through But I ended up cutting out a piece of tin to use as scaffolding. I then made some coil spacers for the front end.... like my history teacher says, pictures are worth 1000 words

filed the hole down some


the tin patch, I made it big enough so that the bolt can pass through it....holding it in place

dont mind the crappy pic...but I ended up adding a 3/4" spacer....this gives me 1" of frame clearance now

how springy will the front end be wihtout shocks?

The front end wont be very "springy". This is a droop style suspension that drops the wheels instead of having loads of uptravel. When I used to have a 4 link, the coilover style was very limiting. Now that I have coils, the suspension should be a little bit more cushiony. I may have a problem with big bumps though.....we'll have to see once I get the tractor back on all fours

Fearlessfront & Fozzy locked.....aka FFF Locker

JB WELD is done

back on all 4's driving, and ready to flex the new front end.....

So it's almost been 2 months since I've done any real up dates.......so I will start out saying to as why haha. Well I messed up somewhere during reassembly of the mst206 cuz while driving it, the transaxle didnt want to spin. The input was tight, I didnt think anything of it. So when I was driving around the yard the transaxle locked up when I was in 5th gear. I as of right now the transaxle is stuck in 5th gear and I had to pull out the keys on my wheels in order to roll my tractor home due to the fact that the transaxle has ZERO movement.

I'm planning on diagnosing what the problem is tomorrow. I am hoping to get back to working on this thing. I want to add a couple more mods to it, and if I find the peerless is junk, then I will slap a *gulps* hydro into the thing until further notice.

I'm thinking about going full rock crawler with this thing, as good as 2 wheel drive crawlers go that is. I'm going to add a skidplate, rear bumper, sliders under the floor boards, FINISH THE SUSPENSION, rear bumper, nerf bars, and I think that is it as of now

Can't wait!

Pulled this thing out from behind the house today, man it needs work though........
I pulled the transaxle apart and failed to fix the issue so i need some help......
So I rebuilt my transaxle the other day and I have not been able to get it work right since then. I had put a hole threw the case but the internals are fine and I have since then JB welded the hole. So the problem is that it wont roll while in neutral, and overall everything feels to tight. The bronze bushings are lined up so that isnt an issue. I put something back together wrong and I would like to know if anyone else has any input to what i could of possibly done before i pull the transaxle apart for the millionth time

just a picture from today

u r have the same problem I had with my mower, everything looks right goes together right and everything can be lined up but its to hard to turn is because you welded the spider gears wrong I know thi might sound stupid but there is a top and bottom gear and a surtan way you haft to put the shaft the the spider gears are on it has to go all the right way so what I did was grinded off the welds put everything back together it works fine so then I took it apart and goes a sharpi and maked how its suppose to go and it didnt bind up anymore

It turns out, it doesnt have to be pulled apart, it just had to be brokenin....woooot! It drives, shifts, and performs the way it should.



all the front end needs is coil buckets and limit straps and it is done for the time being, exhaust needs to be reroute if i want to put my muffler back on, brakes need to be fixed, and skid plate needs to be made to save my already beat up transaxle, somehow it keeps on living, and that should be respected haha, anyways updates should be coming soon

Ill tell ya, these mst206s are tough SOBs. Whoever manufacters them did somethin right fir sure.. their almost indestructible

I definetly have to agree with that, the thing drives great with this front end I tell yah, I made some temporary buckets for the coils and it drives over the bumps amazingly, much spongier, the only thing is it can't be dumped into corners because then it three wheels. It needs a skid plate now, I feel like the JB weld may now be a soft spot, only a small suspicion , any ways I have plans to make a bumper as well and it definetly needs a couple of "Oh shiz" bars on the fenders to keep me from falling off, I can't wait till the snow melts so i can do some crawling in the woods and really test this things capabilities

Looks good mang. Still curious as to that front end and how it flexes.

the suspension is pretty much a radius arm set up no that i take a real look at it. Radius Arms are mounted solid on the axle, and has all the pivot coming from the rear. Since the frame side joints arent triangulated, they are allowed to pivot. My tie rod ends act as pivots in this setup. I also have a good amount of clearance between my frame and axle (~2 inches) so i have room for up travel while this setup also allows plenty of droop.


Bronco's usually had this set up, and it does allow for plenty of flex, I really like how you did your coil buckets, I may just have to "borrow" that design

I'm pretty sure the arms have rubber bushings where it meets the axle tubes to allow twisting. Not sure. But yea no problem on using any of my designs at all

Drives really good with this suspension, rides so much better than the 4 link did. I was doing some trail riding today and realised I need to make sliders for the floor boards. Sorry I have no pics but while going through the woods I was hitting trees and managed to add a few dents


,
A rear bumper is in order to I have gotten lucky so far because the rear tires stick out so far, but eventually I am going to hit something, planning on a backrack/trailer hitch mix for  the bumper

Today the drag link for the steering blew. I am going to pull the entire steering system off my other tractor and put it on this one. This thing keeps breaking, soon enough I am just going to have to rebuild the whole thing

I lifted the tractor today and the linkage just fell out, the metal where the ball joint is cracked

the pre-existing steering setup

what will replace what i currently have, In my opinion, this is an upgrade, but i have no experience with this setup

I disagree with you I think the steering box in the first picture is far better than the one in second one. I have both the bottom one has a plastic block that holds the steering shaft wears out real fast. the first one is much stronger built. if you look at the bottom of your steering shaft where it comes out of the steering box you will find a hole there should be a pin thru it to prevent the shaft from falling out the bottom of the tractor if the steering wheel is removed .I replaced the pin with a 3/4 shaft collar which allows you to tighten the pinion gear in the rack when needed . what you need is better tie rod and drag links with real 3/8s tie rod ends not the crap that come on mowers from the factory. hope this helps.

Thanks for the input, a real joint is definetly in order. for now i will swap this over, and then go to a better set up in the future, this tractor may be seeing the end of it's days soon, so this will get me by. The transaxle slips out of gear occasionally and the engine burns more gas than oil

Jamcco you'r Sears is about the same condition as my old statesman. Mine won't steer to right very well the frames is breaking at the front axel and getting hard to shift. I think I better speed things up on my latest build or be without a tractor.

so the steering finally got replaced today, and i have to say, the system works great, so much tigther. A small tip, on the arm that comes off the shaft the moon gear sits, you can grind away the little key/guide. this will allow you to clock the arm in any position you want

started off today with everything blown apart, unbolted the steering from the parts mower and swapped everything over

front end, still holding up well, could use a few gussets here and there


full flex, was able to drive right on over the stump without a problem NEEDS LIMIT STRAPS!!

a year later, and the kohler still lives, smokes worse than a chain smoker and is shortening my life of many years, but it still has enough grunt to crawl through almost anything

Well guess what, I made my mower have IRS.....


dont think JB Weld will fix this...........