1982 Craftsman LT11 Trail/Mud/Woods Tractor

I posted a wanted ad for a used tractor on my local kijiji, and a couple weeks later, got a reply. I drive about 25km [15.5mi] north to pick it up, and got it for $50. He didn't have a good battery for it, and I never saw it run, but given that it had compression, and had good oil in it, I figured it was worth a go for 50

It's got an 11HP Synchro Briggs, Peerless 814 5-speed, no deck, and had some carb and wiring issues. Runs and drives great now!

Here it is after unloading it at home




After some carb and wire work, IT LIVES


Went for a SLOW drive down the sidewalk, going through gears, etc. IT was a very nice day, first spring-like one balmy 67*




Returned home, and as I'm pulling into the driveway, I lose my steering. Turns out the first control rod fell off the rear ball.
Worn out I suppose... Here's some more pics as the sun set further, and ended up bringing it inside.






MORE TO COME, let me know what you think happy spring romping!

that's the craftsman-badged twin of my '83 murray. looks like you got a really good deal on it.

I like! Nice basis to start from! Upgrading the tie rods should be fairly high on the wish list though hahaha!

Going to try a simple but effective fix for the tie rod today at school... Drilling out the ball recesses, and putting a bolt thru them. I'll just secure the bolt with a couple jam nuts and I'm all set. Till I do a direct steer setup or something The rod I'm talking about runs back to front and is seen in the last photo on my bench.

My craftsman had weak tie rods. And the gears in the steering box stripped out pretty quick

PROGRESS So today I fixed the tie rod issue - as I said in an earlier post, I planned to drill out the ball ends so I could loosely jam-nut-and-bolt the rod to where the balls mounted.

Took it for a good drive around, put a governor spring on it so I had full 3600rpm speed... as far as a 4or5:1 stock pulley ratio goes... Then I brought it home, and started ripping and tearing. The photos tell a better story. In short though, I'm taking it to school where I can weld in reinforcements in the unibody pan frame, and also pressure wash it so it's a bit nicer to work on. Might also be adding a bumper or foot throttle.... Time will tell.

The Tie rod modification...




Little stock crawl on the remnants of snowbanks


Little baby stock flex on the driveway curb.. a whole 4" of articulation...


And it's here that I start taking it apart. Here's the transaxle seconds after I lifted the chassis and engine off it


Check out the rot on this input pulley/shaft...






I need some advice on the situation I have with my right side axleshaft...
Check out the up-down play in that... Other side is ok, but either way, once the pulley's off, this trans is coming apart




Truck loaded, ready for school tomorrow. Packed nice and low since we're supposed to have rain tonight...
Want to unroll the tonneau cover for the night. Everything in there except the hood.




I've got a cherry bomb that was included with the trade for the mazda b2500, might make a stack for the Craftsman, using flex pipe and an aux mount so I don't rip my engine block if I roll... What you think?

jack9102 wrote:

Is it me or is the pulley look like its still spinning? lol, nice work!

Are you on glue xD no it might look like that from the sun angle and the fact that I just finished scraping it with a welding brush. LOL red...

So after a brief bit of inactivity... I found my phone cable so it's time for pics and other nonsense. So Immediately after buying this tractor, my first thought was to reinforce the chassis, which is the 14ga stamped pan type. So The following photos show the process from being in my truck to reassembled in my driveway tonight.

Regarding the sketchy trans and input pulley: I split the trans after smashing the rusted pulley off the hub, removed all bolts, came apart like nothing. Nice inside, nothing broken, removed the snap ring from the input gear, pulled the shaft/rust welded hub out of the top half. I'll just buy a new input shaft and associated needle bearing so I'll have no difficulties down the road. I'm also getting new outer axle bearings, though only one [right side, seen in earlier pics] is worn. Anyone know offhand if an 814 is oil or grease filled?

Also, I removed the engine pulley [3" wheel drive, 4.5" deck drive], and this engine has the 7/8" / 1" stepped crankshaft. Bought a Princess Auto 6" weld on pulley, but waited on the hub since I was unsure of the crank size[s]. Wheel drive pulley center measures 2 9/16" from the bottom of the cover, so I gotta get a 7/8" hub and weld the pulley on. I'll just get an aluminum 6 x 5/8" pulley for the trans after I get the new input shaft.



































At last that's it for pics today. Let me know what you all think of the progress and any suggestions/questions you might have.

Looks like the same frame as mine.
I will be keeping an eye on this.

So I'm waiting for the financial situation to improve so I can buy the transaxle parts and get this thing rolling at last...

Other mods lined up are a front bumper, shifter relocation [move from between legs to right seat side], brake lever [using old deck height lever], and possibly skid plates and additional reinforcement. Any ideas? leave them below

If its like my 801 it can be either, it had a oil drain/fill but came stock grease filled, same with both the 820s I have.

That's what I figured, regarding the trans... this one never had rtv or a gasket... just a ton of brown dirty grease. I'm probably gonna seal it up nice and run 80w-90 extreme pressure gear oil.

Considering taking a video of it, a walk around, details of my current mods and the parts I have. Anyone interested?

Id be interested

Comin' up. Laptop's charged so.. to the garage!

Im planning on adding some gussets to the stock spindles/spindle bracket. Mine looks to be the same as yours.

So my badly lit laptop footage will be seen live here: https://youtu.be/YYVTXgrzfbM - apparently I've got 87 mins left to upload. f vianet. Their VoIP system sucks. It's like dial-up all over again.

Video's up folks, get a better look at the tractor by clicking the link in the earlier post on this page. Leave any questions below

Still waiting for the weekdays so I can get my parts and get my monster rolling! Lots of places to ride. In the meantime, I've decided to show you all the main spot where I ride.

This is the former lot for a public school that is literally spitting distance from my driveway. It has a large dirt area where the school building was, and a grassy hill with a few rocky areas and a field complete with 1/2" minus gravel track [about 200 x 150']. Beyond the back fence of this field is a small stream and more rocky areas plus bush trails. In short, mower paradise.

The total area, from the sidewalk near my house to the street on the other side is about 2.5 acres. Can't wait to ride there!!!

Views from my driveway:




My brother on his Polaris 570 for scale reasons. The rock cut here is huge.


Slightly left of my brother:


and left from there


Rocky area suitable for crawling, where I was standing:


Looking back at the street from the same spot, showing school building area [dirt]:


Oh, and a little peak at my track demon, the '83 V65... first start of the year

That place looks fun, I wish that we had some rocks down here in Florida. Nice bike also!

Rocks>mud in my mind. Theirs a lot of rocks at my camp, but i have to wait for the campground to close to get to the good rocks.

So I've got the whole thing together, and I've got the two kinds of news, meh and bleh.

Meh news is that I'll get some riding time in before you all get bored of this build and move on to others
Bleh news is I have to re fab my hub/pulley design on the engine end so I don't have belt binding issues.
Once it's driving I'll see about borrowing my brother's goPro to make a POV ride video.
As far as updates, I've changed the engine oil to straight 30 shell stuff, bought a 24$ walmart battery - 180cca, and re attached my wiring. I've also welded the front trans mount in so my tranny won't twist back when I get to riding [peerless 814s are mounted by u-bolts on murray chassis, plus one bracket supporting front left corner]. I still have to make up a gas pedal setup, but can't find any of my old bike parts might weld one up outta metal in school.

Thats a cool build, simple. DON'T GO OVERBOARD. Trust me, you'll end up like me, making the same mower over and over again. But you know, thats how i roll.

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Rocks>mud in my mind. Theirs a lot of rocks at my camp, but i have to wait for the campground to close to get to the good rocks.

I personally don't agree, rocks are fun in all, but I really love the Florida muck!

Re:MurrayMayhem
Oh for sure, this is a very mild build. It's just gonna be a tough little beater that I can get around on, and possibly tow a small trailer of wood with - That's why I went with an 11hp, not a 26+hp vtwin, 11's get good milage [as far as old mowers go]. I want something I can explore the backwoods at camp with or take a rip to the park or beach. Beats walking and mowers get looks when they're not cutting grass and are going twice their design speed. xD This isn't my first build, just the first publicly shared one!