Dougs Craftsman "Rally" V2 - "Trail Dominator"

We both do. I have 2 weeks from today to have this running and moving so I can take it upstate lol.

A lot. Rush rush rush!

Thanks, and you too.   

Well, mailman was nice to me today and delivered my stuff. Got my tubes and fuel filters. Was beat from working today cause we were so busy that I could hardy stand up, but I wrestled the tubes into the tires and I think they will work perfect.





Oring kit and Tether switches both shipped today. Still waiting on that damn amber LED. Shoulda been here days ago....

Hubs! Big thanks to BMI for offering to upgrade them from galvanized to powdercoat when they found the galvanized was out of stock.

So I got to the trans again, Pulled everything off the cases, input shaft included, and will pressure wash the rest of the grease out. Made a new chain loop out of #40 to replace the stock reverse chain. And took two shift keys out of the trans for easier shifting, and now I have replacements. Everything looked OK and not rounded, so it should be good to go.



Also, as I was picking stuff up, it turns out one of my tubes ruptured, right at the valve stem. So now I gotta take em to a tire shop to pop the bead so I can remove the tire from the rim.

Crap.

I love this build Its similar to what I want to do on my upcoming build. big power and a 820 on a simple and rugged frame. also nice choice on the 10 inch wheels vs 12 inch, 10 inch ride sooooo much nicer.

Do they? I just got em cause the tires were cheapest that i could find so i got rims to fit, lol. Was gonna get 12s with 25s but would have added another 100 or so.

So got parts in! Fingers crossed the orings fit. Also got my two tethers, and 12 red LEDs.



Also got the tire fixed. Got it to go tubeless. Used the jack but on a different truck so I had more room to work. Once it was off I prided the one side of the bead off, forced the tube out, got a new valve stem in and reassembled. Used a strap and grease to get it to seat right and it popped right on. Quick few taps where my screwdriver bent the rim and a spraybomb and it should be good to go.



Heres why it didnt hold air. Might be repairable.

Got em from ragingparts on Ebay. Seemed the best quality for the price going by the picture.

Screwdriver bent that rim? I wonder what happens when it gets a rock shoved at it!

Spaghetti. The lip is pretty big so it would have to hit pretty hard to deflate it.

So did my lock. I decided to do fozzy lockers since they are uncommon and are easy to do since there is no tacking or major worries about axle binding from a bad weld. Good thing is these are solid steel gears, not sintered steel and are fully contained in the differential housing, so if for some reason they DO fail they will be contained.

Look terrible but whatever, they will work.





Also cleaned out the bottom half of the case so once I go to TSC and get myself new snap rings for everything I can start assembly of the transaxle immediately and finally start constructionining!

The pictures of the homemade fozzys that I have seen where something broke, I think give us a clue as to why they break.


The area that I have outlined in green, need to be completely filled in, and ground or filed smooth.

I think what happens is that things start to get a little wild up in the transaxle... Things try to spin... And if those two spots aren't completely filled on all four of those areas, the gears try to ride onto them, get leveraged, and blammo!

I dont know how they would get leverage though. Worst I could see is slipping probably. Either way, the 820 differential is fully enclosed so if anything does break it wont contaminate the rest of the trans.

Although, now that you got me all worried I might go reweld them. Damnit lol.

Doug Fackler wrote:

Although, now that you got me all worried I might go reweld them. Damnit lol.

LOL My work here is done!

im thinking of doing a fozzy locker in the buggys tranny,, but then i think that the locker block would be better, who know,
if i tear into it and find ive got the stuff for the locker block, ill do it
ive got an idea i want to try, but i need a big holesaw bit, or a torch, might see bout getting a buddy to cut it for me

I finished up those spots like you suggested Jeff, so all should be good now in the home of 820. Works really good actually, cant wait to try it.

Anywho, I started work as soon as I got up today. A few days ago I had torn into the 820 and last night I had finally finished cleaning the cases. Today I had started to rebuild it. Gears clean(ish), check. Case clean, check. RTV down in a good bead, check. After a few hours went by I want to play with it, turn the input and go through the gears and whatnot.

Nope.

Every few revolutions, it would bind. Figured something was in the gears, like hay or old RTV, so I kept turning it thinking it might get squished and stop. It didnt. So I had to tear into it. After turning it probably ten trillion times, with the axle disconnected, I found it was the reverse chain (#41). It was hitting the teeth because the one link was bent from when I drove the pin out. So I pulled it out and put in the #40 I got that didnt fit. Nope. So I cut another piece of $40 and tried it with still no luck, So off to TSC I went, bought a new #41 master link set.

Worked great. So now its back together, vent/fill nipple included, curing. Looks like itll get some wheels Monday.



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Bought some pulleys. Went with 5" front (same as stock deck drive) and 4.5" rear. Was gonna do 5-5 but they only had one 5" pulley in the rack. So they need to be welded up. Also got two locking collars so now I have 3. Gonna put two under the front pulley and one above. Have to drill one out so it can take the key.

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Opposed is in. Took the muffler off and the fuel line too (fresh build, fresh lines). Needed to drill new holes and take the tank off, so the battery will probably be up front and the tank in the rear. No biggie, has a pump anyways.

Also trying to decide on exhaust. Wanted to do dual straightpipes but because of time I dont know if I can at the moment. I bought two of the big "sausage" type mufflers to use in the meantime so its at least running and not popping and snapping.



Heres a goof pic. Seemed like a good idea... Chances are they will turn straight down and exit at the ground. Hey, at least its still true duals!



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Front axle with the axle from the GT is done. Had to get some 1" long, 3/4" ID bushings to tap onto the spindles because the GT spindle sleeves or whatever they are called are shorter so the spindles didnt fit right. So now it has an added 1" of clearance in the front. Still need to lock the front axle or somehow limit its travel and reinforce the frame by the axle channel.







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So thats all for now. Stopped the long videos cause rushing, but ive been taking little bits that will be up sometime soon.

im thinkin of doing fozzy lockers on the buggy, but then i thought of the locker block lol....im undecided as of yet, but i will get it locked

Yep smaller rims with equal size tires ride much softer, because there is more rubber between you and the ground.
like so
23 inch tire with 12 inch rim has 5.5 inches of rubber between the rim and the ground

23 inch tire with 10 inch wheel has 6.5 inches of rubber between the rim and the ground

so basically 1 inch more cushion between your back and the ground. I think about these things because Im getting older and I like my back to not hurt after a ride.   

Im really thinking I may have to do a copycat build of this      

updates?

I don't want to hijack the thread but, what 12" tires will work on 12x5" rims off a GT? I've got lots of options considering I'm going to be driving my rig on the road alot.

Doug is so busy with work and this thing, that he doesn't even have time to update it lol. It's changed a lot.

can you update this

Shur.

Its been a while since I have updated and im too lazy to get pics, sooooooooooo ill cover the major parts.

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Did a brake mod similar to Mike Mayeran on Southern Offroad Mowers. I took a 4" drum, centered it as best as I could on the stock rotor, and welded it. Then I welded a piece of 1/4" rod to the end of the brake shaft that came out of the transaxle and threaded it. I slipped the new brake assembly on and used a 5/8" nut as a spacer and put two 1/4" nuts on the end of the rod and tightened them against each other. This allows the drum assembly to float a bit.

The band was connected using a 3/8" bolt that was mounted to the front support arm. The band is actuated by cable which is pulled from the old PTO lever on the dash.









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I got my pulleys welded (5" front, 4.5" rear) and got a belt that fit (85"). I modified the original rear retainers by welding some bent 1/4" rod to them. The rest of the retainers worked save for the frontmost one, but it only has fallen of once so far and that was from hitting something hard while clutched so it isnt going to be an issue.



The shifter was kept stock. I used a lever off a Foote transaxle (the original trans that was in the Rv1 pre-MST206 swap) and welded about 3" of 1/2" 14ga square stock to the end. I then welded some 1/8" thick flat stock off that, parallel to the now bottom lever arm, and welded washers together to hold the shifter arm. This not only gave the shifter arm a bit more height but kept the original sweep of the "nut buster" shifter.



I also welded in a bump stop for NEUTRAL. Beyond the stop to the right is REVERSE.



Using a 1/4" air hose nipple, i cut over 1/2 the threads off of it and screwed it into the Neutral Safety Switch hole with some teflon for a tighter seat. I used some 1/4" ID vinyl tubing for a vent/ fill line and ran it up by the tank to a small paper element fuel filter and then ran more tubing out the back of the tractor with one helix to keep water and crap out.







Lots more to update, too lazy. maybe another time.