Aaron Von Frankenstein

I do wish we had a "Utility" builds section in the builds section of the forum. This "general section" is the only place I think my builds fit.

Ok, so next up is going to be a frankenstein build. I am not necessarily going to name the build Frankenstein, nor even Aaron Von Frankenstein. But that is certainly a good name for the build thread!   

I am starting with an ariens tractor. I like that the frame is all one piece front to back.



I will stretch this frame backwards, and move the transaxle backward with it. So that the wheels are behind the driver, and not directly beneath.

Looks like I will put the engine from the beast onto this. Plus the wheels/tires. (If I can get the wheels/tires off of this one, They are rusted on.)

Probably going to stick with the hydro trans on this.

The console there in the middle is all beat up. Big pieces broken off. And someone tack welded it down in several places, instead of just trying to fix it after a wreck. I'll probably cut it off, at the least. Then either repair and replace, or I'll build something different. There is no hood, anyway. So maybe I'll try working with one of the consoles off the other tractors. I'll probably try to work in the gas tank from the whams. So the whams console may be the one I try to work with.

Plans for this...

Stretch it.
Widen it.
Battery out front.
Lights.
Alternator.
Air compressor.
Winch.
Tow points front and back.
Homemade clutch.
Separate brake function.
Foot throttle.

Who knows what else.

sounds like a solid plan!

The person who invented carriage bolts should be shot, dragged behind a horse, drowned, hung, drawn and quartered, and then shot again!

I have taken more time taking off two, 7/16 carriage bolts, than the entire time it took me to test and then remove the engine!!! And I have two more to go! I may just grind them off.

lol carriage bolts....

I'm interested in seeing how you make this one longer and wider.

i moved your thread to the offroad/rally section, cause that is where it fits best. i think they have discussed a utility section, but not enough people build true utility tractor's

I modified the pulling section since it wasnt being used anyways. Viva la Revolution!

https://www.atltf.com/f49-utility-tractor-project-builds

Thank you Richie and Doug!!

Well, here she is, all stripped down.


Well, not completely. I'll have to remove the trans next, to begin to figure out a plan for stretching it. The wheels are rusted on. They don't even have clips holding them on. So the trans will come off with the wheels intact. When it comes time to widen it, they'll have to come off.

But I can't do that until I can afford the parts to do it with, anyway. The most important parts will be a couple of 3/4" pillow blocks. And I'll look at installing some kind of exterior brakes while I am at that, as well.

The steering wheel would not come off. I may have to cut the shaft and then weld it back together. That, or cut it and then make a new sleeve to put it back together again.

The console is a complete loss. I'm not sure how I'll rebuild that.

Looks like it's a good choice to keep this steering setup. It does have some slack, but it looks to me like it is the only one that I have a chance of fixing and solidifying for either free, or little cost.

The largest piece of upright metal you see by the steering shaft, can be taken off of there. There is some extra hardware underneath the frame that will have to come off, as well.

I still haven't investigated why the passenger side front wheel is loose on the axle. The driver side is solid enough.

The frame does seem mostly intact. There are places where I am going to have to sand it down, and treat it for rust, but I think overall it's pretty solid.

It's a good start.

Angchor wrote:

I still haven't investigated why the passenger side front wheel is loose on the axle. The driver side is solid enough.

bearing prob trashed

Ok, trans is off.

Here is what I am working with.


If you take off the bolts that I have pointed to with red arrows, and the two on the other side that you can't see in the pic... That entire end piece comes off as one piece.

It looks to me like if I do that, then all I have to do is to extend the frame itself as far as I want to, then put that end piece back on. Drill holes for the trans brackets... And Bob's yer uncle!

Not sure at the moment if I am going to try to go with bolting pieces on, or welding them.

I'll probably go for minimal welding, and otherwise, just bolt stuff.

I suspect that I'll use the two remaining pieces of unistrut that I have. Bolt those in for plenty of length. Then bolt on some plate steel that I have that is pretty close to a perfect match to the frame. Then weld where needed for extra strength.

Also, I don't want to have to try to size and buy a belt. So I may put the frame up on blocks... Set the engine from the beast in place... Then experiment with belts I have, to see just how far back I'll need to move the trans, so that I can use brand new belts I already have.

A bit more work right now, may save lots of headache and delay, down the line.

Lunchtime! I'll head back out later...

Another pic to illustrate what will be removed and moved backerds...

The end piece is colored in green. I also held up a tape measure to give some idea of scale.

I decided to strip this all the way down to bare frame. If I am going to make a frankenstein build, it is the same as a build from scratch. And if I am going to build from scratch then I might as well R&R everything along the way.

Gonna clean the frame. Take off whatever rust I can. Treat the rust with a chemical agent that changes iron oxide, (rust), into iron phosphate. That will seal the metal and will prevent it from rusting again. I have no idea whether I will bother to paint it or not. Paint and foo-foo looks never meant much to me. Utility is the game. If it works and is reliable, it is a beauty, to me.

This is the underside of the frame where the console was on top. The worst of the rust on the frame is in this area. Because the battery was there. It leaked down and the leaks corroded everything they came in contact with.



One thing I noticed here is that it is going to be possible to swap the clutch pedal over from the right, to the left. Easy-peasy. Using the factory stuff. Can you see why?

This was on hold for most of the week.

Had other things to do. For one, I was recovering from the last crash. LOL

For another, I had to come up with some kind of compression tank for my house water system. Without a pressure tank, the pump was working too hard. Tripping the breaker, constantly.

I re-purposed an old water heater tank to be my new pressure tank, and all is well!

Since the tractor frame was up on sawhorses, it became my workbench while I worked out the plumbing fittings. LOL

~~~~~~~

Today, I finished stripping the tractor frame down. I was going to leave some stuff bolted on, but decided to just get all the way down to bare frame.

I am about halfway finished with wirewheeling the entire frame. Once done, I'll treat it with some rust-pho. And then get to taking the engine off of the old craftsman tractor. Hopefully by tomorrow, I'll be able to mock up the engine and trans on the frame, to see how far back I can move the trans.

Trying not to have to buy a new belt. But at this time it is looking like I may have to buy a new belt if I want to move it back far enough to make any real difference. I believe the longest one I have is 93 inches. Do they make them over 100"?

Nothing much else to report.

TSC has em up to 107" maybe a lil mor. I know of belts of up to over 200 for harvesters. But a jach shaft would fix all of belt lingth problems. Alot of big decks with two belts have a jackshaft made on them that bolt to the deck. Bolt it under the mower an boom your dun.

CornShuck4CE wrote:

TSC has em up to 107" maybe a lil mor. I know of belts of up to over 200 for harvesters. But a jach shaft would fix all of belt lingth problems. Alot of big decks with two belts have a jackshaft made on them that bolt to the deck. Bolt it under the mower an boom your dun.

Been thinking about a jackshaft.

Not too hard, because I need to build this with things I have on hand.

But since you bring it back up again... I do have at least one pulley with a bearing, and a one inch bore. Possibly two of the same size. That could be turned into a jackshaft.

And... The vari-drive pulley from the whams, could be turned into a jackshaft.

So there you go. I'll keep that possibility in mind, as well. Thank you.

The vari-drive would work great if you welded the center disk so it wont move. Or you could put a lever on it where it would work as a high low range selecter eather in 7th or 1st with a gear trans would be great. Been considering this in my murray. But would do great as a jackshaft.

CornShuck4CE wrote:

The vari-drive would work great if you welded the center disk so it wont move. Or you could put a lever on it where it would work as a high low range selecter eather in 7th or 1st with a gear trans would be great. Been considering this in my murray. But would do great as a jackshaft.

Only problem I have with using the vari drive is that I think it was the weak link on the whams. Lots of slippage. And that is with 5/8 belts. This will use 1/2" belts.

I'm leaning toward using the two pulleys that used to be electric clutch pulleys.

One is still a part of it's clutch, and so I am loathe to tear that possibly good electric clutch apart to try this.

But if I do... they both have bearings. and they are both 1" bore. I'd have to find a 1" shaft for them. Then I'd have to mount the pulleys on the shaft, then bolt them through, to each other.

Wish I had one of those deck jackshafts like you described. That would be ideal. Already set up. Just bolt it on and go. I'll keep my eyes open. It'll be a while before I am ready for that.

Do what ya gotta do. I have one of those jackshafts at home ill get a pic and post it for ya to know what to look for

Ok here is the jackshaft it has the bearings out to get them replaced. But this came off an old murray the one in the background. AKA oldtimer. 


This jackshaft didnot have a blade on it but some do. I also have one on a 46" murray deck 
That has two pulleys on it whith a blade on it but would work the same.

Thank you!

Those would certainly work!


I got the entire frame wire brushed. (Wire wheel on a 4-12" grinder)

And then treated the entire thing with rust-pho.

Tomorrow I'll start sanding and treating the stuff that needs to be bolted back on. And I'll get the engine off of the craftsman.

I MIGHT paint the frame before I do anything else to it.

I like to save paint for last. That way, if you drill new holes you can get the inside of them too to prevent rust.

Doug Fackler wrote:

I like to save paint for last. That way, if you drill new holes you can get the inside of them too to prevent rust.

Makes sense!

Ok, I got the engine situated on the frame. Loosely bolted on.

Ran the belt. Using the existing engine pulley. I'd like to put a larger one on.

Here is the result.


The bottom half of the pic of course, is the trans sitting where it would be if I just put everything back together again.

I get 9-1/2" of stretch. And that is using a smaller engine pulley than I want to use.

I want more stretch.

I guess tomorrow I'll be experimenting to see what kind of jackshaft I can come up with. And what kind of belts I have to work with.

If I can't figure anything better out, then I guess I'll be going with this.

I guess you can see the difference easier, if the short one is on top.

I wouldnt go larger on the engine pulley, if you spin the hydro faster you will not go faster, well a little faster but not much. but it will build much more heat and possibly hurt the transmission

Creepycrawler wrote:

I wouldnt go larger on the engine pulley, if you spin the hydro faster you will not go faster, well a little faster but not much. but it will build much more heat and possibly hurt the transmission

The engine is off the beast. It has a smaller pulley than the engine that was originally paired with the hydro.

Even if I go with the same size that is on the original engine, or a bit larger... That is still going to pull the trans forward some.

Still not exactly sure what I am going to do for a jackshaft, (Or belts.), but that is what I will be looking at today.

If I don't find any combination of things that I have here, that makes me happy... Then I'll probably just order a larger belt and wait for it to get here, before proceeding.

Probably work on getting the wheels off, and working on the hydro itself, while I am waiting on the belt. Maybe see what it would take to widen this thing a bit.

I'd really like to get this thing backward at least a foot and a half. I'd be happier with at least two feet.

Supposed to be a real hot one today, so I may not get much done...

Aaaand... By the end of the day, I may have just decided to go with what I have, and started bolting and welding. LOL We'll see...

I decided to actually bolt things up and see what real affect I would have by stretching it as far as I can.

Here is how I stretched it by bolting.


So far, that is just bolted together with a couple pieces of unistrut. Before I am finished, I will cut some flat stock, and weld in the sides and some around the top, to make it one solid piece.


I don't have any pics that compare the difference very well. Here is the best I have been able to put together.



It's actually 10-1/2".

I don't like it. I wanted those wheels even farther back. But I am going to accept it because this at least gets the wheels back as far as they are on the ATVs that I have seen the last couple of days.

I need to get on with this. Not wait around for a longer belt.


Next up, getting the wheels off so I can get to welding and strengtheing this.