1989 Craftsman GT6000/ craftsman II

scored a FREE diode! so that should be here some time next week! THEN.... oh boy, THEN we swap the executioners on... gotta fab up the front bumper aswell. and re-weld the stud back onto the side panel. i should be good to go now though. other than needing fuel.

yeah I need fuel too.

uh-oh.. what am i up to....



WABLAMO!

all im going to say is its a freaking tank. same thing as on the bolens, it will lock into posi on its own, so i dont think im going to weld it. not yet anyway. i plan on putting something on the stock rims, but this will work for now. little skinnier, but its what ive got. meanwhile, the bolens is sitting in the corner on blocks.. lol

Hmm... Maybe a diesel swap in the future...

ZSmachines wrote:

Hmm... Maybe a diesel swap in the future...

maybe, i DO like the opposed though, i was thinking maybe the bolens would be a good diesel candidate

Haha Yep I waS thinking the same think with my bolens.. Then I put in a 16 ho briggs single and it really has more torque than an Oppy... It is ssssuuuppoeeerrr long legged..

loving those rear tyres

oh, i also picked up a battery tender, since i didnt get that diode yet. idk if the kid even sent it out yet. either way, battery is always getting topped off. picked up a battery tender jr, works great.

If you wanna lock it the way I locked mine I can send yah a gear :p

how did you do yours? im going to see how it does for now, but i might hit you up on that

Heres the thread
I believe this is one of the best ways to lock the high lows because it turns that entire diff into one solid piece of steel and with the size of the teeth on the gears there is little risk of blowing it you will likely blow 2nd or 3rd before you blow the diff... Or like what happened to my old high low youll blow the case.

sweet! yeah, i'll let you know how it goes, i was pulling our walkbehind today, and it was locking up pretty good

Yeah executioners lock pretty good but when your in the mud nothing locks better than the moose knuckle method :p

just a little plug at this-

got it stuck in the snow, deffinatly locking it up, that was not a good time, had it been locked, i would have been fine. also, needing front tires, it just goes straight. i might cut the turfs for now. runs real lean ever since a few days ago, think i need to clean the carb and get a new fuel filter. still waiting on that diode. have to go over the electrical too, killed it once, wouldnt start, so i started chasing connections. couldnt find one, so i ended up just crossing the solenoid. it clicks, so its working, just not getting to the starter. that shouldnt be hard to trace.

went for a snow romp today, mad a sweet oval track in the backyard, crawled some snowbanks, got stuck alot, dug to china a few times. i guess its going to get locked. probably going to be the "Moose Knuckle Method", as that seems the simplest and proven

Pm me your address and I'll get a gear out to yah to lock it up!

went on a trail ride today, went good. belt is starting to slip in 6th gear, so im going to try tightening the idler up, and if that dont work, maybe a new/stronger clutch spring.

front PTO needs to come off, keeps getting hung up on the ice chunks. suprisingly, i didnt get stuck on the ice at all, walked right through! steering gear is starting to skip, and i know it needs a bushing. so im going to get the bushing, and hopefully that fixes it, if i end up taking it appart, it will probably be changed to direct steer.

update on this piggy.

got the new diode, got it installed. battery now charges!! took it for a rip, and it went well, gotta do something with the carb. surges and dies unless you pull the choke out 1/3 of the way. also over the winter, i blew a starter gear. got that changed out too, what an ass ache. i'll have some pics of my work here shortly. still didnt get that gear... *ahem*. moose.. lol.

our big walkbehind mower is OOS right now, so i have to put the mower deck back on the GT for the time being, probably get some sheetmetal as well so i can patch it. hopefully it still fits with the bigger tires. this thing will be one mean mower with those tires on it. oh, also gotta do something about my front tire. constantly going flat..

nother update, got it all put back together today. mower deck is installed, and kinda redneck patched to get me by for now. gotta get a tighter belt and new blades for sure. runs kinda iffy. kinda thinking ive got a coil going bad. runs great when its cold. mowed my yard just fine, then i cut it back to half throttle to try smothing out some ruts my truck made in the driveway. has good power, good torque, not surging or chopping. it will out of the blue randomly fall on its face and die. and it takes FOREVER to start again. i managed to save it once by going WOT and pulling choke, and it ran great for another 10 mins. any ideas what that could be? with it being so random its hard to check for spark. all the safety switches are disconnected so thats out of the question.

so here is the good -
mower deck is on, fits good with the bigger tires, patched some of the holes
battery is charging on its own
runs pretty good

the bad?
randomly dies
front tire still going flat (lazy, havent tubed it)
PTO belt slips
needs oil change
(this is where it gets REAL bad)
uh... im.. im kinda leaking ungodly amounts of tranny fluid..... think its coming from the brake shaft. idk, i could be wrong. havent torn it down yet.
something has some serious slop in the drivetrain. wether its an idler, the clutch or *gulp* input shaft bearing on the tranny...
steering gear is getting pretty bad

here is a pic of it in my shed (YES I FINALLY HAVE A SHED!!!!     )

pissed me off, blew another starter gear. sitting in time out, stole fuel line off it.. oops. gonna push it in the shed and probably pull the tranny in the coming weeks, going to build a workbench first.. on an upside, i was suprised with a package today! Mr. MOOSE sent me out one a few months ago, got lost in the mail, so we tried again with UPS, and this one worked! He sent me another gear to lock the transaxle! the 'Moose Knuckle' locker. so while im in there replacing bearings and seals, might as well lock it up!

Got one of these im working on myself, its one of the slightly newer dark gray GTs. Ive been thinking about locking the trans but i dont wanna weld it. Didnt know there was a way to do it with an extra gear.

I think the engine running problems are coil related. All the oppys I own I have had to replace the coil, and then they ran great.

Hossman wrote:

Got one of these im working on myself, its one of the slightly newer dark gray GTs. Ive been thinking about locking the trans but i dont wanna weld it. Didnt know there was a way to do it with an extra gear.

No-weld locker seen HERE courtesy to Moose

Holy cow thats simple! Thanks for the link. I will definately be locking my axle when i finally get enough time to really dig into the tractor and get to work.

Lock that lil piggy and posi dem tires :V when you take it apart make sure you take the brake hub off its a lot easier to reassemble with the shaft out