Westwood T1200 Offroad/Utility tractor

Hi,

About 4-5 years ago, I bought a Rally Lawn tractor. However, the previous owner had let it stay outside and the body was rotten. At about that time I also had the body of a Westwood T1200 sitting around so I`m planning on making my own chassis to replace the old rusted and cracked Rally chassis and to fit the Westwood body.


I removed the plastics from the hood, as they were bent and I wanted the classic "square" look with rectangle lights at the front

This is what the front of the hood looks like without the plastics. I plan to bend some steel plate around that big gap and insert head lights there

Here is my box of parts for this build

I will be using the 12hp briggs and a peerless Mst-205 transaxle.

More updates to come shortly.

Sounds neat and what are you going to make the frame out of?

Timrsnakess wrote:

Sounds neat and what are you going to make the frame out of?

Thanks and probably 1.5" box section

Anyway, here are a few pictures:

There was quite a bit of rain fell today so I decided to put the hood outside and get it cleaned


This is the Rally chassis, gearbox, wheels and motor.

This is the Westwood Body, which will get cleaned up.


That is all for now.

Pretty good condition. graphics and all. would look cool just the way it is or maybe decals taped and re spray. Never the less, good progress.

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Pretty good condition. graphics and all. would look cool just the way it is or maybe decals taped and re spray. Never the less, good progress.

Yeah. I was thinking about painting it red and silver but I`m not sure.

So I`ve had a few thoughts,

My Uncle has lawn tractor rear rims and tyres that he`ll give me for free so I`m thinkin' I could use the chevron tyres for the back and turf tyres for the front, using 8 inch rims. Thoughts?

Also, do I need direct steering? I`d like to leave it alone for simplicities sake but what do you experts think?

I had a few thoughts about the Fuel System. I was thinking that under the hood, there would be a small fuel tank, but on the rear rack I`m thinking of having, there would be a spare tank. So what do you think about that?

Thunderdivine wrote:

You don't NEED direct steering, especially for a mudder. But I never seen how good or bad the steering are on those Westwoods.

I think it`s made by MTD. Not sure though.

What thunder said. Although at speed you want something better. You could eliminate some slop by replacing bushings and using heim joints instead of the ball joints. If you go the direct steer route its pretty easy to make.

So,

I`ve decided I`m going to keep the single pulley clutch on there as stock for now. I`m also going to make the hood detachable like FF`s Murray but I`d like to have lights on the hood so how would I have that and still make the hood come off.

I`ve got the tranny off and a 4 inch pulley on.

My camera is broken so no pics at the minute.

Hi, is anyone even looking at this thread?

Anyway, I`ve decided to enter this into the build off so no more updates until then.

But in the mean time, I have been doing a little bit of work, mainly on the motor and collecting parts/ideas.

Some of the parts on this 12hp Briggs motor are from a spare 8hp Briggs that I have.
The Starter motor is from the 8 horse, I`m gonna be using parts of the exhaust to build a cool one that isn`t a straight pipe. I`m gonna be using the pully set-up cos it`s really neat.

However, moving onto the carb side of things, the original 2 piece one is shot, so I`m using the 1 piece 8hp Briggs one. Don`t know if that`s good or not but it`s goin' on!

Anyway, I knew that the carb had been on a running engine about 4 months ago and won`t need much work. However, I opened it up and found this!

I`m surprised that the engine ran with this carb! So I`m looking on advise for cleaning it, I`ve heard that boiling water and sugar or boiling water and baking powder are really good cleaners.

Just for a side note, I was trying to remove the exhaust off the motor, but the allen bolts are circle inside and really rusty. It`s too wide to cut a slot in and insert a flat screw driver. What do I do??????

Please HELP!

Got vice grips? You can try to get the allens out like that. Or if you have a welder, weld a nut or something to it to get the upper hand

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Got vice grips? You can try to get the allens out like that. Or if you have a welder, weld a nut or something to it to get the upper hand

I've tried to get them out using vise grips but it doesn`t work. Welding a nut or another bolt onto it is a good idea.

Right so haven`t had anymore time to work on it but I`m wondering, does anyone know the settings for the 2 mixture screws on a 1 piece 8-12hp carb?

You could try torching the bolt and mist it with some water. Sometimes it breaks the thread gunk up enough to turn it out

MatthewD wrote:

Right so haven`t had anymore time to work on it but I`m wondering, does anyone know the settings for the 2 mixture screws on a 1 piece 8-12hp carb?

you turn it in until it seats lightly, and back it out 1 1/2 turns. start it and run it, and adjust them slightly until it runs good.

1997 Murray wrote:

you turn it in until it seats lightly, and back it out 1 1/2 turns. start it and run it, and adjust them slightly until it runs good.

Ah thanks. On saturday, I should be getting my steel, ready to start on Sunday. I get my metal from my uncle for free which is fortunate.

So, got some questions to ask you guys regarding tyres.

I have 2 really good 18" Ags on 8" rims, which I would like to keep and I`m sure I could get my hands on 2 18" turf tyres and 8" rims for free. So, the options

1) Do I go for 18" turfs on front and 18" Ags on back?

2) 18" Ags on front, 20" plus quad tyres on 8" rim on back?

3) Turfs on front, 20" plus quad tyres on back?

I would kinda like to keep this build costs down 'cos I`m still at school, so ATM I'd go for option 1, but gimme some suggestions