MasonMcK's Massey Snow/Offroad Rig AKA "The Mule"

Here's some pics of the belt drive system. I think I know how to get rid of the varidrive and convert it to a normal belt drive system. I'm just going to remove all the variator linkages, put a double stack V-belt idler pulley on the 3/4" mid shaft in place of the variable drive sheave, and a regular pulley on the front and back. Think I'm going to go with 4" front, 4" mid, and 4" rear for now for a 1:1 belt ratio. I'll adjust pulley size from there as I see fit.

I also need to weld up the tensioner linkages in several spots and redrill the holes to get rid of all the slop, and combined with a heavier spring I think I should have no belt slippage. The clutch will still disengage the belts like it did before, just no variator will be there.

Let me know if you think this will work before I buy anything. And I will need to find a double stack pulley with identical size belt grooves, that has bearings for a 3/4" shaft, and the entire pulley needs to be about 3.5" long. 4" diameter.  If I can't find one (no luck so far) I'm thinking I'll have to weld two idlers together and balance them. Not really looking forward to that. So please let me know if you know of anywhere where I could find something like that.

Thanks

Well there's 15 days left to finish. Sure is gonna be tight for me between school and the lack thereof of daylight hours in the evening. 

Still left on my list to finish is: 

Install new seat 

Install the lights

Bolt dash down for good 

Finish stinger bar 

Modify belt tensioner

Make flag mount

Build snorkel

Paint all the red tins red, and the rear rims and the engine silver

Install new decals 

Last but not least take it over to my friends house to film it in its natural habitat.

You'll get it done. Lookin' good so far! Keep at it!

Interesting how the belts are run outside the frame like that. Gives some more room to change things around. Good luck making the deadline.

mr.modified wrote:

Interesting how the belts are run outside the frame like that. Gives some more room to change things around. Good luck making the deadline. 

Thanks! Yeah so far I was able to add a spacer to my tensioner to stop the belt slippage and I didn't have to use any tools to get to it. So that's kinda nice. 

RevDogg wrote:

You'll get it done. Lookin' good so far! Keep at it!

Thanks! I hope to finish everything on my checklist by the deadline. If not I'll submit what I have but I want to get it as good as I can get it. 


So today I didn't get much done but I ordered my new decals, and then mounted up my new seat and my 12" light bar. Hopefully tomorrow I'll make it to the TSC to pick up my last tail light and I'll also be getting my hood back from being welded so I'll mount up the rest of my lights and build the wiring for it. Besides decals I'm just waiting on my new reproduction hood bezel to be shipped. Will be prepping the parts tomorrow for paint and hopefully will start spraying paint by Friday.

Let there be light!! Got my two 35w halogen headlights mounted in my new hood and wired up along with my 12" light bar. Tomorrow I will finish up the wiring back to my tail lights and will hopefully get the last tail light soon. TSC only stocks one at a time and they take forever to restock them. Might have to order it to the store. My decals and hood bezel STILL haven't arrived but they SHOULD be here by Monday at the latest. Well that's all for this update. Well other than me getting a set of jumper cables to keep in the tool box, and some of the PVC for my snorkel. 

EDIT: moderators: if someone can rotate the image the correct way that would be great. I have no idea why it kept ending up upside down. I tried uploading it the correct way and upside down but it always ends up like this. Thanks.

Despite the harsh cold 45 degrees out today (felt like 30 with the wind lol) I managed to get my lights wired up. I have a 3 position rotary switch along with a two position toggle switch. The first position on the rotary switch is off. The second switches power to the regular head lights (low beams) and the tail lights. The third position switches power to the light bar (medium beams) and the tail lights. Then I added the toggle switch so I can switch the regular head lights on while the switch is in the 3rd position so I have all of the lights on, for my high beams. 

After getting the lights hooked up, I went to look up the recommended points gap for the Kirk Engines Points Saver ignition system and discovered that my ignition system is now "obsolete"... Lol. They're coming out with a brand new system to replace it so I will upgrade to that when it comes out just to see how it is. Story aside tho, I got my points adjusted and the carb retuned... Yet again... And it's running beautifully. After getting it running great again, I started to strip the paint off my hood. I'm really gonna have to rush to get this all done.

Lights look pretty bright.

mr.modified wrote:

Lights look pretty bright. 

Yeah they'll shine a good quarter mile in an open field. Pretty good too for a $45 light bar. 

Well my hood bezel finally arrived. I'll admit I was expecting too much, so I wasn't too pleased with it at first, but now I'm much more happy with it after thinking about how much time the guy spent to make it as good as it is. Especially for being completely hand made. 

So my decals should be here tomorrow and I will be continuing to strip the paint off. I get off school on Wednesday so I hope to have it painted by Friday; the final bugs worked out on Saturday, and then going on a nice hard romp on Sunday to get a good video and some pics for the end of the build off. Now to post videos do I need to upload them to YouTube or can I just upload them like pics?

Oh and here she is as of now:

Lookin good!! The stance with how you did the tires and raising the back pan worked out great.

prancstaman wrote:

Lookin good!! The stance with how you did the tires and raising the back pan worked out great.

Thanks! I myself am really happy with how the stance turned out. The only thing that is a little annoying about how wide it sets is the fenders only cover about 3 inches of the 12 inches of tire tread. So the other 9 inches are left slinging mud all over me. Tho I like how it looks too much to try to make fender flares but maybe sometime in the future.

Well I've been working from 9:00 am to 11:00 pm the past few days to get this finished. I got everything to be painted sanded down to bare metal, primered, and painted. All four rims got painted two-tone silver with red centers. Tomorrow morning all that is left to do is respray my hood, put on my decals, put it back together, and load it up to take it to my buddies house to make a new tensioner arm, and test it out and get a good video and some pics in the mud pit.

'We're here at the MasonMcK garage where the team has been working around the clock to get the massey mule finished in time for the closing of the 2015 ATLTF build-off. The word is that they will be ready for a test run by late tomorrow and should have no issue in making the deadline, which as we know is fast aproaching. There's has been some debate as to the exact cut off point for turning in your final pictures and videos, but as far as we know, this should be midnight monday night."

Well guys, due to some climate-inflicted paint issues, I will not be able to take it for a video-ed test run today. However I have the hood repainted, and the rest of the tractor back together. Tomorrow afternoon I will get the hood installed, decals applied, and get a good video of it rock crawling on things around my house. Maybe next weekend after the paint has fully cured I will take it thru some deep mud but the paint has turned out too nice to mess it up while it is still hardening. 

And as you can see I kinda like Corvettes... lol.

its looking awesome i hope you can finish her in time!

Good job!! Should look like a show stopper.

redzz02 wrote:

its looking awesome i hope you can finish her in time!

prancstaman wrote:

Good job!! Should look like a show stopper.

Thanks guys! I'm very happy with how the paint has turned out even with the constant rain for the past few days.

Here's some teasers of how the hood is turning out... under fluorescent lighting too... 

Chassis:
Year: 1967
Make: Massey Ferguson
Model: MF-10
Rear tires: 26x12.00-12 Kenda Executioner 6 ply; 12x7” rims
Front tires: 18x8-8 Rhox Rxal; 8x5.5” rims
Transmission make/model: Peerless 2300 series 4 speed + reverse
Brakes: 4-1/6” drum w/ brake band (Modified engagement arm for more leverage)
Clutch: Modified clutch-brake linkage for shifting on the fly without brake engagement
Belt tensioner: Redesigned tensioner arm w/high load spring for eliminated belt slippage in water
Front engine pulley: 4” diameter v-belt
Rear transmission pulley: 5” diameter v-belt
Top speed: 16 mph in 4th gear, varidrive position 5, at 4500 rpm

Engine:
Make: Tecumseh
Model: HH100
Bore:   3.500” (Bored for STD size HH120 piston)
Stroke: 2.875” (HH120 crank)
Intake and exhaust mods: Ported & polished, 3 degree valve job, double wound valve springs
Cam: Custom welded & reground high speed torque cam
Cylinder head: Milled .080”, then valve pockets cut
Piston: Diamond with coating
Rod: Forged Aluminum Alcoa long rod for .020” piston pop-out
Block: Bottom of cylinder clearanced for longer rod and longer stroke
Exhaust: Side exit straight pipe exiting under right hand floor board
Intake: Snorkel w/ K&N filter element
Misc mods: Performance built carburetor, modified breather, grade 8 head bolts,
Magneto to transistorized battery igniton conversion, Bosch Blue high performance ignition coil,
Kirk-Engine’s Points saver, precision spin balanced internals. EST hp is 21 hp on 93
octane @ 4500 rpm

Winch:
Brand: Traveler
Size: 2500LB rating

Electrical system:
Charging: 17 amp starter/generator; charges @ 16 volts
Batteries: Dual, Huskee 320 CCA each batteries, wired in parallel
Headlights: Hi/Med/Low beams
Taillights: Four round taillights arranged Corvette style
Misc info: All brand new hand built wiring enclosed in looms, all brand new electrical components,
push start button, winch controller mounted on implement lift lever




Total hours invested: Too many to count. (Prep work & painting alone took 42 hours)

Total amount of money invested since purchased: $3200

Worth it? Every second and every cent of it

More information & specs can be provided upon request.

Here's some pics and a short video (can't upload longer videos due to data cap) of me driving it to show it's functionality:









This build is now complete... well for the purposes of the build off that is...

Here's a better pic of the finished hood. I'm not too sure if I like the angry eyes yet or not.

it looks great! congrats on the great work and good luck!