Ranch King opposed twin - always tinkering.

Alright so it's been a long time since I posted.  I wanted a thread to keep everything I'm doing in one spot, so here goes:

As seen in my old intro thread, this is my little rig (not much changed externally)


First off, it really is uglier in person.

anyway, as noted previously it has a rebuilt carb, much new wiring, starter, solenoid, headlights, ignition switch a bash bar, winch and repaired/customized seat mount.  Oh and a Tachometer

I went on a 6 hour continuous ride with it this way and it ran like a champ, just... slow and with basically no throttle control (see below) beyond clutching an already worn out belt.  I had the biggest motor, and the slowest tractor... depressing state of affairs.  On the plus side the winch worked beautifully.  A buddy "accidentally" backed his JD into a swamp... to the axles, and proceeded to spin the tires for good measure. my tractor pulled him and his tractor out without batting an eyelash.  

Since then I have recently repaired the throttle linkage, which I found out was completely jacked when I went to replace a couple springs.  I mean, it was hooked up backwards... yea, i know, it doesn't make much sense, but is as close to accurate as I can describe.   The end result of that hack job by whoever did it was that it would run, but only at "idle" or "Full throttle"... neither of which were actually full throttle, or idle.  I forget what idle was, but full throttle was 2600RPM...  

Now it purs between 1400 and 3400 RPM, perfect, safe speeds, and cold starts are a breeze.  I know the engine is capable of running upwards of 5k, but I don't want it exploding on me either, so for now I'm happy at 3400.  Maybe i tune it up to 4k at some point later.

Broke my choke cable so I moved it, trimmed it and fashioned a sort of lever/handle.


I drained, flushed and put new fluid in the transaxle... this diarrhea is what came out:  I am going to change it again in a month or so.  



If you suffered through this much, You get a little more interesting tidbit.

I finally got around to the pulley swap.  Took off the big 7" pulley (transaxle) and put a 4" on.  The new 34" belt is on the way.  I plan on tack welding the new pulley in place, since I can't think of a better way to secure the new one on the input shaft, since the oem uses a splined design and the new pulley is a smooth bore.

new rear tires are happening soon, I've been eye-balling the CST 9309 Ambush or STI Black Diamond ATR's.  They're relatively cheap, and get very positive reviews... mostly for ATV's, but w/e.


I also really need to clean up the front wheel setup.  It's complete crap.  This thing is about as tight as a wet noodle. I've been looking at race go-kart hub/spindle setups, but I'm not sure yet.  Those look way too fancy.  I need the same function, with a lot more ugly.  any ideas out there?

front tires will wait until after that is fixed.

Well there you have it.  I hope I've sufficiently wasted at least a couple people's time.  I will keep adding to this as it moves along.

good to see an update. Those twins were supposed to run at 3600 rpm stock, and I crank mine up to about 4500, so 4000 should not be a problem. glad you got the speed problem fixed!

1997 Murray wrote:

good to see an update. Those twins were supposed to run at 3600 rpm stock, and I crank mine up to about 4500, so 4000 should not be a problem. glad you got the speed problem fixed!

Good to hear on the RPMs, yea I knew I was technically on the low end of the governor control range; I dug around on the interwebs and downloaded the repair manuals for the trasnaxle, engine and tractor. at some point I'll get around to tweaking that again to bump it up a little at a time.

The speed thing was a pain to figure out, never having seen a setup like that before. Part of the problem was that the previous owner, or someone, had flipped the throttle control lever, and there are no markings to let anyone know. So for a while I assumed the lever was right and tried to fix it... backwards. Once I had that figured out it went much easier.

Belt is in and I'm going to get in the garage today to weld the pulley in place. I picked up a notched Goodyear belt, BX-31, comparable to a 5L340. Hoping it works out well. I figured I should get better belt grip using that style with the smaller diameter pulley.

I also keep toying with the idea of a gas pedal, but that's going to take a bit of effort to figure out.

Small update. Got the pulley welded in and belt installed; I measured wrong for the belt. Ran to Ace and picked the proper 36".

Test drive? Too fast for my small back yard... damn near ran into a tree. I can go faster in R now than I could in 4th prior to throttle fix and pulley upgrade. Glad I didn't go smaller on the pulley. 4" (down from 7") is perfect. I still need the ability to tow in 1st/2nd.

Incredibly unstable at speed. The front end is all over the place. Going to try simply refreshing the wheel/axles with new bushings, bearings and whatnot first, before going into full rebuild and adding suspension. I'll get more pics up once I get around to that. I should have the parts for the wheels today or tomorrow.

Also did a little cleaning, painting, and removed all the dangly under-carriage bits That I simply had tied up.

yeah I would replace the bushings in the axle, those mtds are bad on bushings.

Nothing major, I really need to get a couple more pics up.  

Clutch pulley on this tractor has 2 positions, it was in the lower one, so moved it up.  Much better that wy, and the belt isn't popping off the pulley.

My spot welds on the drive pulley broke doing a top gear run, so it was time to fully weld it.  

Rebuilt the front wheels with all new bushings... boy what a difference...duh, having the wheels stay straight instead of wobbling all over the place made it a lot more sure footed.  

Going to use the lower pulley on the engine as well, get just a touch more speed now that its actually stable.  All I need to do is get the right belt and remove a bracket that would interfere with the belt path.

Next up is to reinforce the rear plate and hitch.  Then a gas pedal.  I have an extra pedal cluster from a '90 VW Corrado I had planned on using with my project car, but never did; I'm going to scavenge the go-pedal from that and just fab up a bracket for it.  Should be relatively easy (famous last words).

I have a few things to do on my car too... and every time I walk into the garage to work on that, I always end up tinkering on the dammed tractor.  Too much fun!

Oh, Also picking up a second tractor later this month: '90 Monkey Ward's 12hp 7sp.  Not thrilled about the trans, but everything else is solid.  Last ran about a year ago and is coming with chains, a dump cart, 42" deck and a plow.  All I'm paying for are the accessories... $100.
This is a similar one:


Hoping the trans is good and it just needs a solenoid, new plug or a charge.  I know it's coming from a good home.

After cleaning up / replacing bushings and loose tie rod ends and related, if it is still unstable at speed, you might need to change the steering geometry. Having the excessive camber that a lot of lawn tractors use causes a lot of "walking around" at speed. My group runs 0 degrees camber and toe, and positive 10 degrees caster. Pretty sure there is a thread around herd on the subject. Happy building!

TheRainbowBoxer wrote:

After cleaning up / replacing bushings and loose tie rod ends and related, if it is still unstable at speed, you might need to change the steering geometry.  Having the excessive camber that a lot of lawn tractors use causes a lot of "walking around" at speed.  My group runs 0 degrees camber and toe, and positive 10 degrees caster.  Pretty sure there is a thread around herd on the subject.  Happy building!

Thanks for the info. I definitely stalked one of your guys' builds and noted the the straight construction of the axle/hubs. Good clean design; simple, functional and reliable. I didn't even consider caster though. Tie rod ends... guess I should give them a little better inspection. It is a ton better right now though, after just refreshing bushings and bearings.

I know a lot of guys run locked rears, but that seems like it would generate a pretty extreme amount of stress when turning on solid ground. Given that this thing has a peerless 2300, how easy or expensive is it to get a hold of the LSD's that were equipped in the JD's that had them? Or am I over thinking the locker and it's a non-issue..

For the most part locked rear is no issue at all. These machines don't weigh enough to put extreme stress due to turning... Tires will slip enough.

Especially if your running turf tires. Locked rear usually pretty good.

mr.modified wrote:

Especially if your running turf tires. Locked rear usually pretty good.

Turfs are going away soon. The ones on the tractor are dry rotting, front and rear. Just can't decide on the combo, and I need to figure out how to justify it to the wife... $200 for tires to put on a tractor I bought for $75 is going to be a tough sell.

I'll get pics up when I start on the rear hitch bracing and rack support.

Pics! this is some random stuff.  

This is the future gas pedal and locale, just needs a bracket to start testing.


New Drive pulley welded


New seat and bracket:


This is the bracket that needs to be removed in order to use the lower engine pulley. If I like the way it runs on the larger pulley I'll do it properly, and just put a single pulley on tucked up closer to the frame.

Rear plate and hitch reinforcement, part 1:

Stock



Don't know how many of these were built, but having number 35 I think is kinda cool.

Plan:
weld or bolt angle iron around the corners and for the base of the hitch ball mount.  Flat stock support pieces welded to the vertical pieces and the hitch base.  2x1 rectangle tube steel welded to the hitch ball base, drilled for hitch ball.

Angle iron cut and sitting in place:


welded and first cleaning pass:


Next pieces sitting in place. some trimming and a lot of cleaning needed for these scraps:


The angle in the pics makes it look weird,  but the base for the hitch ball is level, the vertical supports aren't actually vertical, and follow the draft angle of the rear plate. Oh, not pictured are the side support pieces, nor the eventual bumper wihich will get added after the hitch part is complete.

My twin boys:

Budding wannabe rednecks and future tinkerers:

Left side gas pedal? Ewwww... To each their own. I'd personally take the time to mod it for right side. Nothing worse than controls that are unusual if you get in a stress/panic situation in the woods.

TheRainbowBoxer wrote:

Left side gas pedal?  Ewwww... To each their own.  I'd personally take the time to mod it for right side.  Nothing worse than controls that are unusual if you get in a stress/panic situation in the woods.

I know but it's backwards anyway, with the clutch and brake already on the right. And swapping those to the left is a much bigger task.

My time is rather precious right now; I only get a couple hours at night a couple days a week. I have to pick and choose what I do carefully.

We used to have a tractor that was backward like that... Worked great until my buddy Chris got confused and ran full speed into the side of his pickup... That kind of convinced us that it was worth the effort / time.

Welded up more of my hitch bracket.  Blew the breaker twice.  most of the welds came out really good.  2 of them were really ugly.  Took longer than I thought to get that done.  The square tube needs to be cut down to size and fully welded.  Then it's time to add a few tabs for attaching a tray/basket before welding the whole assembly to the tractor.

I owe a picture or 2 (left my phone off ALL weekend, and it was lovely), but I changed the design a little bit. Instead of the tube sittg fully on top, I notched it so there's a top piece that sits on top of the L-stock, and the rest of the tube sits against the bottom part of the L-stock. Stronger this way and I won't have to add gussets.

still need to add tabs for attaching a basket, and I need to remove the gas tank so I can weld the whole assembly to that back plate.

just a boring pic. not terribly clean.

I like how you took the time to do a little bit of a lap joint for more support. Need to re do mine like that. Looks plenty strong.

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

I like how you took the time to do a little bit of a lap joint for more support. Need to re do mine like that. Looks plenty strong.

Thanks! yea, one benefit of a slow project is I get plenty of time to let the ideas stew before doing anything. If the bottom piece were tube instead of angle, I would have notched the bottom too, so it was flush, the way I did the front bash bar/winch mount, but doing that on the angle iron I didn't think was worth the effort.

The weakest point now is going to be that angle iron. Not sure if it'll hold the tongue weight of a 1200lb trailer without bending. Thinking of adding gussets on the back side for good measure.

quick little update,

picked up the old Monkey Ward with the transmatic 7-sp.  Haven't had a chance to go through it yet, but I got a spare trasnaxle with it.  Along with Chains, a plow, and a 42" deck.  has a Briggs 12hp.  May jsut get it running and sell it, time will tell.

On the Ranch King, I got a couple hours to build the framework for the basket:



Stronger than it looks, I put about 50 pounds on it and it didn't budge.  Think I'm gonna put a couple more bolts in, then finish off the the whole piece by adding a few welds on the "vertical" pieces.

The new hitch setup works great, pulled my jet skis without complaint. The rack holds a 2.5 gallon gas can and folds up out of the way of the hitch. I opted to bolt the whole assembly to the frame, instead of weld. plenty strong and a lot easier.

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In other news I got the old Monkey Ward running, but clearly not great.  needs carb work, and varidrive work.
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Nice! Any plans for the Monkey Wards yet?