1997 Murray's DIESEL Craft Quad II [2016 Build-Off Entry]

The latest lame build from the garage of 1997 murray.... The Craft Quad II. It will be a general romper/mudder/ trail machine. I hope to keep up with quads, so the goal is 35 to 40 mph. It will have a 18hp briggs oppy for the moment, and I will have to figure out a way to change the engine pulley so I can get to that speed, because the engine pulley is bolted to the flywheel. I may have to make my own pulley on the lathe. I will give you guys a list of mods here.

-front bumper
-rear rack/bumper
-front winch
-lift front axle 2"
-lock rear end
-maybe 25" front tires
-definitely 22" front tires
-foot throttle  
-750cca battery
-maybe shaved heads by .030"
-custom exhaust, need ideas.
-maybe side bars to keep stickers off my legs
-upgraded lighting
-25" kenda bearclaw rear tires
-MAYBE atv carb so as to avoid oppy flooding/poor running with non adjusible main jet carb.
-snorkel, as high as possible under the hood, so it doesn't stick out and look funny.
-DIESEL yanmar 8hp clone, 3" exhaust
-paint, most likely red and black

Here are some more pics.

I got a cupon for an HF winch so i'm going to hf today to get a 2500lb winch

I also found a bumper for the front and I am working on a lift kit with a seat spring on each side of the axle to keep it from tipping and to solidify the front end some.

Got my bumper, 2" lift and 21" front tires. Got the HFT winch installed and wired up. I bought some lights, haven't figured out how to mount them yet.
















It needs bigger rears lol

Nice! I think it looks better with the smaller front tyres on

What are those springs from on the front axle? Is the axle still held with the center bolt?

mr.modified wrote:

What are those springs from on the front axle? Is the axle still held with the center bolt?

They are seat springs from a craftsman. They are held in with a deck linkage spring, and the axle is still held with the center bolt, these just keep it from articulating too far, I had it roll on me on a side hill after I lifted it (cause the axle stops when it hits the frame, and the frame was 2" higher) and they just help stabilize the front end.

Built a gas pedal. direct throttle, positive stop at full throttle. First for me that isn't a bike brake handle lol.

Pulled the trans out and locked it, and I am modding the pulley by cutting the center out of a 5" pulley and the center of this one and welding the center into the 5" so I can go faster. I'm cutting them out on a late so they will be straight and not wobble hopefully. Also got an air filter on it.

Splined axles on that trans? Pretty neat, guess those hubs aren't going anywhere.

nice build my roper has the same frame its well built but the steering is annoying, and my transaxle has a splined shaft too and they are not fun to get off when they get rusty...

mr.modified wrote:

Splined axles on that trans? Pretty neat, guess those hubs aren't going anywhere.

yeah, they started making them that way on I think 76 and later 3 speed hi/lo transaxles at roper. They shouldn't shear a key lol, but they were a bit of a pain to break loose. Luckily, someone had been in it before and had put never-seize on all the shafts and splines. The input pulley came of easy too, the other one I have I couldn't get it off for the life of me.

I got the pulleys cut and welded. Got to go home and put it on.

Got the pulley on, belt fitted, took it for a spin.... wow. I got it up to around 20. I didn't think it would bring the speed up that much. still looking to go faster though.

That mower is quite large and impressive! 20 mph? Im a canadian so 20 could be mph or kmh lol. But still quite impressive!

20 MPH. think that's about 35kmh.

hey do you think you could try to get a picture of the belt setup for me ? thanks. im trying to figure out how mine used to work because i got it without an engine so i never saw the original factory belt setup...

I will try to soon, sorry I havn't been able to spend much time on any tractors or the internet in a while. Try searching google for an image in the meantime.

So an update, I was driving it and the belt snapped, probably because I had it laying around off some dead mower I drug home, so I went and bought a new belt, and haven't got the chance to put it on. I have been working from 8 to 6 for 6 days a week every week for 4 weeks now so I haven't had much time to do anything to it. I hope to get some square tube and build a rear rack and bumper for it, and then work on paint.

I got to drive it a bit today, it needs a rear rack and bigger tires, and after that I think some paint and it will be good to go. and I'm banned from the shop for a while, got in trouble with the father.

Well bad news guys, I decided not to build a oppy for it. I decided to go diesel instead. 296cc rated for 8hp, 13ft-lb. bad generator head.

Cool man! I love diesels!

Yeah thanks, diesels have been growing on me. I have a shaft thing from a kohler vtwin that bolts to the flywheel, so i'm going to use that cause the tractor is designed to run off the front of the engine, and the shaft on the motor is tapered so I can't use that. But we'll see. Got the engine out.

I decided to run the belt like the old sears tractors and get rid of the twisty belt setup, and run a pulley on the tapered shaft. Don't yell at me, but I fired the engine up and fired up my grinder and ground the shaft down a little bit making the shaft small enough to get a 1" taper lock pulley on it. I got the engine mounted and wired, I replaced the glow plug with a hose fitting so I could run my vacuum operated fuel pump. It runs ok but its externally governed and I removed it so it doesn't idle without me playing with the throttle to keep it going. But its only a minor problem. The video should be up shortly.

Nice! Do you have to press the decompression valve on the engine every time you start it or is the battery strong enough to turn it over? What's that orange briggs in the background of the first pic?