"Ryf" GT Build [2016 Build-Off Entry]

I got this murray for $50, I want the motor, maybe the seat, thats about it lol, I plan on making a custom frame, custom front axle, and a hood since the one with this mower was, and I quote "run over" by the P.O., but a running motor for $50 bucks and enough pulleys and spare parts to make what I need, sounds like a plan to me.

I have 2 820's currently, the one in the pick is semi functioning, the other is functioning but has the axles cut back, so I will be making 1 good from 2 I hope. I want to do either a Solid axle mod, or a secondary axle with sprockets and chains, the big plan is to make the frame "modular" by making it out of C channel with Unistrut welded to it offset, so you can still use the holes for tabbing things in. this means when I screw something up I can just make new mounts and all and tear the bad creation off, no excessive grinding and cutting to get back to square one. I plan to use this as a work horse mostly, move trailers around the yard, run a bucket pushing snow or tilled dirt, and tow my agrifab tiller.








I will be cutting this machine below up, its what the other 820 is in, its about a decade old at this point and is no longer running, the transaxle is good, the motor is not, the frame is a waste of energy lol, plus I have a Rail buggy now, so I dont need a Micro buggy.



(images are clickable)
p.s. if this entry doesnt work for you guys that's ok, just move it over to the utility build thread!

I looked at a couple pics of the buggy on photobucket. Where'd that rack and pinion come from? Did the thing handle pretty good?

mr.modified wrote:

I looked at a couple pics of the buggy on photobucket. Where'd that rack and pinion come from? Did the thing handle pretty good?

Once we put the suzuki quad front end on it was amazing, the only shortcoming was the tecumseh engine was mostly stock, so when the rpms went up it "too high" would float the valves and breath fire.

that rack was designed for vw rail buggies, it will likely make it to the new build, the a-arms and spindles might as well, it felt very safe at 50ish mph, the brakes on the new rig will be automotive rotor from an Audi and rear caliper from a 1992 pontiac gand prix, I'm going to use the ebrake lever as my actuator, the original buggy rig used the front rotor and caliper off a ford fiesta, worked ok, but hydraulics that big take alot of space, because I plan to use this to tug my 3500lb axle trailer around the yard, I want to be able to stop.

I have some good plans in store, honestly I'm not sure I can finish it by the deadline, but I'm hoping the deadline helps me focus on it to get there as soon as possible, i need a snow plow this winter!

Well good luck with it!

mr.modified wrote:

Well good luck with it!

Thanks!!

Today I got into the snubbed 820, chocolate milk and all, I dont know what was in it, when I got it a decade ago I topped it off with lucas transmission additive, mostly because it was thick, and wouldnt leak, its sat for about 7 years, some of that time was outside, so I thought it best to give it a overhaul... I dont have picks, mostly because I was too dirty to do anything with my phone, but I'm sure you can picture yoohoo all over the floor. once split I threw it all in my parts washer, and hosed it down religiously, which went from a fresh purple to an also albeit much thinner color brown, that stuff was gross, lol. I pulled all the bearings apart and relubed with lucas, I like it because its thick, much like engine assembly lube, but cheaper, and in bigger quantities.

I broke into the diff and realized its nothing like the one doc weld-less straight axled, and even though I think I could do it, its not happening for the purposes of this build, since the other 820 appears to be rusted up on the pulley and one axle, it might have to be a chain drive. I got the diff all clean and sprayed down with wd-40 then refilled it with guess what? more lucas! The transaxle was put back together with blue rtv (mostly cuz I had it) it went back together nice. After waiting a little while for the rtv to set up I filled it up with 80/90w and the rest of the lucas in the bottle.

So even though I have no pics for this update, mostly because I made a disgusting mess of it and didn't want to ruin my phone, I made headway in the planning and I'm reconsidering welding the unistrut to the channel, if I just use the unistrut, and copy the sheetmetal outline of the tractor (adding a little length) I think I will have more options down the road, and less to work around. 14g channel steel should be plenty strong to make a frame from, places where trans mounts and other parts will be welded and boxed so there wont be much to fight.

I'm planning to put the transmission in front of the seat, so the shifter will come straight up, way less complicated linkage, just a rod up to a bushed handle, simple but effective. the chains will run back to the axle, they will be size 60 chains, I had tried the original buggy with size 40 chains and I broke them fairly regularly, the machine would just pull them apart if you gassed it hard in a low gear. Im going to weld on a weld on hub, then weld the sprocket to that so if I need to change gearing its only a grinder away, sacrificial lamb if you will.

that wraps up my update, thanks for reading, hope I've not put you to sleep.

This is the 820 I will be using


this is what my watered down purple power looked like after cleaning it


This was my first idea about mounts for the transaxle


this is the mocked up current plan, this plate will also hold the pillow blocks, modular!









not alot to say about it, got a little done anyway, thanks for looking.I will be scavenging the steering support and dash area from the murray, this also holds the fuel tank, I have some less tall unistrut, I will be using this to in effect box in the belt drive area, will also give me places to mount body panels, they will be drilled out to 3/8 bolts and bolted on. the frame rails are currently almost 6 foot long, it will be loosing some of it, but I didn't want to get to a point where I was 4 inches short later! off to do family stuff!

(images are clickable!)

nice to see ya make your way over here, I remember watching along as you built your buggy up on that other site. I forget its name, but he made a bunch of stupid rules about what you could do with your builds and would delete your stuff if it didnt follow the rules

Creepycrawler wrote:

nice to see ya make your way over here, I remember watching along as you built your buggy up on that other site. I forget its name, but he made a bunch of stupid rules about what you could do with your builds and would delete your stuff if it didnt follow the rules

Yeah that was a looong time ago, I loved building that thing, after flipping it the second time I blew the motor up and parked it, it was alot of fun though, 3 kids later and I can't see having that thing running anymore, it was too fast and High center of gravity for off pavement running around here, and too small to be street legal, probably the biggest reason it fell by the wayside it doesn't fit the legal parameters for quads or sxs's so the state wouldn't let me take it to the ATv/ORV areas, only having one seat and not straddling the one it had, I was up a creek. there was a few private places I could take it and did, but they were not close and not in any way convenient.

not disagreeing with the second part, but there were alot of problems back then with forums/internet and the grey area between legality, safety, and responsibility. I don't agree with how things went but then I wasn't the one holding the bag if it went sideways.

Ok the plans have spun a bit, I was offered a truck axle and I think I'm going to use it, I cleaned all the extra crud off I can't use, and threw it up on jack stands to see what I'm looking at, I modified a live axle hub to bolt onto the driveshaft plate.



found a metal tractor seat laying on a shelf in the shed and put it on top of the diff for giggles



most of my progress was preparation, I had to dig to the back of the 10x20 shed to cut up the old buggy, its been hiding back there almost a decade, so there was some excess to move! I dragged it out, cut it in thirds, and threw the parts I have no use for in the trailer for scrapping, the motor and the metal around it was put back, why make a stand when you can cut one from the chassis!







small steps anyway, more to come, the front end is 50" to outside tire edge the rear is about 56" I can easily narrow the axle 6-10" and could flip the front tires to get it to 46", I'm not sure doing so makes any sense though, it would be way easier to widen the front than narrow the back, but it would make more sense to make it around 4 ft wide so it is a bit easier to get around the yard, this isn't a big thing though, the tiller it will drag is only 3ft, if I extend each side with extra tines I could get to 4ft, I doubt the tillers 9hp engine should go much wider, If I narrow the axle I will only be doing one side, offsetting the axle will let the transaxle sit lower in the frame, which would also move the engine down, lower CG is never bad.

thats all I have for today, thanks for looking!

cut up some metal and made some headway, frame rails are on the menu! 2x4 1/8"  box steel for the back, 1 1/4 pipe (OD is 1.66 inches) and 1 5/8 unistrut for the areas where parts will need to be,


after some 1/8" joiner plates to tie this mess together, we have rails, I wanted the bolt on simplicity of the unistrut and the strength of a healthy tube of steel, I think this gives me both, there will be another pair of mid plates to keep them aligned and unified, but I am going to wait until I see where I can put them where they shouldn't be in the way. dont mind the welds, I dont do this for a living! the bits are slid inside the box steel about 5", I then sliced out the side wedge with a grinder and hammered down the flap, giving them a taper to give me more welding area, should be stout! I plan to slice out some of the side with the grinder and give them some plug welds for more strength, not today though.




small update, but progress is progress, I'm still torn about narrowing the axle, I am not sure I want to tackle it myself, I have a friend who is willing and experienced but doesn't really have time, I can do alot, making perfect cuts and lining the axles back up might be outside my tools and ability, ruining the axle would ruin the project, which is not something i am interested in. I can widen the front pretty easily, I am going to keep riding the fence on this one, which is why there isnt more progress! within a week or two if he doesn't commit to being able to do it, I might just move forward without doing it.. time will tell, I dont have a problem with him being busy mind you, just not sure I can wait for him and have what I need done this winter.

Shortening that auto axle should be easy. You want to cut the bearing holders off the ends by cutting half way through because the bearing holders on the ends of the axles have  a step on them that center them  in the axle tubes and you want to reuse the step to reinstall them. Since the tubes are the same size the whole distance, you should be able to take a big chunk out of both sides. To confirm that there is a step there, remove the axles and bearings, then stick your finger in there to feel for the step. The factory would have used that step to center the holders and then welded them on.

To shorten the axles is pretty easy. The section you cut out of the tubes, you want to match it on the axles so it goes back together with the same spacing. And to weld the axles together, you want to cut the center part out where the diameter is the same because after cutting and beveling the axles real good you want to place the axles in angle iron. The angle iron will keep the axles straight when welding. You want to push the axles into the inside corner with clamps, use atleast 4 clamps. The center of the axle being the same diameter too means the same diameter on both halves that are in the angle iron to keep straightness. When welding you use multiple passes, each pass being in a different spot to keep from warping. When turning the axle in the angle iron to get to the other side, do it when cooled and expect it to we warped, Use the clamps to straighten it back out. And don't weld up one side up completely and then spin it, do maybe 2 to 3 passes on it, cool, spin axle and 2 to 3 passes again, will keep the warping to a minimum and easier to straighten out with the clamps. And yes you will be using a lot of welding rod and will take a long time but in the end a perfect part.

This should give you a better idea on how to do it. Good luck with the mod.