Craftsman GT3000 "MUTT" Part I

This should be cool! I dont see why those wont work, the only problems I can see are the shocks being a bit too long, and the fact that there are no mounting loops at the bottom of the shocks. But I've already thought of a couple ways to fix that and I'm you will as well Rich haha. Now hurry up and get this started already!

AllisKidD21 wrote:

This should be cool! I dont see why those wont work, the only problems I can see are the shocks being a bit too long, and the fact that there are no mounting loops at the bottom of the shocks. But I've already thought of a couple ways to fix that and I'm you will as well Rich haha. Now hurry up and get this started already!

As soon as somebody buys me a set of shocks I'll get on it lol. I pretty much have the stuff to build suspension aside from the big ball joint I need for the main swivel. I don't think they're too long. Will probably get the bottom mounted to the axle and the top on some hoops. Can shorten them if I gotta. Also, the top of these I'm pretty sure are dried and tapped to like 3/8-sumtin. I could drill them over and tap to the 1/2" UNF thread that my heim joints have. I think they'll hold up to the weight of an entire opposed twin crashing down on them lol. Plus I'll have a use for the ones that got stuff when welding.

I forgot to mention that I'm probably gonna be bracing up the front end of the frame while I'm doing this. The front axle might get moved up an inch or two also. Just to give me room for stuff. I'll also Have to modify my hood to open like Doc's Fugazi hood to allow shock towers. I've wanted to do that anyways, lol. I'll brace up the grille good too.

Man, this is gonna suck! Finally some action!

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

AllisKidD21 wrote:

This should be cool! I dont see why those wont work, the only problems I can see are the shocks being a bit too long, and the fact that there are no mounting loops at the bottom of the shocks. But I've already thought of a couple ways to fix that and I'm you will as well Rich haha. Now hurry up and get this started already!

As soon as somebody buys me a set of shocks I'll get on it lol.

Yeah well dont hold your breath! Hahaha, you're putting the shocks under the hood right? Like in front of the engine?

Interesting idea. Definately have travel room LOL. Like Alliskid said, may be a bit tall for the application. Unless..... I wonder if you could get the same outcome with some from a 50cc mini pocket dirtbike shocks?

AllisKidD21 wrote:

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

AllisKidD21 wrote:

This should be cool! I dont see why those wont work, the only problems I can see are the shocks being a bit too long, and the fact that there are no mounting loops at the bottom of the shocks. But I've already thought of a couple ways to fix that and I'm you will as well Rich haha. Now hurry up and get this started already!

As soon as somebody buys me a set of shocks I'll get on it lol.

Yeah well dont hold your breath! Hahaha, you're putting the shocks under the hood right? Like in front of the engine?

I have absolutely no room for shocks under the hood without some serious cutting. the fuel pump is nosed right up less than 1/2" from the grille screen. they're definitely gonna be in front of the hood. Why I have to modify the hood to open differently

mightyraze wrote:

Interesting idea.  Definately have travel room  LOL.  Like Alliskid said, may be a bit tall for the application.  Unless..... I wonder if you could get the same outcome with some from a 50cc mini pocket dirtbike shocks?

I've never been up close and personal with one of the little bikes. Plus I think they only travel 6". Not counting preload from the big twin, lol. They are little bikes for little people, lol

Oh in front of the hood, ok I remember now. Sounds interesting.

Well i got my carb kit and cleaned and rebuilt the carb. Actually had some brake parts cleaner to use this time haha. I noticed when disassembling the fuel pump that one of the tiny springs had slipped around the little flap on the diaphragm, rendering the fuel pump somewhat inoperable because of not being able to stop the fuel from flowing back into the tank. Maybe i assembled it like that and it did that, I dunno. Anyways, she runs fine now. Excellent throttle response, plenty of power back, and smooth idle(for an oppy). I'm still having a starting issue. It's just plain hard to get her going. Choking doesn't do much. only thing that gets her there is kinda stepping on the gas pedal a bit then letting off when cranking. Then she'll pop just a bit and you gotta carefully get back on the throttle and she's running fine again. I think this may be coil related though. When I pull the right spark plug wire, the left side loses spark too, no matter how fast she's turning. She still runs if you only remove the other wire though, which confuses me to no end. Maybe I should break down and buy a brand new coil, I'm not sure. The aftermarket ones are well...aftermarket.

Alright I was gonna type somethin here about suspension but I'm too tired so it can wait for tomorrow

Maybe a fouled plug? My old sears with an onan did that and it turned out to be a bad plug. Could be why you are having the hard start. You may be really only running efficient on one cylinder.

mightyraze wrote:

Maybe a fouled plug?  My old sears with an onan did that and it turned out to be a bad plug.  Could be why you are having the hard start.  You may be really only running efficient on one cylinder.  

Maybe that's it. You think it would start on one cylinder at least though? I still think it's bleeding on the coil somewhere. The coil on here that went bad first I did manage to get going again. When you pulled the right spark plug wire (same as the one that kills it on here) you could see spark jump. I think it was because it had more voltage available from not firing both plugs at once. I'll try some different plugs out of another oppy I have

Well Mighty I'd never have thought. I switched in a set of J19LMs I had in one of my spare 18s and she pretty much started right up. Must be my timing experiment killed them. She still won't run if I pull the right cyl wire but that's alright by me. She starts and runs, that's all I ask. Also I put one of those cheap mower hose clamps on where the fuel line goes to the carb. Should've before but on both of the oppys I've had on here it wasn't really a problem. Oh well lol.

Just got back from a romp along some power lines near me. Was about an hour and a mile or two away from my house. I managed to find a road to drive back on lol

I was just gonna ramp up this hill in 6th gear but I decided I didn't wanna die today, lol



Standing on top of this hill I took this pic lol. I

Looks like a nice ride!

Them rear tires look vicious.

mightyraze wrote:

Looks like a nice ride!

It was great! Lol, surprised I didn't roll her, I was on a side hill most of the time!

TheBeal wrote:

Them rear tires look vicious.

They really do tear up anything and everything!

I had one helluva a romp today. First I found a spot in the creek that the local amish use as a gravel pit



Ventured a bit farther up the creek from there



Came up out of the valley to do some stuff up on the hill, some trail rides and one big hill climb. On the way there, this happened.



It seems these nuts on the heims with spacers never wanna stay tight



My shift knob was the only thing with 1/2" thread I had. I drove home in 3rd gear keeping a very close eye on it, lol. It got me back to the shop where I then proceeded to put red loctite on every bolt on my steering arms and tighten them pretty much as tight as I could without a cheater bar.



Like shaking hands with a kitten!



After a brief intermission I was back at it. Hit some mud on a subsidiary of the main creek



Went over on the other side of the main creek. Rammed up some stuff



Then...this...





I just drove like this for the rest of the day since there's not much I could do about it at the time. I know these fenders and running boards are kinda flimsy(I've already bent them up from getting large chunks of wood rammed under me) but jeez man, come on.



I think I dislodged a grad total of 4 or 5 stumps from their earthen graves today. Some had to be convinced with 3rd gear... I wasnt trying to break this one loose. Just for a pic. Although it certainly did not help my frame problem...



I think the front end of the frame is about an inch higher than the rest of the frame. With no typical AYP frame cracks either! Wow! i'm really not looking forward to fixing this frame

Looks like fun man! Except for the all the damage hahaha. The push bar seems like its holding up good as well!

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Looks like fun man! Except for the all the damage hahaha. The push bar seems like its holding up good as well!

It was great! I loved that I could just start her up whenever I wanted again lol

I'm thinking of rerouting the exhaust. I was rammed up a tree and came back down and the end of the pipes shoved into a stump. It was so weird, just a few seconds of almost silence and a tiny bit of valve clatter. Almost snuffed her out with back pressure but I just let off the clutch again and went back up the tree and managed to work around it and back off it haha

Oh, and there was a real deep spot in the creek I was gonna try but since I dont have a winch or comealong just in case I didn't wanna risk it. It was like 3ft deep but only like 12 feet long lol. Maybe I should find a spot to throw the comealong and a chain on for now

While doing my usual late night internet window shopping I found these babies. I'm pretty much in love. 23s, and only 7" wide! Sweet! Some time I gotta get some of these! They also come in 21s. First I gotta mod some 10" rims to have a 3/4" bore lol.



Oh, and MUTT's all tore apart now for reasons I'll explain when I feel like it (finish what I'm doing)

He's swapping in a 35hp Vanny V-twin, all around 4-link suspension, and hydraulic steering. He told me in the chat.

Hahahaha!

It'd be nice if you could find some bolt on 10" rims, then you could maybe find 3/4" hubs for 'em.

Lol maybe I'll do that on some other build after I win the lottery

Yeah I have those 10" rims but they don't have much of an offset, I'll have to rely on the hubs or whatever rims I weld on em for that. Or I might add some positive camber to the front spindles to clear the knuckles. Who knows with me.

So I've had MUTT tore apart for the past like 2 weeks or so. Building a new front axle mount to replace the chinsey stock one.

Straightened out the frame before I did anything. She's straight now!



I cut the stock mount out, forgot to get a pic. Luckily it seems AYP didn't have much in the budget for good welds.

Cut out the first part of my mount. Same stuff I used on my bumper



Had a cool looking mockup just to tease some guys lol.




At this point I quit for like a week because I thought I was out of cutoff wheels. Well I was about to go cut the piece with a bandsaw but it turns out you can use a half used chopsaw blade in an angle grinder. Not something I'd wanna try again, but it got the job done. Had to cut out a piece for the other side of the mount.

Got back at it last night. My bluetooth speaker broke so I had to fix it with a little cube speaker. Sounds better and is louder!



This is where I'm at as of now. Welded the mount together. Just gotta weld it in the frame and then I can start on bracing everything up. I'm thinking of doing like a 1" lift in the front just to help with approach angle. Oh, and the axle has about 10* caster and it looks like everything will clear linkage wise. The new mount has 15* of articulation too.

Looks good Rich. John Deere GT steering box and motorcycle shocks should bolt right up now! Hahaha.

got to love those ayp frames, with a little bracing they are bullet proof, you can find pit bike shocks online that are strong, how you think all those grown men ride em at dragstrips with out bottoming out

Quote :

Got back at it last night. My bluetooth speaker broke so I had to fix it with a little cube speaker. Sounds better and is louder!

Man is it ever a bummer when the tunes die... the radio in my jeep recently died.

Dont take your tunes for granted people.

Taking a break to let the breaker cool down. She doesn't like being run on 135 for too long, lol. Used some of what i assume were deck mounts on this thing for supports. Gave her about 8* of positive caster, and just under an inch lift

Nice. Gonna have a couple braces from the front of the axle mount to the frame? With your driving habits I'd advise as much bracing as possible hahaha!

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Nice. Gonna have a couple braces from the front of the axle mount to the frame? With your driving habits I'd advise as much bracing as possible hahaha!

I'll put it like this: I'm using the sh*t out of my tote full of random metal scraps. lol

Progress! At this point I'm only tacking stuff. Gonna wait til tomorrow so i can use the generator and not deal with the stupid worn out 30a breaker. Dad said I should run it anyways to clear out the old gas in it. I'm gonna add more bracing along the inside of the frame too but I haven't got there yet. I'm gonna pull a beltran and grind down some of the welds on the outside of the frameto make them look decent too.



A view from my lap as I take a break and wonder where I went wrong (right) in life to end up modding tf out of a lawn tractor