Craftsman GT3000 "MUTT" Part I

Took the trans out and discovered that i have broken the snapring on the input shaft. O well, I have a snapring kit that prolly has one that fits

820s are pretty tough. Made it through a rocky creekbed. Although mine was missing a few chunks out of the fins when I sold it to @stretch44875 (who should totally open it and take pics of my Fozzy Lock *wink wink*).



What did you do to break a snapring lol.

I don't even know, weird thing is that the shaft was being pushed down more than up. I'm not even sure that I put it back in, I sometimes do stupid stuff like that

well atleast it was just a snap ring and not your trans case

Lol that's right. I'm deathly afraid of blowing a trans

My biggest fear was the damn shifting ball lol i dropped it lost it found it put it back in popped back out lost it found it lol was only trouble on a peerless 834 i had from a previous older murray i had. Also afraid of splitting my case as well why im going solid axle swap...Forgetttt about it lol

I've been fishing through my oil in the trans, I have come to the conclusion that i was an idiot and never put the c clip back in Lol oh well, I'll find another. Also, I did this yesterday (it looked a lot better when i cleaned her up and put her back in)

Threw her all back together and discovered I could drift and do donuts. Ended up rolling her in 5th gear in the driveway, messed up the light mounts, broke the mirror mounts, bent/twisted the muffler up, but oh well, all of that is repairable. Overall I'm pleased with what I can do now, Wheelies are back (on grass at least) and I can crawl over soo much more. Love it!

Ouch! Glad you are okay! You're lucky the exhaust pipe bent, and the casting did not crack/break on the block.

I got out without a scratch, pretty much stepped off of it, mid roll. And yeah, I thought the weld or the casting was gonna break, but the pipe itself twisted. Think I'll take your advice and put in some supports. It's all straightened out now, but the hood is kinda meh (but oh well, it wasn't pristine in the first place)

Ironic that as soon as you say that you like the steering wheel lower to protect in rollovers, you roll it over. Anyway, glad you're safe!

at least it didnt break the engine casting. i love them oppys. it coulda been a lot worse. glad you are okay! i havent wrecked mine....yet. Key word is yet, its definitly gonna happen at some point. that is if i ever get it running. and yea, those mufflers were awful big and long to have without supports. i would change your mufflers to something else, or put some serious supports on there. that really stresses the engine block. with that you are liable to break off the mounting bolts and be stuck using the threaded holes. thats what happened to mine. the idiot before me never put any supports on the muffler.

Yeah I really don't like these mufflers. What i wanna do is have it come out a bit before the floorboards at like a 45* angle with some 3/4" couplers welded to the end, so i have an option to put on a pair of 3/4" drilled out mufflers to quiet it down.

what i did with my king was just took threaded steel pipe, put a i inch segment into the block, an elbow and another segment of pipe. on both sides. it ended up ending about 2 inches below and right in front of the footrest. you could screw a muffler onto the end of the pipe too if you wanted it to be quieter. i know the menards near me sells 1/2 inch pipe mufflers. they are nice and quiet

I've never actually rolled a tractor before, but I have tipped one backwards on top of me, it hurts

Not fun to go over backward, not only hurts but scares the fool out of ya.  Luckily the tractor did not fall on me.  But back to the topic at hand.  I think you have some good ideas from the fine folks here.

It isn't really that bad to go over backward, but I haven't done it on this tractor (yet). Did it on my Snapper crawler because y'know, low gearing+super light front end+5000rpms+rolling backwards= lol yeah. I've also tipped the snapper crawler, but the square hood and tall steering column prevents it from rolling completely

Went on a romp the other day, and found my new weak link. The steering rides on a tube which in turn rode on two of the things in the picture, which were bolted on either side of the frame. Well it broke both of these and left the steering hanging from the dash. Not sure what I'm gonna do to fix it, might run a rod through the tube. She's still sittin in the woods as of now

Also, I figured out and acronymn for the name MUTT, Multiple Use Terrain Tractor. Sound good? Or got anything better?

I like it, but ultimately it's what suits your fancy!
I almost called my tractor Li'l Red, MUTT... Murray Utility & Terrain Tractor ... but there isn't any utility about it as my plans changed. LOL.

Lol I've strayed a bit away from utility with the removal of the rack, but it's still kinda utility as I use it for other stuff like hauling wood and stuff. I skidded a decent size cedar tree out of the woods the other day when dad had all the other logs behind the horses and left one post, I decided there was no point in coming back to get one post so I hauled her out. Discovered that i can drag quite a bit more than I thought in 6th gear

Cool damage pics! Sorry to hear things got busted up a bit, but if you never break anything then there's nothing to fix...

So I got her back after sitting in the woods for like 3 days (giving me a good reminder that i should paint things). So far i have got the steering out. I might reuse this setup, but sturdy up the mounts a lot more and replace the C clip colding in the steering shaft with something less likely to break. As you can see, on the left of the steering(when sitting on the tractor), there is two nuts so you can tighten it up if it starts to skip (Snapper knew what was goin on with craftsmans i suppose? ). Also, i forgot that the tube only goes about halfwayv through on either side. I guess we'll see what I come up with, brainstorming now

looks like what i call generation 1.5, not the original setup, but not generation 2. but the older style (late 80's) is a much tougher and better box. BUT, they need serious shimming. What i did on mine was i added a washer so they would mesh better and added a bushing in where the old one wore out. You also reminded me i need to go through the whole steering mess in my black craftsman soon.

A bit of surface rust never does any harm! And Rockinator, I think it's a Snapper steering box.

It is a Snapper steering box, out of an LT16. And today I put it back in using 1/2" bolts with the heads cut off and bolted in place of where the old mounts were. Just gotta find a c clip to keep the steering shaft in. Much sturdier now! Also, seeing that the rust on my battery tray had gotten worse I painted it. (battery acid had already helped strip some rust ) She's also getting a car battery in place of the two tractor batteries, and I'm moving the solenoid up in the dash. Figured I'd do a bunch more stuff when I have it apart!