Sears craftsman. The unknown mower

I have a old sears Craftsman that i picked up for a few bucks at the local scrapyard. It has no engine and has a very strange transmission setup and I am not quite sure if I should make it into a racing mower or just scrap the mower because it is a complicated design. Please leave suggestions for my project and I will post some pictures.
For now I just took off the body to see the frame and is in fine condition. I figure it is a 70's mower but I can't find any pictures or information about it online. Today, I took a look inside the odd transmission setup to see what condition it was in because it wasn't shifting gears properly. Turns out it is filled with brown grease, rust flakes, charcoal, grass and water. I think it is possible to clean it out because the gears are not broken or anything.

The transmission on that is a Foote. Same one that's on the Dynamark build my buddy and I are doing. Clean the case out with gasoline and make sure the water didn't eat into any of the gear teeth like it did with ours. That would make a great speed build if you know your axle/steering geometry and have a decent engine to slap on it

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

The transmission on that is a Foote. Same one that's on the Dynamark build my buddy and I are doing. Clean the case out with gasoline and make sure the water didn't eat into any of the gear teeth like it did with ours. That would make a great speed build if you know your axle/steering geometry and have a decent engine to slap on it

I do not have an engine yet, and the steering does not work but I am going to completely scrap the steering and put a go kart style steering on it.
Thanks!

nice start to a speeder there.

I removed the steering today because it is an awful system. I is easily changeable though so I might keep some of it. The front tires are still in good condition because they are solid foam and they weigh about 15 pounds each. the back tires are flat and ripped so I will have to get a bit bigger rear tires in good condition. Here is a picture of the body.
And by the way I finally found a picture of it online

Hey guys here is a thread on another forum of this mower. It seems to be a rare mower. Maybe because it had a Tecumseh.
http://www.mytractorforum.com/14-craftsman-sears-forum/203839-anybody-know-what-quadra-torque-mower.html

Not sure about the Tecumseh thing as Sears used either them or Onan in all their stuff back then. (Exception of SS15 "briggs" Suburban) Maybe more rare due to the series of mower it was. Lighter than the Custom and yet lighter than the "Murray" built ones.

I love the patina and the decals on that one. If I were you, I wouldn't paint it. Kind of has a vintage dirt oval racer look to it. Very very cool.

Hey guys, I keep working on the sears and I was wondering If I should keep the original bodywork. I like the look of it but I also want it to be lower to the ground. Also, the transmission block is right in the middle of the mower and its gonna be hard to avoid it if I take the body off. With the body on though, it covers it up pretty good. What are your suggestions? here is a picture of the mower with the body and you can look at other posts for pictures without it.
BTW i took the dash off because it was all beat up, re welded and bolted back on very poorly by the previous owner.

If it was me I would keep that awesome looking bodywork, patina and all and then I would bring that rear axle up through the floor of the chassis/ floorpan or maybe on top of it until the drive sprocket sits right under your seat, mount the guards higher on the tunnel to allow them to still cover the tyres with no clearance issues and then build your new front end to suit the ride height.
I have a similar build on the go at the moment with a 2 stroke dirt bike motor in it.

Yeah Mow Money pretty much covered it. The bodywork doesn't really affect the ride height. Just as long as the frame is good and low and the weight (Center Of Gravity) is low too.

So this took me all day...
The new racing mower grill.


I still don't know how I am going to attach the Porsche logo, cant weld, cant bolt, any suggestions?

Some sort of adhesive stuff maybe? It'd have to be pretty strong.

I would JB weld or some kind of super hard epoxy a flathead bolt to the badge then you can bolt it on.

Does anyone know anything about the Foote transmission in this mower???
I really need to figure out how it works and what kind of system it uses. I am not sure witch gears, fittings and springs are supposed to move and It doesn't seem to fit into the transmission box because it seems to be between two gears. It also doesn't shift properly and I can see a little bit of rust between the gears springs and the axles witch the gears go on.
PLEASE HELP!
Also, what is the easiest way to take a rusty wheel off of the axle? I have smashed it with the hammer, put loads of WD40 on it and pulled as hard as I could. I have already removed the bold that goes across and that didn't seem to make a difference.

That trans operates like an MTD F-N-R trans, so those two collars on the main shaft slide back and forth to engage the gears. By the looks of it there are supposed to be two shift forks that go in the collars to slide them back and forth to put it in gear. So when you put it back together after you cleaned in really good, you gotta but it in neutral by putting both collars in between the gears so they are not touching and make sure the shifter is in neutral as well.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

That trans operates like an MTD F-N-R trans, so those two collars on the main shaft slide back and forth to engage the gears. By the looks of it there are supposed to be two shift forks that go in the collars to slide them back and forth to put it in gear. So when you put it back together after you cleaned in really good, you gotta but it in neutral by putting both collars in between the gears so they are not touching and make sure the shifter is in neutral as well.

Thank you, so basically the only thing that is supposed to move are the two little collars that fit inside the gear?

On the bottom half I believe that is correct. When you get it cleaned up and put it back together, make sure the top shifters fit in the groves on those collars.

mightyraze wrote:

On the bottom half I believe that is correct.  When you get it cleaned up and put it back together, make sure the top shifters fit in the groves on those collars.

By top you mean the gears that are on the output shaft closer to the rear of the mower?

Parts 37 and 36 in the diagram.  They slip over those shifter rings in the groove. That is what Allis was talking about I think when he said to have it set in neutral and the shifter in neutral. Makes it easier to install.

mightyraze wrote:

Parts 37 and 36 in the diagram.  They slip over those shifter rings in the groove.  That is what Allis was talking about I think when he said to have it set in neutral and the shifter in neutral.  Makes it easier to install.

I understand that part about the brackets that slide around to switch gears. It slides perfectly when not connected to the gears but when you try to put the gears back in it doesn't fit.

What I still don't get is the little things that slide into the gears, Part 8 on the chart, are they held in by keys or are the gears held in by keys?
here is a picture that might help.

BTW thank you for finding that diagram, makes explaining a whole lot easier.

I would have to defer to someone that is more knowledgable on that. I'm just going by the diagram. Which has slots on for the key?

mightyraze wrote:

I would have to defer to someone that is more knowledgable on that.  I'm just going by the diagram.  Which has slots on for the key?

I will have to go check.

On the main shaft the shift collars and the bevelled gear will be keyed to the shaft, but on the counter shaft the gears will be keyed. What exactly isnt working when you go to re-assemble it?