Craftsman GT 6000 Build

very cool man, one question, does your steering shaft have any "slip" in it? like as in when the axle goes up and down does the steering shaft have a way to lenghthen and shorten ? like a drive shaft in a car has a slip shaft so that it can change lengths as the suspension cycles, i think your steering shaft will need to be able to do the same thing or it will be pulling hard on your mounts, ujoints and rack and Id hate to see you tear up your nice new steering rack

Thanks CC! Yeah I have a slider shaft right off the back of the rack pinion shaft:



It's part of an automotive steering shaft outta something or other, haha. Seems to work well so far!

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Okay then Mighty. Hahaha. But yeah I guess you could say mission accomplished, that is if the whole setup doesn't self destruct of course. Haha.

Mighty?  That was all Carl!  LOL

I figured that one wouldn't quite compute, haha. I was making a joke because it's usually you who posts all the funny pictures and gifs. I guess that joke was a long shot, hahaha.

Nothing new with the ol' GT lately, just been doing a lot of off-roading with 'er and loving the new steering, haha.







Haven't had anything go wrong with the rack setup, and I've been putting it through it's paces for sure, so hopefully that means it's all sturdy enough, haha. Think I'll maybe get some bumpstops rigged up for the axle next.

Looking good!

Thanks Mighty!

Not much new with the ol' GT recently, everything's still working good.



I decided to finally modify the factory shifter plate so I could put it back in place.

Cut out the slot for the range selector and did some welding and grinding to clean it up a bit:





Painted up:



Doesn't look too bad!

I also covered up the old range selector hole with some sheet metal while I was at it:







Not too bad, looks better than before. Haha.

Then I added a cross piece on my back rack thing to support the mesh stuff a bit, and another bracket at the front to hold the whole deal more stable:





So yeah, just some minor stuff. But I thought I'd share nonetheless, haha. Let me know what ya think!

Nice update.  Good to see you doing some body work instead of suspension work.
I like the shifter plate.

Hahaha, thanks Carl. Yeah it happens every once in a while.

Looking good AK, nice touch on the shifter plate.

Thanks Mighty! Yeah the shifter plate turned out kinda neat looking in my opinion, haha.

Had the GT out and about today for the first time in a little bit. I was planning on tearing the front end out and painting everything up, but it ended up being kinda chilly outside so I figured I'd save that for another day.

What I did instead was mount a work light to the front of it so I could finally get some night vision on this rig.

The light has a rubber housing which is cracked but I planned on fixing it just so the bulb wouldn't be loose in there.



Welded the little bracket to the bumper frame in what seemed like the best spot:



Ran the power wire up along the grille support and down to the factory light switch:



Works good!





I just drilled a coulpe holes on either side of the crak in the housing and ran a zip tie through and snugged it up. Seemed to fix it pretty well. Nice to finally have some light though, now I can do some sweet night time wheeling!



Haha. Let me know what ya think!

nice... that will be useful now that it is getting dark earlier.

Thanks, haha. Yeah it'll be handy for sure.

Did some messing around with the GT this weekend and had to pull a Rich:



That was fun. Although I broke a weld on my tie rod on the way back down. Figured it was probably time for a new one.

Got some ends made up:



Then used some 1/2" or so O.D. pipe to made the tie rod:



Turned out pretty nice!



Might try and make a skidplate for the front axle sometime, to protect the tie-rod and steering rack. Shouldn't be too hard to fab something up.

Did a little bit of work with it too afterwards pulling my little homemade scraper thing.



Still working good, haha. Let me know what ya think!

Home made scraper thing...  LOL

Do you really need the tie rod with the rack and pinion?  ...Or you just using it as a sway bar at this point?

Had to pull a me, lol.

Looking good!

MightyRaze wrote:

Home made scraper thing...  LOL

Do you really need the tie rod with the rack and pinion?  ...Or you just using it as a sway bar at this point?

Yeah I definitely need the tie-rod, haha. My steering rack is setup lile redline's was, with only one rod coming off of the rack going to a steering arm.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Had to pull a me, lol.

Looking good!

Thanks Rich. Haha, yeah I'm thinking you're a bad influence on some of us.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

MightyRaze wrote:

Home made scraper thing...  LOL

Do you really need the tie rod with the rack and pinion?  ...Or you just using it as a sway bar at this point?

Yeah I definitely need the tie-rod, haha. My steering rack is setup lile redline's was, with only one rod coming off of the rack going to a steering arm.

How did I miss that.. Man I have been out of it for a good couple months. I've been trying to acclimate myself to the various builds and such.

I like how you welded the bolts onto those automotive style rod ends to adapt them for use on a tractor.

MightyRaze wrote:

AllisKidD21 wrote:

MightyRaze wrote:

Home made scraper thing...  LOL

Do you really need the tie rod with the rack and pinion?  ...Or you just using it as a sway bar at this point?

Yeah I definitely need the tie-rod, haha. My steering rack is setup lile redline's was, with only one rod coming off of the rack going to a steering arm.

How did I miss that..  Man I have been out of it for a good couple months.  I've been trying to acclimate myself to the various builds and such.  

Oh, hahaha. 'Sall good!

Crazy_Carl wrote:

I like how you welded the bolts onto those automotive style rod ends to adapt them for use on a tractor.

Thanks Carl! Yeah I always liked using that type of rod end on my rigs, as I'm sure you all know.

Got a bit stuck this weekend:





Doesn't look so bad in the pictures I guess, but she was stuck for sure. You can see the B-110 was there in an attempt to tow the GT out, but that didn't work. Even with my brother driving the GT and me pulling with the B-110 at the same time, hahaha.

Finally got some extra help and got the ol' girl freed though:



Haha, that was fun. Definitely need to pick up a fairlead though. I couldn't really winch myself out because there was nothing directly ahead of me. I'll probably pick one up here sometime and see if I can make a mount for it.

Got some other ideas too so hopefully I can do some improvments here sometime soon!

Or maybe a ground anchor?

Hmmm, yeah that'd work too. I'll maybe save that idea for the back up plan, haha.

Had the GT out doing a bit of off-roading this weekend.



Afterwards I decided to go underneath and check over the steering and suspension as it's seen quite a few hours off-road without any inspection of that stuff.



A few nuts loose in a couple spots, but not too bad. The main thing I noticed was with my upper universal:



The shaft going into the universal isn't being clamped by the pinch bolt very well and is quite loose. I cut the square into the shaft myself when I did the rack setup so I probably just cut it a bit too small. I'll probably just do a few tack welds on one side of the square and grind it smooth again so it clamps in there better. That should fix it.

Pretty glad I noticed it, haha. Other than that she's doing good!