MTD off-road build (Mobile Terrain Dominator) "2"

In your other pictures, looks like it started sleeting or raining in one of the shots!

In the off-road pictures thread? Yeah that was snow coming down. We can't seem to get rid of the darn stuff, haha.

Send it pver here!!!! The most snow I've ever had to drive a mower in was 2 inches in field ended where it drifted.

I decided to try and tackle the new pitman arm today.



I got the old stuff all cut off:



I just got couple pieces of flatstock and doubled them up, haha.







Should alright, definitely won't bend. I'm gonna have a couple braces though for sure.

I also had to reshape my drag link a bit because I made the new pitman arm shorter.





That's all I had time for today unfortunately, but I got most of it done. I'm gonna have to notch my pitman arm a bit because I have a couple clearance issues, but hopefully it won't be too bad.

Shorter pitman arm is good. It will have less leverage put on it so it wont break as easy, and you'll have more leverage at the steering wheel

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Should be a bit lower ratio too which is nice, haha.

I'm a little concerned about the weld where you joined the new pitman arm to what's left of the original truck one on the steering box.  How about adding a couple of small braces like this?

AllisKidD21 wrote:

I'm gonna have a couple braces though for sure.

Yep that's pretty much the plan. I was gonna use two triangular peices like I had before most likely.

I decided to go a different route with my pitman arm because of some clearance issues I was having with the flat stock.

Cut it all off again...



Decided to go with a piece of 5/8" bar stock instead (part of the old steering shaft, haha) It should hold up nice.



Made a little flange thing for it as well as you can see in the picture.

Ground a flat spot.





Burned it in.





Then welded it right to the hub on the pitman shaft.



And the piece for the drag link to bolt to







All buttoned back up!









Works great!! Just over 2 1/4 turns lock to lock, which isn't too bad. Should hold up fine too. Let me know what ya think!

hmmm the shape those braces have looks awfully familiar lol. As usual nice job man. It amazes me that you do this work outside on a vise screwed down to a big log. If you don't mind working outside of a shop setting you should become a mobile service technician of some kind. There's good money in it.

Thanks Carl! Yeah haha, I was just gonna do two triangle braces like I had before, but it came out looking a lot more like your idea. I definitely do most of my work on that ol' stump, but it's not too bad. The wind kinda sucks sometimes though hahaha.

Nice job Allis! Excellent as always. Bet it is nice to have MTD back!

Well thanks Mighty! I definitely is nice to have 'er driving again haha. I replaced that U-bolt that was too big as well, finally haha.



The flat flange for the other U-bolt beeds to be welded down because it keeps coming loose and sliding around. The transaxle moves a bit when it's loose so I'm definitely gonna have to weld that flange down, which isn't a bit deal. The clutch needs adjustment or something as well I think because it's engaging a little hard. That stuff will be tomorrow's job hahaha.

Nice to see her running again!

Thanks, haha.

Steering wasn't quite even so I figured It'd be a good idea to have both end of my drag link adjustable.





Works good! I also got my U-bolt flange welded down nice and solid, and I tightened up my clutch pivot as it was quite loose.



Sooo much smoother now, doesn't try to throw me off anymore haha. Glad to have that fixed up!

Nice, that belt is looking pretty worn though.

Uhuh. There are quite a few extreme angles on those front end parts lol. I am trying to get one of my three mtds going so I can mow the yard today.

muckmudd wrote:

Nice, that belt is looking pretty worn though.

Yeah, haha she needs a new one for sure.

biggasmowers wrote:

Uhuh. There are quite a few extreme angles on those front end parts lol.

If you're reffering to the outer 3-link bars then yes the frame mounts need to be dropped down a bit, but it's hardly an "extreme" angle. It's hardly anything to worry about for the time being. The suspension still works fine as opposed to just being all stiff and annoying and I still have good articulation, which is good for me.

I got a couple cool shots today after I finished working on 'er:





Nice to not have to worry about lack of oil at these kinds of angles now, hahaha.

Nice shots!

Thanks! Haha.

MTD Looks good!

Thanks mighty!

So Allis, how far have you gotten on that locker that you are doing soon?

Hahaha, well Rich surprisingly enough I haven't made a lick of progress on that particular project.