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

Skidplate looks good! Cant really trust that cast aluminium, haha

MightyRaze wrote:

I may steel your idea.

Sure thing! I mean I'm not the first one to do it, but still haha.

muckmudd wrote:

That's better, you know I like my bumpers, haha.

Yep, haha. Been meaning to add one for a while.

Double W Cross Ranch wrote:

Nice skid plate!  Skid plates always remind me of diapers for some reason. LOL

Thanks! As far as that second thing goes though, I got nothing. Hahaha.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Skidplate looks good! Cant really trust that cast aluminium, haha

Thank Rich! Yeah I'm lucky the casting is so heavy on these transaxles or I would've probably at least cracked it by now.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Skidplate looks good! Cant really trust that cast aluminium, haha

Thank Rich! Yeah I'm lucky the casting is so heavy on these transaxles or I would've probably at least cracked it by now.

I know the sears is cast aluminum, but I thought the one in MTD was cast iron? 

The 2300 on my MTD is cast iron

The one I swapped in is a 600 though. They have cast aluminum cases with cast axle sleeves.

I was thinking the 600 was cast iron too like the 2300....

I stand corrected.

Great job on the bumper and skidplate. 

Looks like it will make jacking it up easier.  The automotive jacks and stands I have are really too big to work under our tractors.

Thanks Carl! Yeah I usually just set the drawbar on a jack stand or something if I need the rear end lifted.

Well the ol' MTD is still doing well and holding up great. I finally put put a new belt on 'er as the old one was pretty cracked and wore out:



I was also still noticing a hint of feedback to the steering wheel with the bigger bumps, even with the truck steering box setup. I figured it was due to the pitman arm being so long, (back when it had the 3-link setup I had to make it super long to let the drag link clear under the center link) so I decided to shorten it as much as possible now that I have the room.



Little hard to tell but it's pretty close in length to the original truck pitman arm was. Much better! I definitely noticed the improvement and I'm quite happy!





Never did get around to re painting it this summer, but ah well. I'll get to 'er someday.  Let me know what ya think!

Nice! So now it drives over bumps with one finger?

Thanks Carl. Hahaha, not quite one finger, more like one hand.

Nice. I only have the feedback problem on mutt when i hit the spindle arm on a rock or tree or something, lol

That belt still has some life in it! LOL

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Nice. I only have the feedback problem on mutt when i hit the spindle arm on a rock or tree or something, lol

Thanks. Haha, yeah that'd definitely do it.

MightyRaze wrote:

That belt still has some life in it!  LOL

Well I suppose it is still in one piece. I put it in the shed with the other belts, probably work good in a pinch.

Well the ol' MTD has been sitting dormant for about two months now. It all of a sudden decided to quit starting on me. It would crank and crank and crank and do nothing but dump fuel vapours out of the exhausts. I tried going through and adjusting the carb, checking for spark, trying different spark plugs, different coils, different carburetor, checking flywheel key, feeling for compression, and I got the same results. I was starting to wonder if I had a valve issue when i thought I should check to see if the oil was a little over full. It was, but only by 3/8" about the full line, didn't see like enough to cause issues.

Regardless, I drained some:



Finally got it to fire up, but only run on the lower cylinder. Okay.... progress I suppose, haha. Checked the uper plug and it was dry. Put in a known good one and BAM! She fires up and runs fantastic!! I don't really understand what I did, but hell I'll take it. Hahaha.



Drove it around a bunch, then shut it off and started a bunch of times to be sure. I let it wait for like 10 or 15 minutes one time before I tried again and it still started up and ran. Still not really sure what was up, but y'know, whatever.

Gonna have to see how it acts next time to be sure, but for now she drove back in the shed for the first time in many weeks!



I'm definitely quite happy, i was beginnng to think she was gonna miss out on snow romps this year! Hopefully I've got 'er cured!

I hope so!  I have had the same thing with lil red.  Run fine then it will get harder to start.  Change plugs and it is fine.  Or...  can't get it to start, lots of spark but no bang.  I'll short one side out with a screwdriver and boom it will start up?  Not sure why.  But this just happens to Red.

Yeah, doesn't really make sense to me, but we'll see how things go I guess, haha.

if i figure a rime or reason, you will be the first I tell.  

Question... what type/brand plug you running in it?
I'll review mine too.

I hear people have good luck with champion J 19LM.

Edit:  I am running J19LM in both mine.  Not sure about the Squatch.  It's packed up.  Kal runs like a top and they are True Champion plugs.  Red who is wishy washy at times are Briggs/Champion plugs.  I was planning on cleaning the coil contacts and flywheel.  Maybe a new coil in the spring if nothing works, but from my research they either work or not.

Hmmm I use the RJ19LM a lot.  Ol' Red and my snowblower use it.  The "R" stands for resistor that helps deal with interference from a radio.  I wonder if something like that is causing your guy's spark plugs to do some wacky unexplainable things?

The plugs I usually have in it are Champion RJ19LM's. The oneplug I put in to get it to run on both cylinders however, was a Champion H10C. That's an older style plug that you usually see in old Kohler K Series or what have you, with the slightly longer reach and long ribbed body.

Weeeeeell as I sort of expected the issue is still most certainly not cured with this engine. It's acting the same way no matter what plugs, coil, or carb I try, so I'm wondering if there is a valve issue of some sort.

Gonna borrow a leak-down tester from a friend sometime here soon and see what the test shows. Hopefully I can finally pinpoint the problem.

Leak down showed no issue for me.  I may look into what Carl said about the resistor.

Edit: Mine are R's

Hope you figure your issue out. I'll see if mine is the same. LOL I'll do the same.

Well I got some work time in on this nightmare machine today...



I actually checked the valve clearance and found the exhaust valves a bit too tight, so I filed them a bit and got them to come around. Unfortunately, that made no difference. So I tried a fourth coil, put the original carb back on, and took the plugs out of Carter's Jake.

Then finally after soooooo much cranking and fuel down the carburetor, I got it to start and run:



Yay I guess, LOL. Ran super smooth and still had tons of power, but I knew it wasn't cured.

Did a bit of wheeling since I miss driving it so much....





Had 'er running around for probably over an hour with not a singe issue. But as I suspected, once I shut it off and let it sit for a while, it would not start again. I was able to get it to cooperate enough to drive itself back into the shed, but it took multiple attempts and an extreme amount of cranking.

I got nothing..... If this wasn't a pressure lube model I probably would have swapped it out for another oppy by now, but I kinda don't wanna abandon it. Boy if another pressure lube Briggs opposed happens to come my way I'd swap 'er in without thinking twice!

Miracles do happen sometimes...... Hahaha.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I bet your fuel pump is screwed up somehow. Wonder if your plastic pump body is warped like one of mine is. Make sure your diaphragm isn't screwed up too.

Also maybe your flywheel magnets have discharged? Just a thought. Not even sure if that's possibly a problem.

I don't know, it'd be kinda odd for both carbs to have the pump screwed up in the same way. Who knows though..... I did go through the pump in the original carb a while back and it was in great shape, the diaphragm wasn't torn or hard like they can get sometimes.

Also it does have spark, and the flywheel magnets is strong enough to hold up a screwdriver. That makes me think it's still healthy, but again, who knows......

Pulse line in good condition?