1982 Sears Craftsman LT10

Hey guys, I found this little gem at the junkyard a while back and my brother picked it up yesterday. He paid 40 bucks. Running gear is a Briggs 10 horse 22 cubic inch flathead and a peerless 700 3 speed transmission.

Today we spent the afternoon getting the mowing gear all stripped off, and cleaning the engine up. The wiring harness has only one safety switch that I think I can easily bypass, so it’ll stay just like it is. The engine needed the mouse nest pulled off of it and blown off, but I put some gas to it and she fired right up. Just can’t kill a Briggs

Anyway, the carb is a little dirty. Tried to take it apart and clean it but the brass jet in the middle just would not come out and I ended up boogering it all up. I’ll just put the carb from my old 11 horse on it. The air filter was completely toasted, just brittle foam dust. I’ll run the 11 horse airbox as well.

Still needs an oil change, rear axle bearings replaced, tires, and a different seat. I have a full set of tires that I can use on this build that are bigger than stock but should still fit. Just turfs, nothing special.

Plans are to do the above, as well as a mild pulley swap at some point. My brother is 12 and doesn’t quite know how to bias his weight while he’s driving at weird angles yet or anticipate what his machine is about to do, so this will help with that, and give him some patience and mechanical knowledge.

It may get a bigger engine at some point as well, but nothing more than a single. A single is adequate and will keep the hood intact.

Anyway, pics!!

That thing is pretty cool, looks like a big metal box.

mrshaft696 wrote:

That thing is pretty cool, looks like a big metal box.

Hey CraftsmanQuad19, mrshaft696 just gave me the inspiration for a name for this little tractor. You should call it "Lunch Box" lol

Lmao that’s pretty funny. We were thinking silver bullit, but my silver car is already called that, and one of the mowrons craftsman’s is the silver bullit. I think it’s stretch

Today we tried and failed to get the rear wheels off the axle. Found out the solenoid is bad, and got a 280 amp battery for it, should be plenty for the little single. I’ve got some 18.5 inch turfs already on rims to replace the 16s it has now, and some 15(?) inch fronts already mounted from my ace ready to go on. For now the ace will be the parts donor for pretty much everything. Up until I get the time and money to build it.

Minor update, got the new carb and airbox assembly put on and the engine runs much better now. Also brought the tires down. Didn’t have much time to work on it, but here is how it looks with one new and one old:


Also have an idea for the wore out rubber engine mounts. I’m gonna take a hole-saw to the old front tires to make new rubber mounting pieces. Oughta work ok I think. What do you guys think?

Dang it's so cute! I had a Rer from the same year range and it had a 5 go Briggs with a peerless three speed also. They are nice little mowers . I swapped out the 700 for a ragb and had a hand throttle. It never had a clutch but if I leaned off one side the differential would spin one tire out so I could slow down. I think it went about 37 mph for the whole day it ran lol
Really like it and can't wait to see what you do with it. The rubber idea should work I would think , might need two layers instead of one to get a little thinker

Yeah that should work. I think they are there to reduce rider vibration.

I would just figure out a way to delete the shock mounts and hard mount it.

A lot of older small mowers had vibration mounts , I think they just let the engine shake more , I prefer a hard mount but if you can make them work why not try it?

The tire rubber will likely be harder than the anti shock rubber from the factory. Think polyurethane engine mounts for your car. Not solid, but not all floppy

Oh yeah , I guess it would have a different composition for weight bearing not shaking , well I look forward to seeing how you do it and how it works out

Ok guys, small update on the “lunchbox” lol, he doesn’t like that name btw. I think it’s funny.

Got the almost new front tires I had off the mtd rims and onto the stock rims from the CQ. The mtd rims had those plastic bushings that were for a 5/8 spindle, when I pulled them out to try just the bare rim it was a little too big so it would’ve flopped around and I ultimately wasn’t happy with it.

Hour and a half of musical rims later the fronts are done. All you rednecks and jerryriggers and cheapskates will be proud of this one hehe

So I didn’t have a valve stem tool handy, so I used the tip of a Brocken off punch as my tool. Worked fine for the first one, then went to take the stem out of the other one to seat the bead and it crumbled inside. Well sh*t. So I tried to get a bite on it to get it out and the whole brass fitting came out of the rubber! Since the inside of this one was trashed, I gut the brass piece off of one of the old valve stems on a rim I’m not using. Covered it in rubber tire cement and shoved it inside the rubber part of the valve stem. Let it sit a while to dry.

Hour later it pumped right up and is holding air.

Wow that is a redneck fix lol. Kinda clever though. I hope it holds up for a while.

Interesting fix there man. Crazy thing, It will probably last. LOL

Lol the only thing I could see happening is it gets hit by a stick and pulls out. Pressure wise I think we’ll be fine

Lol. I have done some crazy **** with tires
Like filling them with propane and using a lighter to seat the beads. Oh and either and gas..i have used wood glue to get the bead to stay and I have patched tires with epoxy

Ever filled em with spray foam?  I've done that.

Tried that once on a wheel barrow. Worked pretty good, has one bump tho

Kathump kathump kathump....

Worked pretty well for spreading gravel. Bump, spread, bump ,spread.........

So this little mower has a 700? Pulley swap it so you can do some drifting on that lightweight machine!

Lol I’ll pulley swap it eventually. For now I’m just gonna leave it stock for him to learn to ride on

Not a bad idea.

Should pick up a little speed with the bigger rear tires. Going from 16 inch tears to 18. The original fronts were 12.5 lol. Little bitty guys. These 16.5s look pretty aggressive on there

No go from 16 inch to 13 inch or 11 inch racing slick, MORE rpms, less torque needed, and better drifiting