73 sears workhorse/mudder

Well ive been hanging around for a bit now and figured i would show the Sears, i dont have a name for it yet, I started building it in the summer, everything i did to it is bolt on so far, so if i find a doser blade, or snowblower or the mower deck i can still use it. i use it in the mud, rocks , skidding trees or yard work.


I bought 2 tractors for a hundred bucks and sold the other one for 80, perfect.

 

My plan for it was:
Figure out the year? 72-74
New kevlar belt
fenders
Tires
Rebuild carb and tune engine
oil change/ greasing
front/ rear bumper
fix wiring
Lock the rear diff
fix Charging system
lights
fix the hood
3 point hitch

got it running kids wanted to go for a ride lol
started painting it( only temp) found some fenders, added the tool box and traded for some take off atv tires 6



with fender so much better

redid the wiring and wired in lights front and back



New used meats man what a difference just need lock the rear sometime.



had to make a cup holder, and then broke the seat spring for the second time

made a recever hitch to fit in the same bolt holes for the 3 point hitch and a skid plate



Had to do something about the steering

Nice build you have! But maybe don't post so many times within one hour. You can just have two or three long posts instead, makes it look neater is all.

EDIT - I merged a few of your posts together just to clean things up a bit

Like @AllisKidD21 mentioned, if you are posting pretty close together. Might make use of the "Edit" button and add to it! Nice Sears BTW..

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Nice build you have! But maybe don't post so many times within one hour. You can just have two or three long posts instead, makes it look neater is all.

EDIT - I merged a few of your posts together just to clean things up a bit

Ok sounds ill try that, it's a pain in the ass posting off a phone

Thanks Mighty

Got tired of rebuilding the old carb(there hard to find) go i replaced it with a 8hp kohler carb alittle modification to the choke lever, it works extremely well and the added a foot throttle now that woke up that Tecumseh

[url=https://servimg.com/view/19809240/36[/url]
I've rolled it now a few times not a fan how narrow the front is, i added some gas rear gate shock, it helped a bit

Awesome! I’ve been eyeing the sears in your profile picture for a while and I always wanted to see a build thread on it. I remember you posting about that receiver hitch a while back. Good move re doing the wiring and replacing the carb. That can get rid of a lot of headaches.

Just be careful not to unscrew it too many times, mine stripped out. Kept falling out, pouring gas all over the exhaust.

Crazy_Carl wrote:

Awesome! I’ve been eyeing the sears in your profile picture for a while and I always wanted to see a build thread on it.  I remember you posting about that receiver hitch a while back.  Good move re doing the wiring and replacing the carb.  That can get rid of a lot of headaches.

Thanks the plan is to change out the motor once i find a better one, once i do i will tare the tractor down and repaint it.
I'll have another sears i picked up ill be making a thread on.

Double W Cross Ranch wrote:

Just be careful not to unscrew it too many times, mine stripped out. Kept falling out, pouring gas all over the exhaust.

That could have been bad, ya the threads were getting bad and backing out when i had the old carb but i used loctite its not coming out now lol

Looks good, only thing I that caught my eye is on that trans skid bracket.  The bolt heads might catch?  Looks good though!  I guess better catching a couple cheap bolts than busting a trans!

MightyRaze wrote:

Looks good, only thing I that caught my eye is on that trans skid bracket.  The bolt heads might catch?  Looks good though!  I guess better catching a couple cheap bolts than busting a trans!

Ya good catch i did it that way because i didnt want the bolt facing down, most of the trails i ride are rock and roots, i might cover the skid in a flat sheet of something not sure yet. but it works its saved it a few times

Some Mud

Well I guess its time to check the valve lash and a new head gasket, it's such a pain buy parts for these thing in Canada, you can find them in the states no problem and the shipping is good, here if they ship to you its usually 3 x more then the part.

Is the valve lash adjustable on those Tecumseh's like the old K Series Kohlers were?

Is that a compression test? 75 psi. Kinda hard to do a compression test on these engines, because of the easy start mechanism in them. Maybe make sure that the engine doesn't have the easy start setup on it before trusting the reading on the gauge. You could be dumping half of the compression on startup ( while cranking over the engine), and when it starts is when it disenguages and get full compression.

Does an old Tecumseh have a compression release of sorts?

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Is the valve lash adjustable on those Tecumseh's like the old K Series Kohlers were?

Looks like a Tecumseh flattie.

prancstaman wrote:

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Is the valve lash adjustable on those Tecumseh's like the old K Series Kohlers were?

Looks like a Tecumseh flattie.

Yeah I know that's why I was asking. He mentioned checking the valve lash so I was curious if it was adjustable like the K Series flatheads were. They had adjustable tappets which is pretty handy.

Looks like an OH160.  Should be a little cap up top with 2 screws where you can adjust the valves.

ya it's the old cast 12hp flat head, I'm really not sure but i don't think they had a decompression( exhaust valve open slightly on compression stroke), i did 3 test a dry and wet and then a pressure test and there was some air coming out the exhaust, and carb

it's a HH120

AllisKidD21 wrote:

prancstaman wrote:

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Is the valve lash adjustable on those Tecumseh's like the old K Series Kohlers were?

Looks like a Tecumseh flattie.

Yeah I know that's why I was asking. He mentioned checking the valve lash so I was curious if it was adjustable like the K Series flatheads were. They had adjustable tappets which is pretty handy.

no there not adjustable, you have to pull the valve and grind it down to spec, i just did my 10hp snowblower tonight made a big difference