[Complete] Mr.Modified's Craftsman HE [2018 Build-Off Entry]

The concept: Building off what's left of Doug Fackler's old Craftsman, the Craftsman HE (Haspin Edition) will be a test bed for new off road lawn tractor technologies and an example of cool things which can be done using items commonly available to the general public. This needs to be assembled for possible use at Haspin in the beginning of June, so that gives us about 3 or 4 weekends to get it done. Not done necessarily for the build off....but done enough to ride. It's currently a rolling chassis, with a stock transaxle bolted in just for moving it around and no engine. Body is complete and intact. Steering is also hooked up but may need to be changed. Needs an engine installed, transaxle swapped in, wiring, lights, paint, bumpers, and a seat.

Engine: To start with, a Briggs OHV 17.5hp I/C presents itself as being available... So looks like that's what's going in for now
Transaxle: Doc Locked MST 205 (I think) with axle bearings and seals installed.  
Tires: Up front narrow AG tread. Rear undecided
Paint: Something different but not 100% sure yet.












Approved by Doug, 4/28/2018
Locked Complete by MightyRaze, 8/4/2018

They are both Doc Locked MST-206-504C transaxles.

Nice project! I'm excited to see what cool paint job you come up with. Are you going to use the MST with the hubs and support bearings?

Nice build, always admired that Craftsman that was @Doug 's profile pic for so long. Do you plan to keep direct steering?

I love it when a build get revived!  This should be a good one to follow.

please make the handlebars go away, other than that I love it, I love the old metal square nose craftsmans

Creepycrawler wrote:

please make the handlebars go away, other than that I love it, I love the old metal square nose craftsmans

I love the handlebars, makes her look awesome!

Creepycrawler wrote:

please make the handlebars go away, other than that I love it, I love the old metal square nose craftsmans

Agreed. I always loved this build but I'm not really a huge fan of the handlebars or the direct steer. Should be a super neat build though!

The handlebars was a terrible idea. Its why I scrapped it lol. Those arent the OG ones that were on there, the ones that were on there got bent when i flipped it.

The eyes are made from RV1s body tin btw.

Nice to see the old craftsman getting new life!

Those handlebars are only tipped down so they don't fill with rain water outside, but I'll be using them yes. And staying direct steer for haspin. No time for major design changes till later. Steering will be easier with some minor angle adjustments and maybe the longer bars. I got the engine off the donor tractor tonight and some nifty rear wheels that hold air. Now I have about enough parts to put it all back together for haspin in a couple weeks. Plus that super quick awesome paint job.

Craftsman HE Engine Number 1.....

I don't really like handlebars cos you could dig yourself in the ribs quite easily if you were doing a hard turn. They might be okay with direct steering though. Going for a single cyl?

IDK, I dig the look of the handlebars.

Yeah the single cylinder is the only normal lawn tractor sized vertical shaft I have available at the moment. I'll do a quick hack job governor bypass for now, maybe hold the gov rod with a spring to no where so it doesn't throw itself apart. Then hook up direct to the carb with my throttle cable. I may have to get a bigger pulley for the crankshaft. Stock one is kinda tiny.

The handlebars are currently hooked into that adapter deal which I think is only held in place with a single bolt or set screw. I didn't really look at it that close. Anyway, I'm thinking just take all that off and weld the handlebars direct to the steering shaft after eye balling where a good adjustment would be. Probably some gussets to it's beefy.

Only have like 2 or 3 weekends to get this put together so it runs, we've gotta cut corners here.

Good news is I have the rear wheels that hold air and will go right on. I'll just need to cut the axles to the correct length and somehow pin the wheels on so the can't slide off. Hope the engine goes on easy.

The 17.5hp OHV Briggs is bolted in place. For now the stock exhaust will stay on. If I get it all done and have time I will do something with it before haspin
but that's doubtful. I also took the plastic gas tank off the newer donor craftsman but to get the stock holes to line up I will need to cut a small bit out of the dash on this one.
The thumb throttle I ordered online came in today, so I pretty much have all the parts to put this together. Waiting for the rain to stop so I can paint the hood and do some custom lettering.
It's been rainy all week.


Transaxle is out and I'm almost ready to put in the new one which has been doc locked at the Fackler garage a year ago. I think I can rig up a pretty simple shifter setup where
Doug had it before and that should work till after haspin. I need to at least have a front bumper/grab bar and maybe a couple headlights too. Battery will fit back under the seat again.
And speaking of seats, I have the stock seat off the donor craftsman that's in decent enough shape to bolt on. So mostly we aren't doing a whole lot of fab work right now,
just more or less bolting parts together from various tractors which we already know will fit. Only a couple weekends to go so I need to hustle things up.
Hopefully I can get the transaxle in and rear wheels on this weekend. Maybe test fire the engine and make sure it runs too.

Nice Progress, and good Ideas!

Thanks!

Permanent handlebar adjustment...


Gas tank needed some extra clearance, had to cut out some of the dash


Rear tires temporarily in place

Nice! I like this build a lot! What is the red tubing just under the right footplate in the last pic? Brake/throttle pedal?

I think that John Deere needs some mud tires!

That red is the brake pedal yeah. Throttle will go up on the handlebars. And the John deere is a customers grass cutter lol, can't off road that one.

Looking good mr.mod! I like that handle bar placement testing, haha.

Good progress!

Thanks

So...I realize I'm running out of time for haspin and I was going to leave the exhaust till last if I had time for it.
But then I thought, heck with it, gotta have a custom exhaust or forget it. So I figured this time I would try making my
own glass pack.

Six rows of holes in the stock size 1" pipe for the center. Went with small holes so the packing doesn't get out.
The outside is a 3" pipe squished into an oval shape.
The oval shape just because Doug's new exhaust system has an oval outlet and I thought it looked cool.
16 gauge steel for the ends, same as the pipe more or less.


Making the 2nd end cap


Getting some free packing out of an old muffler


Packing installed


Inside the pipe


Ready to weld it shut. Hope it sounds cool. Ended up being a little bit heavy but not horrible. The packing weighs more than you
would think. The plan is to bolt it to the frame and have the pipe exit under the running board.

Nice work! I always like to see your custom exhaust designs. Do you think the packing would quieten it down too much? Depends how loud you want the engine to be.

Sweet glass pack. I'm curious to see how that will sound.