MTD - "Budgie"

Nice! The new stance looks meaner for sure.

I guess no welding today, looks like it's gonna rain. Can't pull her in the shop because of the stupid truck in there.

Well as soon as I said that it brightened right up lol.

Most important part of welding cracks, you drill a hole at the end. Welded it and grinded it but forgot to get a pic.





Not a good example of my welding


Now for some front axle strengthening


Turned out ok, not done yet though.

Yep, always a good idea to drill the ends of a crack before welding it, that way it doesn't just keep going. Haha. Looks good! Gonna do the steel on the bottom of the axle too or no?

If nothing else, I'll weld up the seam on the bottom better.

Working at bracing the ends

You see a lot of people splitting the ends of the these stamped steel axles open.  This bracing should help a lot.

Big wheels, I would definitely keep reinforcing the frame.

Not sure what I'm doing with the frame yet.

Ugh, these axle ends are gonna be ugly as all hell. I should have known better than to weld tubing with stick

I would just add some tube on the inside

I guess this is it. Ends are ugly but oh well. Welded up the seam on the bottom a bit better, and added a better center pivot by drilling out the hole and welding in 1/2" pipe and drilling it out to 5/8".

Threw some paint on the axle, kinda heavily to cover my trashy welds lol. Debating on using Mutt's old spindles on this, the steering arms on the mtd spindles are kinda thin for steering arm material. I'll see how those spindles fit and if they do I might use em.

If it's not raining tomorrow I'll try and get the axle pivot welded in. Started tonight and i threw a tarp over her.

Oh, and found something to use for an engine mount plate. Hitch plate from the murray gt i stole the 820 and all the other stuff from. 3/16" or 1/4" plate, plenty heavy for what I'm doing.

Yeah welds aren't the greatest but it looks strong.  That looks like some great scrap material to make a motor mount out of.

Cut the plate down to fit. The sides just happened to come down as far as the frame, which is cool. Perfectly cut a 13/16" strip out of the middle, honestly I'm proud of myself lol.


Welded and painted. Would have kept going with the axle pivot but the sky turned kinda dark and i didnt wanna get rained on.

It should be a lot stronger too.

Yep, definitely is. Not sure if I'll be doing any more frame reinforcement yet, we'll see I guess. I got some really thick channel steel that would be nice for this. and would really stiffen her up. I feel like I'm making a wheel horse out of this thing lol.

Welded on the new pivot point


I like it a lot better now, she's a lot better off for articulation


Next i think I'll do steering stops and other steering stuff.

Got one steering stop welded on.

Are those 5/8" or 3/4" axles?

3/4". I'm not dumb enough to use 5/8" lol

Got the other steering stop on so i decided to work on the engine. Decided on using this big beautiful 60s 6hp Briggs

Took a bit to get this pulley off. I wish it wouldn't have broke.


Looks good on there. Under the hood should be pretty roomy.


The original throttle arm was broken off, I put this thing on but i dont know how it will fare. We'll see i guess. Running it ungoverned.


Oh, and i made a pulley for her out of the Murray GT deck pulley. Pretty much the same as the one on Mutt.


So next I suppose I'll get the engine mounted (and running at least, it's sat a few months since it last ran)

Good old updraft carb, haha. Looks pretty good in the frame there Rich, should work out well.

The engine suits the frame quite well. That Briggs will outlast a Honda clone by far. Btw, what happened to the clone engine?

Nothing. I just like the Briggs better

Definitely go with an old briggs that doesn't owe you anyhing since this is a budget build.  Any more ideas on belt routing now that you have the engine mocked up?

A few idler pulleys to keep the belt off the frame. As for the clutch? I might be able to reuse the original jackshaft/clutch setup.

Ordered two outer axle bearings, a throttle clevis thing(sounds dumb but it saves a lot of pain with cables), and a case gasket. Gonna pull this trans apart and lock it and put some seals(and sealed bearings) in it so it doesnt leak like a stuck pig anymore.

You spent $$$$ on parts

Yeah, cuz i actually kinda have some money now lol.