CraftsmanQuad Mark II

New steering box is mounted. It’s tight underneath, but everything clears like it should. Dash is getting put back together now, I’ll be using the amperage gauge that came off the steering donor tractor as well, definitely liking this setup better already.

Once the steering and wiring is 100% done I’ll pull the transaxle and figure out why I don’t have reverse

Yeah man, serious work going on at the craftsman garage! Lookin good!

Oh yeah haha, she’s deep under the knife, er...plasma cutter, uh...death wheel. All of the above!

Dash is back together, threw a new seat on it, used the steering wheel from the steering donor tractor just because it feels comfortable. It’s a nice thick wheel so my big hands can easily grab hold of it and it shouldn’t bend around too bad.

New heim joints should be in tomorrow so I’ll be able to get all the links put back on. This new seat has the hole in a different spot so when I put it on my old hinge and bracket assembly it end led me to move it even farther back if I so choose. Nice thick padding and the crack is in a much more manageable spot. I’d like to get one without a crack at all at some point but for now, it’s better then it was

Charging system is done, replaced the starter cable with one from one of my spare harnesses since the one I made last minute last year was starting to come apart. It was nice cable, but the ends I got wouldn’t stay crimped on. I saw that being a potential issue so I got rid of it. I wrapped the new one up and around the engine so it wouldn’t hit on the exhaust and I’m much happier with how it’s ran and the quality of the cable as a whole. Only electrical thing left now is the toggle for the electronic carb solenoid. Before I would start it I would have to remember to plug it in. Now I’m hoping to start it without having to open the hood to plug in the solenoid and hold the choke by hand haha

Just cut the plunger off, don't want it to fail you on some trail.

Usually I do, but I want to touch this engine as little as possible since it’s literally brand new. Even the governor will stay intact for awhile

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Usually I do, but I want to touch this engine as little as possible since it’s literally brand new. Even the governor will stay intact for awhile

I agree. Especially since you're eventually going to through the slant single back on.

Lol I think the slant single is dead. Mostly because I can’t find pistons. The 14-16 share a block, and the 18-20 share a block. The only set of rods and pistons I have are for the smaller 14-16 bore. I can’t swap the rod to the 18-20 piston because the piston skirt got absolutely destroyed.

I’ll put the 18 horse heads on the “rebuilt” 16 horse and call it good. I still need a gasket set for it. That’s the only reason it’s still opened up on the bench

Went to the biggest mower junkyard I’ve ever seen today. Saw an AWS craftsman identical to the one I started with for the original CraftsmanQuad, with a 14 horse vanguard on it, doubtless suburb and of all varieties, so many craftsman GTs with 633s, and so many MTDs. There were rows of allis/simplicity tractors too.

Got a 6 speed 820 from a craftsman, and got rid of a JD GT I had

Got it driving today, new steering feels so much tighter. I swapped front hubs to some from another Chinese atv that did not have front brakes. This narrows up my track width a touch so it matches the back a little better and gives me new bearings and nuts with cotter keys already installed. The downside is the tabs that the tie rods bolt to are half as thick as the hubs with the brakes, so I’m taking the old ones as spares. I see that as a potential failure point. I’m also bringing spare A arms and the tabs I made. That way if anything goes wrong in the front end I've got two spares of everything.

Next up is the transaxle. Looking forward to swapping to the 6 speed and hopefully having reverse back

Love the new stance on the front, looks way better to me now. glad to see it up and moving. Looking forward to seeing it in action

You going to make it out to haspin this year? Can’t remember if you said you were going or not. Got the transaxle yoinked out real quick. Going to pressure wash it and crack it open first thing tomorrow so hopefully I’ll have all the gears this year haha

Almost as last minute as me in 2016 putting the simplicity together. Couple days to go, see you there!

Transaxle is back in, adjusted the shifter and she’s got reverse! I want to climb with it a little and just make sure the shift keys aren’t skipping since I never took the gear stack apart. Seemed to run through the gears fine on jackstands. It was late though so I had the ignition off and just ran the starter.

Only thing I need to do now is trim one bolt and make one belt keeper and she’s ready to rock! I can’t wait!!

it did really good this year, cool to watch the front suspension work

I agree. Wasn’t going to try any of the deep stuff you and Studebaker were going through though haha

I bet it would actually do pretty good if you put it in a high enough gear to clean out the tires, I was watching Jordan and he actually did really well in the deeper stuff because he was in a tall gear and would hammer it.

Maybe. Just with 18 inch back tires it high centers pretty quick. If it was a flat mud hole it would probably be fine.

Few updates needed after haspin though, definitely needs belt guides. Dunno what happened but when I put in the gen2 steering the stock belt guide on the front idler didn’t fit anymore. So that’s annoying. I got real sick of putting the belt back on.

Second thing is headlights. I couldn’t see diddly squat with the factory lights pointed up like they were. I’ve got an idea for where I want to put some light pods, but still fairly close to the ground. Should look good but usability in real choppy terrain might not be the best. Lots of shadows on the ground and won’t be able to see how deep things are

Third is just fixing the body up. I’ve never been happy with how these fenders fit so I’m going to cut up a new set of fenders that will look much nicer, attach to my C channel on the floorboards, and won’t rattle around. Might be strong enough to lean on. The C channel on the floorboards needs the corners rounded off. I cut my calf when I had to bail the first time I rolled it. No good. Also, I accidentally made a swivel seat that was nice when we had breaks on the trails to just hang out, but I didn’t really have a way to keep it in place while riding.

Lastly is steering. The gen2 steering is leaps and bounds better than the last setup, but the bellcrank in the front still leaves a bit to be desired. Definitely going to look at how to make that pivot stronger and smoother. The ratio as it is now isn’t far off from 1:1, but there’s just enough play in the wheel to be sketchy at times. I actually broke the 3/8 bolt that the bellcrank pivots on during the end of the last trail ride. @mr.modified had to run back to camp and find a bolt that could get me back. Only had a few hundred yards to go

Nothing on this list is particularly large, but these little things should make a huge difference come next year

I think the Mk 2 really turned out good. First time I saw it in person was this year. Front suspension setup is pretty nice and now that I think of it, I think it's the only IFS setup that was out there. Probably a lot lighter than my wishbone setup. I know you were talking about some swing arm weakness but I think that could be fixed easy enough with a little bracing.

This is the small idler pulley I was talking about if you ever need to fit one in a tight spot, tractor supply usually has them but I couldn't get on their website. Pretty sure this is the one I use on the simplicity for the clutch pulley.

2-1/4" idler pulley

I’ve actually got a 2 1/4 inch idler under it just to stabilize the belt and keep it from shaking around so bad. There’s a lot of distance between engine pulley and transaxle pulley. The belt is 103 inches I think

Well, little update on this thing. Found a MINT seat that fit perfectly at the junkyard for free, so no more cracks and the swivel seat is gone. The last straw was when it swiveled on me and I couldn’t shift my weight while doing donuts and rolled it on top of myself in front of a couple buddies....that was embarrassing.

Also rebuilt my steering bellcrank with an idea I “borrowed” from @AllisKidD21 where instead of trying to affix bearings to my bellcrank, why not just chop up an idler pulley? Already has the offset inner race to clamp tight against the frame with no washers, and smooth bearings. My old bellcrank pivoted on a 3/8 grade 8 bolt, and it broke once and bent another time. This time around I decided to use either a 1/2 or 5/8 bolt. I honestly can’t remember...it’s been a few weeks lol. The black pieces I welded to the pulley are leftover carrier bearing shims from the ford transit vans back when I still worked at a ford dealer lol (they used a rag joint coming out of the transmission )

Anyway I need to tweak it a little. I drilled the holes too close together for the tie rods so the tie rod ends bind up. It doesn’t turn as sharp as I’d like because of this. I’ll weld the holes shut, grind them smooth and re drill at some point. But right now it’s far better than it was. No where near as sketchy as it was



Pic of the old and new side by side

Few updates from today. Freshened the tractor up with some new spark plugs and air filter (old ones were oil fouled from rolling it more than once), a synthetic oil change using AMSOIL 10-30, a fresh 420CA battery, and some LED headlight bulbs. They are a much whiter light, but not a ton brighter. I’ll take the lens off and repaint the reflective surface behind it with some chrome spray paint and clean off the back side of the lens. I’m sure it’ll work MUCH better after that.

cool man looking forward to seeing it at haspin again

Cant wait to see it again.  I'm determined to ride as much as my back allows!