Craftsman GT3000 "MUTT" Part II

Oh don’t worry, I’ll find a way. I’ll take her out this afternoon and see how she handles but I’ll probably pull the wheels off and put them on the GT6k. I can already tell the mudlites are too old and stiff for my liking.

I found some carb mounting boots that use the same mounting spacing. Planning on switching to these so I can switch between the 34 and 28mm carbs easily. The maxxis sticker is for her too


Something else, I’ve been brainstorming on an auxiliary accelerator pump, with an injector over each intake port. We’ll see about that. Still very much in planning stages.

I got one of my carb boots in and immediately decided that I didn’t like how that kind of mounting was going to turn out. Just too big and bulky

What could this fool be up to now…


There wasn’t much of a groove for the set screws in my mount to catch so I made a nice bigger one.


I don’t think I spun the carb fast enough to hurt it, only 200rpm or so.

Running that same carb on a moped polini kit, sure it's gonna be enough carb?

In hindsight, going from the 34 to the 28 seems a bit extreme, but if it aids responsiveness and doesn’t hurt the high end too much it’ll be fine with me. It’s still more carb than stock and I can always swap back to the 34mm and save this one for another project.

Here’s the cracked brake caliper mount.


Cut down a piece of 2x1/4” angle for a new mount.


Measure hole spacing from the sides of the holes, it is much easier than eyeballing center.


Scribe the center of the first hole with calipers. I just use the readout on the mill to get to the second hole position, as I know the hole spacing from earlier.


Using a pointer to find the intersection of the scribed lines.


All better, should be plenty rugged!


BUT WAIT!

Upon reassembly I realized there was something missing…I looked high and low in the shop and couldn’t find it…a whole brake pad was missing! Upon inspecting the pad I had left, I saw it was wore down to almost nothing. I think the cheap pads I had wore out quick and one of them fell out. I did have a few empty pushes of the brakes at LCQ, that must have been when they fell out. Luckily the brake pistons had little plastic pushers in them and didn’t score the rotor. I just reinstalled my old brake pads for now.


Just for fun, here’s some measurements I came up with for mutt. I don’t fully believe that weight, it’s way off what I came up with last time.


And here’s some size comparisons on tires. Left is the 26x11-12 Bighorn 2.0s, center is 27x12-10 mud bugs, and right is my 26x10-12 executioners. The executioners really get kinda small when you run with no air in them.

Interesting Stats! I need to get some for mine.

Wheelbase and weight distribution are the two most interesting stats to compare between tractors, in my opinion. Mutt is a short wheelbase tractor compared to a Sears or wheel horse, losing stability on hills, but has more weight distributed up front compared to most other tractors. Its a combination that has definitely worked out in my favor.

A machinist trick to hole spacing, measure outside of both holes then if holes are same size deduct the width of one hole and you'll be dead nutz center on both holes.

That way works good. I’ll also measure the shortest distance between the insides of the holes and the longest distance between the outsides and just average them. That’s if I don’t feel like measuring the size of the holes. Holes still have to be the same size though.

Mounted up these 25x11-10 mudlites. These rims are a bit narrow for them. Need beadlocks to add some extra width to the rims


Went out and found some rocks to try these babies out.


I have the mudlites at 3psi and they’re still just about to fall off the rim. Isn’t really any good safety bead on these rims. It is super impressive how the tires run at 3psi though. Seems the 10” rims make a nice difference. They don’t really beat my bighorns though.


Sadly it seems I’ve given my old exhaust one too many snap crackle pops. She let go on the drive home   Guess I’ll have to go find some welding gas

Welp, I screwed up.

The first thing I did was piss off a nest of yellow jackets in a tree stump. So naturally I was riding in the opposite direction. At quite a clip. Dropped the front end into a rut, she stopped hard for just a second but popped out and kept going. I didn’t think much of it but I thought the tractor felt real weird. Little later on I got to looking and saw this….the frame is bucked up in the center.


Check where the frame buckled from being shoved together. Looks just the same on both sides. Buckled right under the clutch pedal shaft.


She’s still functional as is…but there’s some serious rehabilitation to be done

Holy Toledo! That's a pretty serious bend. Especially for that style frame. I've always thought the weakest part was where the side frames reduce down to the engine plate. You going to straighten and run some angle down the frame to stiffen?

That’s about the plan. Set it up on the big trailer and see if I can draw the frame back down with a chain hoist or something. I don’t think I can fit angle iron in there but some 1/4x2 flatstock should be doable.

Looks great! More ground clearance so you're less likely to get high centered! Lol

Pulled the running boards off so I could run a chain through the frame and use some screw binders to pull the frame back down. Worked pretty good. I had jack stands under the front axle, the binders had them pulled down about to the rims haha.


Somehow I got distracted screwing with the carb instead of bracing the frame. It just wasn’t acting right. I guess this might have something to do with it.


The needle has disassembled itself! Damn Chinese junk.


I fooled with that carb for a bit more after I crimped the needle back together. I just got fed up and decided to try something else.

What ever could I be 3D printing now?


Oh look, what a nice little 28mm carb! With a 3D printed snorkel adapter!


Here I already have the two mounting holes tapped and am using my CNC mill to cut the bore for the carb to fit into.  Briggs oppy carb bolt spacing is 2-1/16” with two 1/4” bolts for whoever is interested.


Same deal as my last adapter, just perhaps a little more refined. I took care to fit everything nicer this time. The set screws have a BB at the end of them, and are spaced to catch the groove in the stem of the carb and push the face of the carb against an O ring. Seems to seal fine.


Here it is mounted on the oppy without the snorkel tube.


She seems to run good! Seems more responsive. I will have to do more tuning when it’s not 11pm haha. Will upload a video soon.

Ok… @MightyRaze I think we need to give @RichieRichOverdrive the title of “Zip Ties N Bias Plies of Garden tractors.

I kid, that new carb looks good on there.

Hahaha, an honor to be compared to ol Peg

Got my frame bolsters made up last night. They will run all the way from the front mounts of the transaxle to just behind the front axle mount, welded to the outside of the frame. This will move my running boards out 1/4” on either side. Not a big deal really. You can see in the centers of them where I had to notch where the clutch shaft is and dash bolts on.

She’s nakey!


The side plates that kind of make up the dash column didn’t leave much room for a weld without cutting out a bunch of material out of the bolsters, so I notched them around the bolts.


All welded up. Threw some black paint on after I took the pic

Nice fix and upgrade!

I added these extra brackets to the rear fender mount. Adds two extra mounting points for the fender instead of just having flimsy one in the middle.


Four bolts was probably overkill, but oh well lol


With a little fooling with the running boards to accommodate for the extra frame width, most everything is back together.

Dude!  You OK?  I saw the carnage to MUTT from this past weekend.  You left quite the impression on the ground it looked.

It was a crazy weekend out with Giverthebeans!


Hit some nice ones on powerline hill, should make some good video


I did get a little splattered on studabaker hill though. I caught the left side of a rut and it cocked my steering over, I rolled back and she went over.


Josh theiry said she went like 12ft before the hood hit the ground. It was a half backward half sideways roll. The hood and grille left a nice paint mark in the ground.


She somehow rolled back into the wheels and idled down the hill. The steering was already hurt before the roll, so the only thing that was really hurt was the hood. Did knock my air filter off, but that went right back on. I had to unbolt the hood to open it too haha. I’ve got a few fresh hoods and grilles around, looks like an engine cage needs to be moved up the list.

My clutch hasn’t worked right all weekend with the new belt, i think I might have a dud belt. The carb doesn’t idle right, and I think I dropped a pad and blew out the brake piston coming out of spaas creek. Oh, and something in the belt system locked up right as I got her back on the truck. Go figure! Looks like I’ve got some work ahead of me

It looks like it would be a hoot riding with you guys! Keep them videos coming!

Some carnage. Missing part of a tooth here.


Steering shaft bent too


Took the winch off so I can get an engine cage built before I cut the hood.


Side plate off the dash…ignore the birds nest…working on getting rack and pinion steering in there. Trying to decide where to mount the dang thing. Gonna need to put the steering shaft in bearings too.  

Nice carnage. Just shows you were riding hard and having fun. Rack and Pinion will be nice. I don't think I can turn as sharp with mine. I have my geometry as close to the spindle as I can too. You going to use it as a push pull to the bell crank or across the axle?