[FINALIST] - Murraymountain's Mountain Murray [2019 Build-Off Entry]

That you will just have to play with a multimeter or test light.  Like on my Murray, it had 4 wires.  2 on when depressed 2 off. The pairs would be opposite when not pushed down.  On the craftsman, I only had 2 wires.  Like I mentioned, you just have to figure it out.  Also, if you want "brake" lights and regular lights on the same circuit, you will need to introduce a diode in there to keep the power back-feeding.  Easier to have them separate.

Yeah I'm doing separate. I'll figure it out I guess. Thanks!

It's not too hard.  You'll get it pretty easilly.

Okay, not sure where to begin.... I guess we'll start at Wednesday morning. So, first, I threw in the brake lights...




Something I did earlier, the front axle locker...



Mud guard for shifter hole...




Then I did some painting...




And yesterday ended looking like this... Yes I dropped the tranny somewhere in that time frame.



Then I came back at 8:30 this morning and worked on finishing up the paint...






Still need to do the engine block, tranny casings, and exhaust. I did the skid plate, and back of the seat, just forgot to take pics.

Anyway, from there, I completed everything that needs to be done to the hood. ALL the lights are mounted and wired on the hood side (horn wired too). First thing tomorrow is to wire them on the dash side and try 'em out! I like the looks a lot! Very smooth and modern...





The longer brackets compliment the front end a lot in my opinion. Looks meant to be...



And here's how she sits now... The double pulley clutch is in too, just need to come up with some springs. All the self-tapping bolts have been replaced too. I also took the trailer hitch plate off and cut out 2 places where it would mount to the top plate. Now I only have to take off 6 easily accessed bolts and bam... I can access any place on the tranny I need to.




I have a heck of a clean up job to do when I get it outside. Anyway, she's startin' to look like she's s'posed to!

Is the black box for the winch water proof? And do I need that little silver one?

Black box is not waterproof. The little silver one is a "fuse".

MightyRaze wrote:

Black box is not waterproof.  The little silver one is a "fuse".

Not waterproof! Great. I just mounted it where it can get plenty wet. Where'd you put it on Red?

I currently do not have a winch on Red. Just Kal and Patriot. Also, the winch I DID have on it wasn't a remote harbor freight one. It was an old switched 5K lbs one. Kal's is on the front suspension. You can probabably loosen the bottom 4 screws and silicone it up to be waterproof.

Okay, I'll do that.


In the mean time....

Saturday morning update:

Everything installed and wired (winch does not have a toggle, and brake switch still needs to be mounted)
New gas pedal installed
Exhaust leak fixed
Audio sys. installed and working

Headlights off:


Orange headlights:


All headlights:


Main headlight:


Weekend goal: Have tractor complete besides trans. and engine.

Another question... If I make the solenoid the power point for the winch, will it burn the solenoid up? Do I have to connect it straight to the battery?

If on the battery side, it should be fine.

Okay, just wanted to make sure I don't have to wire it again.

Okay, so, 'nother big update!

Here's where the winch had to go...



After that picture was taken I moved it outside in the light so I could clean up the mess I had been working on for several days...



Then I put the brush guard back on...



How I mounted it (yes, those are nuts serving as spacers)...




And this..... this just made my day seeing how these tow hooks turned out... 100% meant to be!



This is the weird, 'latch', I came up with for the tool box...



Solenoid door mounted. I used a VERY strange method for quick access, but it works great!



Hood latch finally works right!



Some padding (old turf-saver tread) for the hood...



Final gas pedal setup (I might do a little something to the pedal itself)...



This thing is WAY better looking and WAY more fun than I thought! The brake lights and gas pedal are working and officially done, the "black box" has been waterproofed, everything is about to get labeled,  etc. This week was a pain in the butt, but I'm sure it'll be worth it. For some reason I'm really tired today and this has been my easiest day yet... Guess this past week is catching up to me. Tomorrow is my last day of break week, so Ima just take it easy. Also, the Kohler deal is gone... Blew all my money on this build and missed that opportunity. The 15 horse Briggs isn't hurting bad enough for me to waste money on another engine yet. Anyway, this build oughta be something for all the Murray Widebodies around the world to be proud of!

Hope those hooks don't tweak your front bumper.

Yeah I thought about that. I don't think I'll get stuck bad enough to damage it.

headlights came out cool, looks automotive... The hooks should be spun 90deg like mighty is saying.

You mean 180 degrees? I thought about that but wouldn't whatever rope that's hooked to it slip off? The way I have them now, nothing will slip off.

I think mrshaft meant turned 90° as in pointing away from the tractor so they are horizontal, that way they would pull straight instead of twist the bumper like the current setup.

That's how I read it anyways, I could be way off, haha.

EDIT- Oh actually I think he meant turned 90° sideways so they would swing back and forth. I see now...

Ah I see. I'm not sure where else to put it on a Widebody though. Very limited space. I'll do a strength test on them. If I have to I can have another identical piece of steel welded on top of that one since I'm using spacers to stop the back and forth play in the hooks.

You could just weld tabs with little gussets that stick out perpendicular to the center piece on the bumper, then drill holes in them to allow for a place to mount the hooks.

That's how I did the clevis mounts for the bumper on the MTD, worked pretty well. You just gotta make sure the bumper is mounted solid enough or you might be in for an embarrassing moment, haha.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

I think mrshaft meant turned 90° as in pointing away from the tractor so they are horizontal, that way they would pull straight instead of twist the bumper like the current setup.

That's how I read it anyways, I could be way off, haha.

EDIT- Oh actually I think he meant turned 90° sideways so they would swing back and forth. I see now...

Take a piece of 1/4" drill a hole in it big enough for the hook and weld it on like this.....that way the hooks pull on the bumper and can pivot as intended. Look at any jeep "D" ring bumper, I mean this is just a tractor but they way it is will bend with the quickness...

Yeah I see what you mean. Our Hummer has the D-rings. I can try that. I'm taking it back to the fab shop for a day to do a couple quickies anyway, so I'll have that done too.

Great looking front end. I also like the lights with the clear lens...real clean look. As for the bumper I would treat it as a cosmetic mod the way it is mounted. I would think those bolts would not hold up to a hard hit or pull. Maybe when you get to the fab shop you can have them make a plate to mount the bumper to the frame? Anyway you have a lot of creative mods in your build.

Thanks!

The bolts are a bit small... I'll probably replace those with some heavier duty ones. With bolts a little bit bigger, the next weakest link is the front end itself. So better bolts are my only option for that.

I decided to try and label the switches... No pics will be posted... The way they turned out they will be going away fast.

Alright, down to the final to-do list...

-Remove that crappy 3rd seat spring (have to take the grinder to it because it's rust welded)
-Install a rack
-Get the right belt
-Fix the sticky clutch
-RE-label everything
-Redo tow hooks
-Get better bolts for the brush guard
-Vent transaxle
-Add bearings to Doc Locker
-Add a grease fitting to the input shaft
-Fix transaxle leak
-Weld steering plate, shaft bushing, and clutch to the frame
-Weld hood bolts to hood
-Replace dash and hood screws
-Right transaxle bracket reinforcement
-Winch protection

And once all that is done, I can call this one complete!

Headlight looks really cool!!

Thanks! It's definitely better than I thought it would be... And it still would've looked good if it came out like I expected.