Murraymountain's "Ole Blue" Widebody

Well guys, here it is. The one that got me into this stuff.



That is a picture of how it currently sits. But lets start from the beginning...

So, back in September of 2017, I finally got something to drive (now my "daily driver").



A nice, free, 2000 something hydrostatic drive Murray widebody. This was my first mower ever. Anyway I got it from a friend who owns our local tractor shop, and the guy who originally had it did not take care of it and it smoked really bad so he gave it to the shop owner and told him he was gonna buy a new one. So after we got it we did a tune up on it and it ran great besides a lot of smoke lol. I didn't really mess with it except for removing the mowing deck. Now it's April of 2018. I guess it all started when me and my grandpa put a cup holder on it. Funny that a cup holder turned it into what it is now.



And then I started messing with the engine and also stripped the spark plug hole which made me put a helicoil in it so now I can't abuse it too much lol. This is when I really started to learn about engines. Also found out that the smoke was from a blown head gasket (also notice the rims).



Then it happened. July came around, I went mod crazy and it hasn't stopped yet, but only gained momentum. I worked on it as my main project from July to the last few hours of the year. Here's the stage 1 upgrades (stage 2 hasn't started yet. That will probably be next years build off if I want to do it).

Pull start...

Tool box (The Murray Box)...

Toggle switch headlights, hood pins, and temporary bumper guard...

Lighting upgrade in progress...

New running and tail lights...

New headlights, Foot throttle (temporary) + EZ remove hood (look closely)...

Extra rope (on hood mounts) + Bluetooth speaker (on dash)...


Then I stopped upgrading for a bit. I forgot why, maybe I needed some money. Who knows.

Couple of off-roading pics...



Modified turfs... (I know. Anything's better than turfs. IDC!)

Mud flaps in progress...

Completed mud flaps (Hood is off because I was replacing the muffler)...

Pulley swap in progress ( I also know that pulley swapping a hydro is a bad idea. Again, I Don't Care!)...


Wheel pin sheared off...

Final bumper guard...

More running lights, Go pro mounts, cargo holder, rag holder (beside the Murray Box), and a latch on the solenoid door for easy access.

Replacing the broken hydro fan (I had a deadline for stage 1 which was the end of the year. Well when this pic was taking it was new years eve. Barely made it.)

it's a New year and she's ready for chaos...


Now, what have I done since? Well...

Brother got a lil' stuck  

Then me...

Another day, back at it. "Whoops, got stuck again. That stupid hydro's not fast enough!"  

After the mud...


In the woods...

Out for a drive...

Yes! Now it's his turn!...

Back in the mud...


Look closely. See my brothers Murray still in the mud, only mine made it out intact.

Playin' near the creek...


Don't forget mud mowers were also made to be worked...


And here we are... present day...


(I am totally sorry about the sideways pics. I use a digital camera and it's about at the end of its life. But if it works it works.)

So, that's that. Any future plans? Oh yes, were just getting started. I was gonna buy an old craftsman from the 80s and do the mods that I'm planning for the Murray to it because I've always wanted one. But no one wants to sell theirs, so I thought, "what am I gonna do with the Murray anyway? Well that's the start of stage 2. But I have the Mountain Murray to work on right now so maybe some time late this year or early next year we'll start on it. Let the plans begin...

So, first and foremost is a tranny swap. Looking for a MST-205. 6 to 4 pulley ratio, left hand shift, locked diff. Maybe some sort of a hand brake.

-Electric horn just for fun

-Tire swap (V-tread)

-Side pipes

-Gas pedal

-Full suspension

-Frame, body, and steering column reinforcements

-Snorkel

-T-handle shift knob

-wheel bushings

-Maybe a lift

-Speedometer, clock, thermometer, compass, engine heat, RPM gauge, fuel gauge

-Rebuild the brush guard

-Billet rod, flywheel, crank, all the good stuff

-High performance carb, head, maybe run it governorless

And then have a good time thrashing it, mudding it, romping it, and running it in every event I can. I might be able to salvage the
beat up hydro and put it in a actual lawn mower. But I'm not jumping to conclusions, it still has a little while before it's thrashing days are over. Well guys it rained all night so I'm gonna go beat on the poor hydro some more.

Alright, so if you've seen my thread www.atltf.com/t6056-how-do-i-know-my-hydro-is-about-to-die#101590, then you know that I've been having some problems with this thing. Well, turns out it was just a bunch of belt slippage. Soooo... I've been doing some things I probably shouldn't....



That's today.

Here's the side my brother didn't do rooster tails on...




Here's the side he deliberately shot his rooster tails on...



Yes I've had a good time today. And... Just to annoy them a little, I'm planning on bringing it to a car wash my youth group is doing next month. Yeah, they got they're work cut out for 'em.

So, plans have changed a lot and I expect them change more. So in that case, I'm not saying anything about 'em until I'm sure if I want to enter it in the build-off next year. I know that's far away but I'm just sayin'.

just aquired a off brand that is that same wide body (cant remember what brand) but 6 speed i think it will be a good back up trail mower. gotta pick it up tomarrow and see what i got

Probably a Lawn General.

Murraymountain wrote:

Probably a Lawn General.

it is a Quality farm and country Green with yellow decal.

Hmmm...? I just looked at some pics of 'em online and they appear to be mostly made by AYP. As we know in that time AYP and MTD can easily be told apart, yet Quality Farm and Country has their name on both brands. I don't see how both AYP and MTD can own the brand? Kinda strange...

(BTW, you may want to start a thread for it so this one doesn't get jacked and so you don't get a Admin warning. Just sayin'...)

i was just telling you about it ill back off.

Oh no... I just meant I didn't want anyone getting an admin warning. Sorry if it came out that way. I'd love to hear about it!

Alright guys, not gonna post any pics yet but when I was going through some mud yesterday, I hit a rock pretty hard and it did some damage to the brush guard mounts. So I've been trying to fix it today, and since I was already doing that, I decided to fix some other things wrong with it. Anyway, I had to take the steering column off, and because it's off, I'm gonna go ahead and delete the safety switches out of the system. BUT, I want to keep everything except the switches. Can someone tell me how to do that?

So as I stated before I had a "minor fender bender" the other day. Thank God for the brush guard. It did a number on the hood bracket that it was mounted to. No pics of the damage, but this is why I had to fix it...



And because I was gonna spend all that time fixing that, I decided to fix everything else wrong with it. Therefore...(mini) tear down...



So far I tightened somewhere around the 10 mark of stupid self-tapping bolts rattling out, changed the power connection for the lights from the battery to the solenoid, greased the fittings, and reinforced/re-mounted the steering column in 6 places. All 4 mounts tore off and the 2 back ones rattled out. I never posted anything about it but I went ahead and did the sep. choke, and whenever going uphill or pulling on the column it would fall back pulling the choke wire and bogs down the motor so I had to fix it. Anyway, It ain't goin' nowhere. Hopefully I can get the hood back on today. And since the brush guard is already off, I'm gonna rebuild it. I'll see what I can get done today.

@Murraymountain Would you like to keep your factory key switch or are you switching to a kill switch/pushbutton start setup?

Yes. I'd like to keep the original one. In the future I might put something like this on it...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ignition-Switch-Lawn-Tractor-Key-Mower-Starter-Craftsman-Riding-Replaces-Murray-/143088293179?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&nma=true&si=6n3WjifZVKMlQ9rLJETGUXLCBeo%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc

But for now I just want the safety switches gone.

How is the hydro doing?  Getting hot from mud?  May be a good time to clean that up as well.

I do not recommend that style tractor key switch. Mine was very sketchy from day 1 and it would frequently stick in the start position.


So what key switch do you have? If it’s a classic Indak one it should have terminals marked as the following:
s-solenoid
M-ignition coil
L-lights
b- battery (also connect to charging wire)
G-ground

All you do is run wires from the components directly to the correct pin on your ignition switch and you’ve bypassed the safety switches and cleaned up your wiring at the same time.

MightyRaze wrote:

How is the hydro doing?  Getting hot from mud?  May be a good time to clean that up as well.

The hydro is doing well. Much better than I expected actually. As for the amount of heat I'm not very sure. The problem the whole time was belt slippage. So I tightened it to the max. It's really just time for a new belt but it'll be fine for now. I did a fair amount of cleaning when I put a new fan on it so it shouldn't be too dirty. Anyway, it's doing well enough that I think it might survive this year and live on in a actual lawn mower doing what it was made to do.

Crazy_Carl wrote:

I do not recommend that style tractor key switch.  Mine was very sketchy from day 1 and it would frequently stick in the start position.


So what key switch do you have?  If it’s a classic Indak one it should have terminals marked as the following:
s-solenoid
M-ignition coil
L-lights
b- battery (also connect to charging wire)
G-ground

All you do is run wires from the components directly to the correct pin on your ignition switch and you’ve bypassed the safety switches and cleaned up your wiring at the same time.

Basically I was saying that I'd want a key that is different than any lawn tractor key. That listing is no longer so it doesn't really matter.
I think mine also has Y on it. It has something like a 1 2 3 prong build up it and then 1 separate one. 7 prongs total.

So, I'm almost done with repairs for now. Yesterday I re-drilled the hood pin holes, fixed any damage from the rock, blew a hole in the gas tank and replaced it today, put the hood back on, put the brush guard back on, and replaced the tool box because the old one literally fell apart. Not too fond of the looks but it holds a heck of a lot more tools!



Now I just need to change the oil. I can't change the spark plug because it pulls the helicoil out every time, so I hope it'll last till I change the head. And on Friday I'm hoping to get the brush guard welded to strengthen it up some, and also the reason why it was free is because it had a bad crack from where someone decided it was time to take down some trees, so I'll get that fixed too along with welding the steering column reinforcements to the column.

This Saturday. The Murray gets a good washin'. My youth group is doing a car wash for a found raiser, and they got a surprise coming. I'll be sure to get some pics.

Got the oil changed tonight! What came out of it wasn't too dirty, so that's good. Here's some pics of the tool box, (temporary) gun rack/cargo carrier, and steering column reinforcements...

i like how you reinforced the dash, the dash mounts on both my murray trail mower and my brothers murray grasscutter are broken and this looks like a stronger solution to fix them than using large washers on the original mounting spots

Yeah this is the one big flaw with the widebodys. I tried the washer solution but they'd hold for maybe a week and rattle out, so I just gave up on that. It's kinda a pain in the butt to get the holes drilled and all that, but let me tell ya, that dash ain't goin' nowhere now.

i was thinking for a key switch, if you want something different, you could go with a key switch for a 70s ford pickup, they're a dash mount unit instead of in the column and should work well on a mower, if i remember correctly they are fairly cheap and of course come with an automotive key instead of a mower style key

Okay thanks! I'll look into that.

sorry the one i thought was for a 70s f100 was wrong, the one in my old truck had to have been replaced with an older style at some point, the one i was refering to and is what was in my truck is actually for a 1957 f100 it has 4 threaded posts, batt, accessory, start and  ignition which i assume would be the kill switch, here's a link to the one i was thinking of
https://www.autozone.com/batteries-starting-and-charging/ignition-switch/duralast-ignition-switch/763912_0_0?checkfit=true, $20 for the switch it doesn't come with the key cylinder but that's only $5 more
https://www.autozone.com/interior/ignition-lock-cylinder/locksmart-ignition-lock-cylinder/104028_0_0
it may be cheaper or more expensive where you live

Got some cool pics of the Murray lately...

Not wishing to be a Negative Nelly here, but trying to run an automotive ignition switch might prove to be problematic.  They are designed around controlling the positive side of things while a lawn mower/tractor has the "off" position as a ground to kill the coil.  Running + juice to the coil is not recommended.

Whenever you put a live line to the coil it blows it up. I learned that the hard way. I don't care what kind of ignition it is, just that it doesn't use a lawn mower key.