Sears trail/mudder named Grace

Here's the Sears Suburban 12 I picked up for free on Wednesday. It is missing the motor, clutch, alternator, gas tank, and gas tank plate. It's also a real rust bucket. I am abandoning the Craftsman GT and will probably return it to stock. I rather build the Sears any day. Here is the plan folks:
25×10-12 Kenda Bearclaws from Craftsman GT
Locked 633a
11-15 hp clone
5in trans pulley
6in engine pulley
New pan seat
Rear utility rack
Maybe different dash
19+in front tires(still undecided)
Dark red and black paint.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some thing but I'll go back to that later. Needs alot of clean up bust should be a great build. I already started to tear down and will have an update tonight.

Nice and your ghost grille is in good shape!

MightyRaze wrote:

Nice and your ghost grille is in good shape!

Yes I'm very happy the fiberglass parts are in good shape. I don't love the dash tho. It just doesn't suit the build.

I finished getting it all taken apart and cleaning the frame up this morning.






There is some pitting on the foot boards and on the frame under the dash were there had been a mouse nest. But over all it looks pretty good.

I have no idea what the clutch is supposed to look like and where the pivot point is so if one of you Seras owners could help me out that would be great. Thanks!

There are a couple ways the clutch could have been.

Mine Is like: Hangs from the battery tray.



There was another way that bolted down on the frame. I don't have a pic of that.

http://www.stripmine.org/sears/ good source for manuals.

Another shot. Under the battery tray behind the engine is how mine was. You can see the linkage connecting to it.

MightyRaze wrote:

There are a couple ways the clutch could have been.

Mine Is like: Hangs from the battery tray.



There was another way that bolted down on the frame. I don't have a pic of that.

http://www.stripmine.org/sears/ good source for manuals.

Thanks Mighty! I did some research and learned that the clutch bolted to the engine on alot of them and that's probably why mine is missing. I need to know the distance from the clutch pulley to the pivot point to where the linkage pushes it. And about where the pivot point is according to the frame. No big deal tho. I can figure it out. Thanks again.

So yesterday I welded the front section of the frame the rest of it. I didn't weld on the side plates just incase I needed to remove them.




Some of the better welds I've done on stuff this thick. I also broke the pedal off of the clutch rod trying to get it out but I welded it back on at a 90 degree angle because I didn't like how fare it stuck out before. I also welded some triangle gussets on to it. I was gonna grill out the holes for the clutch rod to 3/4 so I could put bushings in but thats sounded like a pain in the rear so I just welded some 5/8 bearings in to keep it stiff.

Okay I'm sure some one would have been willing to take some measurements for me but I am a very impatient person so I used a pic from a video by a YouTuber called Suburban Living and I knew the idler pulley was a 3in so I made a conversion to figure out the isze of the clutch.




I'm just gonna try to make a copy of the original clutch but I still don't totally know where to pivot point should be since the battery tray is missing I have no reference point.

I've been neglecting this thread alittle because I haven't made any significant progress but I have been tinkering a bit.



I got the 633a opened up so now I have the one from the Craftsman GT and the one from the Sears open and side by side. I had ordered a third diff gear to moose knuckle lock the GT and I destroyed my cast iron hubs gettin them off so my plan is to put the moose knuckle locked 6 bolt diff carrier with the spined shafts and steel hubs in the original roper 633a. The reason I'm not just putting the hole AYP 633a in the Sears it the mounts are wider and it doesn't fit.

This is what's left of my cast iron hubs



I will be posting a short video of some of the main differences between the Roper 633a and the AYP 633a kn my instragram. I will post it here if I can figure out how here is a few pics.

The 633a is all put back together but this time it has splined shafts, steel hubs, a 6 bolt diff carrier, and a moose knuckle locker!! The AYP 633a will be locked as well and I'm going to get 4 lug hubs for it since it has keyed shafts now and I will save it for another project. But the original 633a is locked and ready to go back in the Sears!

Well as I mentioned in the rally thread I have been neglecting my forum updates lately and I finally got back working on the Sears like 2 weeks ago so I'm gonna try to get y'all caught up on whats going on.





So I started putting back together and I got it on all fours! I'm lovin the look! Nothin like a good Ghost Grille!! Obviously I'm gonna need to tear it down for paint in the end put I gotta build er up first.




I modified the bumper I had made for the Craftsman GT to fit on here.

This Sears is starting to look rowdy!   I love the front axle width,  did you use 2x2x1/8" on it?

Destructive wrote:

This Sears is starting to look rowdy!   I love the front axle width,  did you use 2x2x1/8" on it?

Thanks! Actually is the stock front axle I just cut off the lower brackets and welded all the sections that the factory skipped. Like along the sides of the spindle tubes.



And I have just return from a slight leave of absence and I dont believe you were here before so welcome to the forums Destructive.

Welds look great on the spindle tube, and thanks mowerjunkie03!

Once again I fell behind on updates.
I utilized some low quality materials fram a baby crib to make a rack.





Like I said not great materials but with all the braces and triangle gussets it's quiet strong. I just need to get some grate for it.

I finally got a motor!! Sort of... I brought home a old Honda GX270 from work so I could start mocking up my clutch. It's a junker but there is two other ones at work so I will probably take the good crank out of this one and put it in another one that also needs a rod and a governor. Not as easy as buying a Predator. But in the end I will have a good 8.5hp Honda for under 100 bucks.




It fits quite well. People often use the GX340/390 which are slightly larger and much more difficult to fit. A GX270 is not quite as powerful but will get the job done!

I have a question for y'all. I am considering running a 8in front pulley and my past experiences with large engine pulleys is that they don't disengage that well and are rather noisy when engaging. Could someone chime in and tell me there thoughts on this. Will it clutch fine or should I keep in under a 7in? Let me know. Thanks!

I have run a 9 inch and it disengaged fine.  Just make sure you have engine belt guides.

Great job on the tube work for that back rack MJ! Reminds me of a monster truck chassis, haha.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Great job on the tube work for that back rack MJ! Reminds me of a monster truck chassis, haha.

Thanks AllisKid The tubing it self is vey weak but I focussed on good geometry and added the triangle gussets. I managed to make something very strong so I'm happy with it. My welder started acting up and is not working well at all so the welds aren't pretty but there strong.

MightyRaze wrote:

I have run a 9 inch and it disengaged fine.  Just make sure you have engine belt guides.

Okay I think I'll give it a try then I was just worried it would clutch poorly. Not to mention it increases the belt speed beyond what we usually do which puts more ware on belt, idlers, pulleys, keepers, but whatever. The rear is proving to difficult to swap so I think I'll give it a try.

I tore apart the motor which turned out to be a GX240 and everything looks good. I brought home another motor from work which is a 270 and I was hoping to use the larger block but things already weren't looking to good...




Nasty GX270!!

Then I pulled apart the 270 and found a disappointing surprise.




The governor blew apart and ruined everything!! Blew the cam, rod, piston, oil sensor, even the block is banged up. Oh well guess were building the GX240. Do you all think 8hp will be enough? I plan on porting the head and using a larger carb but I am going to us the governor so were limited there. Oh well can't win them all. I will not be discouraged! Thank you all for the advice and support!

I got spacers for the Sears! They're 5×4.5×1.25. There only 1.25 in thick but I was worried any thicker would be to much for my trans. They should add some stability and improve my stance alot!






I got some stuff from gopowersports.com for the Honda GX240. I got an air filter adapter so I can have a snorkel then have the pod filter up high under the dash or something. I also got a performance carb jet and some 35lb valve springs for it. I'm hoping to get alittle more rpm out of my motor so I can get the speed I want without running ridiculous pulleys.

How much rpm do you think a stock honda rod can take??

Those spacers will make a huge difference. The rack you did back in Aug. turned out quite well.