Mighty's Sears Suburban "Thor"

I agree about that humidity.

Little update.

The winch bumper on the Craftsman is nice and sturdy, and Thor sounds Great!

Thanks! I also aired the tires up about 5psi over and they have held pressure since. I'll hold off on changing the rear tires.

Next wiring,
then exhaust,
put the deck back on and give it a mowing whirl.

Wiring done.

This is what I am thinking right now for Thor's muffler.  Chop the ends off and close them up, drill in 3 holes into the core.  2 on one side for the inlets and one on the other side for the exit.

Yeah that plan didn't happen.  Muffler is about 3 inches too short for it.

Don't hate...

This happened.



Oh and the rear tires are still holding air.  Go figure.

The dreaded pipe fittings!!!!


Haha, looking good Mighty!

I was going to put the mower deck back on, but strangely enough.  I woke up this morning with rain.  LOL

Haha, of course. The rain loves to ruin plans!

Thor is back!

Nice job Mighty! Must feel great to be cutting with the ol' girl once again!

What size is the deck is on 'er, 42"?

Yeah a 42.

That 18hp briggs, just powered through the thick stuff!

Printed me off some age accurate stickers for the hood.

When I got the tractor.  (Black nose was a replacement)



Stickers today!



Pretty good reproduction if I say so myself.

Mowed the front and half the back (approx 1 acre) and a deck vibration got a little worse.  At first I thought it was just belt slap, but the nice sound of bearing grind started to build.

Looks like I need to rebuild the center mandrel.  Need to get me a couple bearings and races.  If i can get that 42yr old part apart.

Good news, the mandrel came apart nicely.  Races look pristine still and the bottom bearing has no play or grind in it.  Top bearing... well that is another story.  The bearing iself has a grind so it would need replaced.  The bigger issue is the shaft.  Looks like that bearing was froze at one time and scored a groove all the way around the shaft.

Thoughts on welding some tacks or something then turning it back down?  Heat weaken the shaft?

I guess if a roller bearing is going to go on it, you could probably get away with welding some on it and then grinding it back to shape. I would think if done carefully, you could do it all by hand and get it close. Might take some time though. Don't think the heat would hurt it too bad. On the other hand, a shop somewhere would probably be able to weld it all up and then turn it back down professional like, but by that time your probably better off buying another complete mower for the cost.

Cool machine, I didn't know they made suburbans with opposed's in them.

I didn't update...

So asking around, I was told some red label JBWeld would work and sand it to match.  Appears to work great to at this point.  Mowed the yard after reinstall.  After that, i was cleaning up the work bench to find the 3 set screws for that pulley sitting on the bench.  

UGH!

Now I need to pull the deck back off and remove the cover and reinstall those set screws.

I have only seen a couple black and silver ones with a briggs.  Mine had an Onan, but it requires way too much work to run again.  I had a horizontal briggs on hand so I put it in.

Oh ok. Was the hood bent to fit around the engine like that originally? It looks pretty cool.

Yep! That's how it comes!

Long video update on THOR.

Part 2

Great work Mighty! That muffler definitely ressembles the factory Onan exhaust, looks pretty cool!

I didn't know those hydro Sears had that rear end with the drum brakes, that's neat. Same axle the 300 series John Deere tractors used up until the 316's.

Thanks @AllisKidD21,

Yeah it's pretty rugged.  I need to purge it and add new Type F automatic transmission fluid to it.  I forgot to mention, when the original owner gave me the old clutch cover plate for it last month when he found it in his shop, he also had the original manuals and the purchase slip from when he purchased it for $2340 May 1, 1978.   He also had a manual for a '78 GT/18 in there.

Got the cover installed today!  Thor is now 100%.

Wow I can't believe how much that was in 1978 considering what new cars went for. I love original books like that. It's nice to have the hard copy reference so you don't have to go digging on line.

The old books are nice.  Funny thing, they also smell like 1970's old spice cologne.  LOL

Today, I am going to tackle the crooked hood. Not video worthy, but I'll take a pic when complete.  Not sure if you can tell in the pic above, but the lower black section of grille appears to be leaning back about half an inch.  Being cast, I do not dare try bending it out.  There are a few things I can do to compensate.  Hood has never shut all the way down as you can see the rise at the back of the hood.

Well.... my new muffler is telling a tale as I hadn't put heat paint on it yet.



Hmm..... appears to be running on mostly 1 cylinder.  I see a little heat on the front, but nothing like the back.

Checked spark and it appears pretty weak. on the front.  Weak but better on the back.  Didn't realize the power reduction.  I'll do the easy thing and get a new coil.