98 craftsman lt1000 Mudder/trail rider

No requirements to keep your thread going or delete. If so, 90% of the forum would be gone.

All right so I found a MST205 pretty cheap That I’m gonna put in here And the guy also has A whole Murray steering set up for pretty cheap like $10 so do you think it’s worth it to go and swap over the Murray steering would it be any tighter than this that I have now

Murray steering setup is probably not much better..or not worth the hassle of setting it up. Don’t get me wrong, Murray is a has a decent setup for low speeds but would need some beefing up for rough terrain use. And for speed the front axle should be locked so it don’t pivot. MST transaxle are good...I really like them. As long as you vent the case you can put a lot of rpm’s to them without hurting it.

In my opinion, MST's are the best vertical shaft tranny next to a Peerless 820. You can never have enough MST's LOL. Peerless 930's and pretty much any Spicer is junk. But I love MST's. Get it if you can. Also, is anything wrong with the trans that's in your rig or do you just want an MST? I believe you said it has a Spicer...

Honestly, Murray steering is WAAAYYY better than the gearbox that's in yours. It would help a lot, but not to the point that there is no play at all. Murray steering is good for about 30MPH tops. That's when it starts to get hairy. But if you're only looking to take "most" of the play out of the steering I say do it.

I’m prolly not going to be using this on much rough terrain and I’ll be raising the front axle up till its unable to move

Murraymountain wrote:

In my opinion, MST's are the best vertical shaft tranny next to a Peerless 820.

Or of course a 600 Series.

yeethaw wrote:

I’m prolly not going to be using this on much rough terrain and I’ll be raising the front axle up till its unable to move

So this is kind of a street build? I would just go ahead and get the Murray steering (that is, if it's out of a Widebody.) and throw it on. It'll help a lot.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Murraymountain wrote:

In my opinion, MST's are the best vertical shaft tranny next to a Peerless 820.

Or of course a 600 Series.

Are 600 series vertical shafts? I thought those were horizontal...

alright thanks then i guess ill get it

Murraymountain wrote:

Are 600 series vertical shafts? I thought those were horizontal...

Yes they are vertical.  Heaviest gear vertical I know of.

Here is @AllisKidD21's in MTD

AllisKidD21 wrote:

MightyRaze wrote:

Murraymountain wrote:

Are 600 series vertical shafts? I thought those were horizontal...

Yes they are vertical.  Heaviest gear vertical I know of.

Well, that may shine a different light on a future build...

OK, lets get back on topic now.  :-)

so this weekend ill be cleaning part of our storage container up and ill be able to work in there and start lowering this thing, my plan is to raise the front axle into the frame all the way till it cant pivot and to flip the transaxle, is there going to be any problems running the oil filled mst 205 upside down?
also could one of the admins move this to the another more fitting section since this is going to end up being a drift mower

Yeah you will need to get a seal for the input shaft.

Moved to a "unique" build.

Another potential leaking area would be the shifter.

On the mst there’s also a plug next to the shifter, should seal but there’s potential there for leakage

If you flip the transaxle upside-down then you will have 5 reverse gears and 1 forward gear. By flipping the transaxle upside-down, the input shaft will be spinning in the opposite direction in relation to the case. Need to modify the transaxle gearing inside the case for it to work right.

All that takes is reversing the order of the stack though right? None of them are cast as part of the shaft luckily

Your gears will be right if you flip it upside down then flip it end to end which is what I’ll do

I think it'll work fine if you just flip it, lots of racing mower guys flip transaxles for lowering and never have to modify the transaxle internally.

I flipped a MST 206 in a Murray wide body with no gearing mods. Just a input seal and some linkage mods for the shifter and brakes (if using). I had to run 20” tires to keep the frame off the ground.

If you get 5 reverse gears, you can turn it 180 degrees so the axles would be in front of the gear stacks in relation to the tractor...does that make sense?

idk but it doesn’t matter since I’m prolly not gonna flip it by any ways I got the parts and I’m ready to start

Personally I’d run a jack shaft using a deck spindle

I’m thinking what I’m gonna do is mount the front axle so the top of it is up against the bottom of the frame and then for the back I ordered 18 inch tires so I’m gonna lower the fenders till there just above the top of tires and then I’ll still have enough ground clearance to go and ride in the woods

Well look what I got brand new for only $50 should be able to get them on this weekend how do you guys think they’ll do for trail riding

They are great in snow too.