Murraymountain's Murray Death Trap

Well, my brother tore his Widebody down to frame today, only problem is, there's not much frame left. So, he gave me all the what would be scrap metal (frame, front end, clutch, column, seat, grille, and gas tank even though it's not metal (everything he gave me is cracked or broken in some way)). Anyway, he's getting a donor machine to give his Murray a new backbone since his old one is "unrepairable".


But now, I have a "complete" frame, and I got that old junk motor from the Craps-man, now all I need is a blown transaxle that still works, and bang, another tractor.

Why do I want a blown tranny you ask? Well, I have big plans for this one. When I finally have enough bad parts to make up 1 driving mower, I'm putting a ridiculous pulley swap on it, saving it for some big event, and Ima send it out in a blaze of glory and hopefully fire! And after the motor blows, I pull whatever good parts I can off, and then scrap it... Although I'll probably beat it some more with a good tranny in it and then swap in the blown one when the time comes...


No pics yet due to a dead camera battery, but I will certainly be posting some.

Well, here's the reason I got it:



Oof...




And here's what I have to start with:




This WILL be a fun project!

Wow..needs a bit of work. Free is free though. If you lived closer i’d Give you a frame. I have 3 wide bodies I got for 100 last winter. I mainly bought them for the motors which 2 we’re fixable.... 20hp tech and a 15.5hp Briggs. Then I found this forum and decided to play with them instead of scraping the mowers. Just be careful if you use that frame in any way. I would be leery using it even welded up good at high speeds

Actually, this machine will probably only see the road one more time before the scrap yard. That 17 horse briggs that's on it now has a severe rod knock. My plans are to do something like, a stupid crazy pulley swap, hope it holds together, and hopefully send it off of either a huge jump or cliff or something. I'll be sure to blow up 17 horse too, then I'll strip a few parts off it, and scrap the whole thing.


Although my brother is looking for a new frame for his. He's still got the motor, tranny, wheels, body, wiring, and red part of the hood.

Well, got a tranny! Problem: bent axle.... Wonder how long that FNR will last. Probably 'till it hits the ground after a jump. Too bad it's only gonna live 3 years in total.  

Dun dun dun dun.



It's getting closer.

Well, threw most of it together yesterday. It has one wheel steering right now. EVERYTHING flexes like a champ. Most of the bolt holes for the self-tappers were stripped, so I just drilled a 5/16ish hole wherever and forced it in with the impact... Flawless. Next is mounting the transaxle, installing the parking brake (there will not be any brakes when it's done), get the second tie rod and install it, maybe wire it, mount the gas tank, maybe install a throttle cable... Maybe. And I also need to find rear tires. The 17 HP Briggs will not be used... Good engine blocks are hard to come by. So, the plan is, to tear this engine down for parts, and it's guts will be used in a block with a hole in it. So yeah, I'm building a junk engine for it. Anyway, here's where it's at...






Something I did to my red one WAAAAAAY back.... Gives it a hot rod feel.




I think, once it's blown to pieces, It'll be yard art. LOL.

Alright, the motor is pretty much apart on the outside. Throttle body and linkages, carb, coil, shrouds, head, valve train, starter, dipstick... All that's left is the flywheel. It's a little bugger is what it is. Made a homemade flywheel puller and it bent that thick 1/4 steel no problemo while I was slamming the bottom of it with a hammer. Gonna have to get some thicker steel. Until the flywheel is off I cannot disassemble the inside...




On the other hand, I had the transaxle in for about 30 minutes. Took it back out to put a pulley on. Parking "brake" is working along with the clutch. It still needs a cracked gas tank, tie rod, rear wheels, and a busted engine block, but it'll all come in time.



Somehow banging around on this lined up the mounting holes perfectly. Got it on the first try for some reason.



Here's the pulley I'll be using. It's the stock drive pulley for the engine. Somehow it will all work out. Ever heard of someone without a welder put an engine pulley on a transaxle? LOL.



Next time's goal is to have the transaxle in with the pulley on it, clutch pulley on, and have it wired enough to power the starter.

Wiring crap is done. Doesn't turn the starter yet, but the solenoid clicks a lot so I say it's good... I believe the kill works too. Used the original key switch... I'm so proud of myself..............




Electrical sys. in action

On the other hand...




Transaxle is in and working. Needs a shifter though. One thing I'll probably regret, it has NO BRAKES AT ALL...

I've done all I can do for now... Moved it down to the shed.

Aight, I put some rears on it. Didn't even need to cross thread the axle bolts. I put a BRAND NEW one on it (it actually doesn't hold air), and the other one is used, but holds air very well. Hopefully they don't blow because they're gonna go through hell. If they do, well, throw a tube in 'em. When this tractor's done with 'em, they'll go on an actual mowing MTD so. Anyway, they look good.



Check out that camber!



Yeehaw! Gonna be a fun ride.

Also, as soon as I get a tie rod, "testing", starts.

Murraymountain wrote:

Aight, I put some rears on it. Didn't even need to cross thread the axle bolts. I put a BRAND NEW one on it (it actually doesn't hold air), and the other one is used, but holds air very well. Hopefully they don't blow because they're gonna go through hell. If they do, well, throw a tube in 'em. When this tractor's done with 'em, they'll go on an actual mowing MTD so. Anyway, they look good.



Check out that camber!



Yeehaw! Gonna be a fun ride.

Also, as soon as I get a tie rod, "testing", starts.

"check out that camber!"

heh heh honda boys are gonna hate

Those ricer Hondas with the stupid camber and no mufflers that every 17 year old Tampa boy drives... They just make me sick. LOL. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in that last post to also check out that toe in on the fronts.  

Alright, testing has already started. What I have proven, you don't need a motor on your tractor to have fun....





I put the "new" tie rod on, and pushed it down 2 hills, rolled it by hand, then sent it off the above cliff and rammed it into the stump. So we made it do a barrel roll down the hill as videoed. That was a lot of fun and we'll be right back at it as soon as we get the golf cart charged. Here's the videos...

Death Trap walk around/pre-send
Death Trap hill send
Death Trap barrel roll

Now for all you shaking your heads right about now thinking that we're wasting parts and being stupid, we're not. Pretty much everything on this machine is bad. Now the excuse I have for anyone who thinks I'm being stupid, well, we all need to be stupid sometimes. There will be literally nothing left to even scrap. It just feels good to be stupid sometimes. Maybe we'll do something like a 127,000 pound Tannerite hit?

lol, its not that they get on my nerves ( well.....actually they kind of do... )
but they just think there 120horse 98 civic is the fastest thing in the world cause VTEC BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AAAAaaGGGhhghghGHghhHHAgHg.....
lol sorry.... but they also think that they know everything about cars, just because they can use there daddys adjustable wrench to put in their stupid 50 dollar cherry bomb exaughst tip from auto zone clearance aisle. and then forget to bolt that mounting bracket back on, so now your car sounds like a rolling vibrator....you fricken pervert

"oh BuT lOGaN tHE bOx sAYs iT aDDs 8 HOrsEpOwEr, sO mY EXaUgHsT mAKeS mY cAR gO FAsTEr."

no, no, no NOOOOO. it dosent, and neither does your imaginary 100 shot dos kit. and ur stupid scotch brite looking cold air intake. nor does your quick disconnect steering wheel, or your carbon fiber battery cover. or your stupid amazon special stick on double decker wing.....
I'm done roasting imports now......

rolling stuff down hills you dont care about with friends. some good times right there.

Darn right! The possibilities with this thing are endless!

awwwwwww, i thought you were gonna ride it......not just push it down a hill, maaaaaan wheres the fun in that?

Haha, well, you know, as I said in the video, it just wasn't dangerous enough. Turns out it actually wasn't.

Anyway, I parked it again for a little while. It doesn't need a spot in the barn because 1, it's already crowded in there and 2, well, it's a piece of crap.





Can't wait to see what type of a beating or mod it will get next!

3 1/2" 12 gauge to it would be nice!!

Don't worry, it's going out with a bang and a 30/30 for SURE.

Okay people. The Death Trap has undergone some more wrenching lately. I don't know where to start. The trans was locked up from getting rained on all the time, so we had to bust the input loose. I remounted the seat and put a more rusty backing on, I filled all the tires again, welded a tie rod, added an idler and clutch pulley and a belt (clutch is working), added a 7 or 8 inch pulley on the front, fixed the busted grille, had to remount the front end because it fell off, added a steering bushing because steering is impossible without it, and I also built the engine for it....










The engine is the 19.5 HP opposed twin off the YM. It got stripped down because it has piston slap, loose valve lifters, and stripped head bolts. Just wasn't worth repairing. So I put a worn rod in it, a head with a stripped spark plug hole, a broken nipple for the fuel pump pulse tube, a broken intake manifold, a flywheel with no magnets, a cracked sump, a rusted valve cover, no seals for the valves, no oil slingers, weak oil plugs, and a bad carb. That's roughly where I'm at with the motor right now. I'll have to put like 4 quarts of bad oil in this thing. I expect I might get 5 minutes of run time out of it. One thing is for sure though, when the death trap comes to the end of it's road, the motor will most definitely be blown. Some of the assembly is in the video.









Man I love working on this thing.... It's just so easy. So, now I just need to get the wheels for this back off the stamped frame (I'll elaborate on that in the Stamped Frame update), redo the shifter, get a gas tank and lines and I believe the tractor part is ready to be sent. The motor still needs a back cover plate, a con rod, a head, a coil, plugs, pulse tube, possibly a bad fan, bad oil, the second valve cover, a starter, and I think that's it. After that, well...... We all know what comes next...

Okay I put the wheels back on. I was also able to steal a junk WORKING shifter from the Stamped Frame.





And now we wait for the engine parts/gas tank.