murray classic off road mower build

hi all, i got this 2004 murray classic for free from my neighbor, im wanting to build it into a simple off roader ,its got a widebody hood and a briggs 14.5 i/c quiet from 2000 and a 5 speed spicer


, its been sitting 4 years and all i had to do was put a coil on it and it fired right up didnt even had to clean the carb so let ne know what you think

heres the transaxle tag

Looks like the deck is pretty far gone eh?

Of course it fired right up..... It's a 14.5 HP Briggs! The best engine ever made! (Of course there will be people who would like debate that subject. cough cough oppy owners.)

yea the deck is rotted out, it was sitting in a muddy field for 4 years, the motor runs great it needs a little but of a carb clean, thanks for the feed back

1st time i've seen a spicer in a murray ever, every murray i've ever had or worked on had a peerless, i agree with @Murraymountain the 14.5 ohv is one of the best engines ever produced, put several of them through hell and never had an issue, but like all briggs ohv single cyl. engines they do have a tendency to blow the head gasket where the push rods go through

Yep. I've already replaced my head gasket. All good though, I love my little 14.5.

My brother actually sold a Murray with a Spicer in it back in February 2019 (I think. Could've been a Peerless 5spd. 920/930). I had a Murray like that back in 2018. Didn't know enough about tractors back then though to see what type trans it had. It was probably a Spicer.

i was hoping it had an mst205 but i have a good peerless 930 im going to put in it, my grandpa actually has the same tractor with a spicer in it

easiest way to tell a spicer from an mst is the fins on top, a spicer has 2 a mst has 3, every one i've seen had a mst except for the gt i scrapped which had the 820 now under my ford yt16, we do have a 70s model 11/36 in storage that has a 600,  spicers aren't terrible, they can actually take almost as much abuse as the msts and they are geared higher in 5th than a mst, my brother ran one for several yrs trouble free, we still have it and it's still in working order, it just needs all the seals replaced, but they are grease filled and when it hardens up and quits lubricating you get damage, better to convert to oil instead.

thanks for the advice ill probably end up leaving the spicer in it, if it does go out i  have a peerless 930 out of my old power pro, i have a dana 6 speed in my old craftsman had any luck with one of those?

since spicer is dana they should be the exact same transaxle, 2 more issues i remembered about the spicers, 1 is the axle seals, they are literally nothing but a rubber washer and the torx style bolts that hold the case halves together like to corrode to the point where they have to be removed by cutting a groove and using a flat blade screw driver, we took the ones out of my brothers and bought new regular style bolts at the hardware store, the only other issue he had was it kept shearing the key in the brake disk,unlike peerless they are not splined, instead the disk has a half moon shaped key like the input pulley has

got the deck off and started romping it the turf saver ii have to go they have no traction at all

you can cut them like murraymountan did but it's better to just get a cheap set of knobbies or v treads, deestone has some decent but inexpensive atv and v tread tires, a set of 20s or 22s will do decent and give you a little more speed over the 18s it looks to have on it now,

Yeah I normally cut them when I'm building a mud mower. But that's cause I don't want to spend money on them. I am buying all new tires for Ol' Blue, but I find, that if you don't want to spend money on tires, you can cut your turfs like this and get pretty good traction considering they're turfs.

im looking at getting a cheap set of knobbie tires and im looking to lock the transaxle and a mild pulley swap

Just look around for any good tire with a size that ends with -8. The rim size is the critical part.

I've tried cutting turfs. The time and effort isn't really worth the outcome.

Well I've never had real tires, so it's still a step up for me. I would like some real ones if I had the money, but I don't have any problem with running turfs.

In the end though, all I'm saying is, if you have the money and you are willing to spend it on tires, DO IT. If NOT, cut your turfs. It does make a difference.

my brother runs turfs, a different design to the tread though and they do pretty good, they don't go everywhere my v treads do, but close, the ones he runs on his murray have tread like this in a 20x10-8

i have some of those turfs on one of my parts tractors i might give them a try

they should give a lot better traction than the ones you have, he also runs a 5 1/2 in engine pulley with a 5in transaxle pulley, gets around 25 or so mph,

thank you all for all the helpful feedback and suggestions i really appreciate it

here are some tires i mounted for the murray they are 22x11x8 knobbies i think there off an old honda atc they are a little dry rotted but they hold air and i mounted them on some old craftsman rims because the murrays turf savers will end up on another mower i have

as long as they hold air they will be fine, and tubes are cheap if they start leaking, i ran and still have a set just like them, they will be going on my murray widebody with a locked peerless 801,

yeah i got these for free off an old go kart i had i think they are off an old honda 3 wheeler they a pretty weather checked but they are fine for what im doing

got the tires on and went for a quick romp

Looks fun. Knobbies aren't all that great in the mud, but great for banging around on dry days. They're kinda bouncy.