Budgets Tractor Builds

Alright been rompin the haspin tractors to find weeknesses to fix them before my visit to haspin acres. Murray needs a bumper otherwise pully swapped. And my other tractor blew the headgasket and the piston rings are bad. I dont have an immidate motor replacement i might have a spare block but its untested if it isnt any good i think im gonna have to start building my other yardmachines it has a 14.5 briggs that has its fair share of problems but runs strong and pulls harder than the 16.5 on my murray. Would it be better to build the tractor i have no spare transmissions for, or swap engine blocks on the one i have spares for?

The murray

Rocket with the bad motor

Spare buildable tractor

Head gasket on the rocket mower is blown but i took it apart and the block still has perfect crosshatch

I’d say swap the rings and head gasket and go from there. Are you sure it’s the rings and head gasket? A bad head gasket will kill compression but you shouldn’t get blow by into the crank case.

Where those briggs OHV engines like to blow the gasket, you WILL get blow by. They blow right between the cylinder and the pushrods. Combustion goes right into the pushrod/lifter area and into the crankcase

I’ve got a couple spare engines. Including an oppy. Untested, but they aren’t hard to get running. I might see if I can get it running in case the need arises. Also a 14.5 OHV. Maybe a Flathead too but I can’t remember

The crosshatching and the bore look absolutely brand new, the engine burned oil like a freight train and fouled the plug all the time and it progressivly got worse im gonna rebuild the head and i ordered a new headgasket im gonna lap the valves while everythings apart unless they seat pefectly.

I dont know what kind of money i will have but if you have a 14hp flathead i might have to find a way to releave you of it. That is one of the easiest motors ive ever worked on i had one on my first racing tractor

14 horse opposed Flathead? Never seen a single cylinder Flathead that big

Ive seen a 14 flathead single they are hard to find i know that

Ive got one tractor down the "rocket" yardmachines blew the headgasket and now one tire blew out i dont know if that mower will make it so i might have to take the murray and the other yard machines instead of rocket which today i worked on the "other" yardmachines and it runs 1000% better than rocket it putts with the throttle all the way down and runs really really well i am liking that mower having the "manual" vari drive thats selectable instead of the plastic junk

Head gasket fixed and my backup mower turned out nicer than the main mower i might just rob some parts and bring the backup mower its really nice, i also managed to score a huskee that has a kawasaki flathead swap.

im going to revive this thread because whatever mudders i build will go to haspin most likely. for those who where at haspin for the meetup my tractor was junk dropped a valve and died and i couldnt fix it i got it home fixed it and bent the valve into a hook when i overrevved it. my mower doesnt have a build thread and this is the only one i sorta have a build log in. the murry has transmission  issues cant keep it working so i might get the engine harvested might not idk yet. i did a body/frame swap on the yard machines up in the picture in the previous post. now it has a newer yard machines frame with the  older body and back frame rails. which in turn gives me a body lift and cheaper belts and more common mesuremnts since i have 3 frames. i had to extend the steering shaft, its getting double pully swapped so a little bit smaller rear pully and a big front pully, my 17 intek is running good no smoke not much of a leak. custom exhaust a gas pedal i custom made i will provide details on what i made for my gas pedal when i get a chance. that 17 was in good shape it needed a very presice valve adjustment and a rewiring job a new spark plug and a carb. everything is working nice just gotta finish small things.

thanks for reading!

I would like to see the gas pedal as well as the other mods you have done.

i will as soon as i get back home ive got one class left today at school and ill be home

Progress on my MTD body swap! first test drive was sketchy as can be but fun! i plan to hard mount a tall backed seat even though i like the current seat i am gonna use a real cool seat and im gonna use a factory seat bracket with a pin to hold it down. also anybody have an idea for using old polaris wheels on a 3/4 axle? i figured i can mount almost any wheel on a yard machines d axle but i also wanna be able to use them on a keyed axle when i swap an mst into it. also i am thinking of building a removeable engine cage that pins to the front like a hood so i dont have to drill a bunch of holes in my hood. also my chrome book isnt letting me upload pics very easy its giving me troubles so ill have to upload the pictures later unless i can figure out screen shotting

still havent had time for those pics i will try when i can get a chance, i managed to trade a junk old china quad for a JD 145A. good ol junk deeres i already had to tear it all the way apart to the frame and its getting a paint job and pretty much a full resto i plan to make a J.D.U.T john deere utility tractor. i need to make a hand operated winch i dont think that will be too hard, i am gonna make a plow snow blower and a tow arm for the back so i can tow other mowers

i got J.D.U.T painted and motor reinstalled been working non stop to fix this thing havent had any personal time to post pics working on it

Thats before and now it looks a whole lot better


And heres that gas pedal im using a vtwin throttle cable since its a very long one


Heres the yardmachines body swap i havent had time to put fenders on but it isnt too bad so far runs good rides great and none of my batteries are strong enough to crank my 22hp vtwin on the J.D.U.T so i might have to use the MTD to start the jd

well the mtd body swap is finished i blew a belt while romping and decided that i dont wanna use it because i found the mud mower ive always wanted! a 6 speed clapsman it needs everythang. transmissions out no back wheels motor has a mouse nest in it covered in moss and dirt but it has a 16 turbo cool the steering can be repaired, i have a new set of wheels and tires i just need a cast iron front axle... which brings me to my gfs craftsman... it doesnt like to run its a hydro the exhaust sucks but it has the dyt newer steering and a cast axle soooo... she showed interest in my JDUT so shes getting JDUT and im parting her clapsman out the front pully is being donated to jdut the axle is being pulled for my craftsman and the steering. the rest will be used on other mower the tires probably will end up on jdut or one of my other mowers and the chassis will be sold off cheep or scrapped. i need steering parts and the axle pretty badly because the craftsman log axle exploded on my GT while unloading so i need the parts from the mudder to fix the gt and the mudders getting upgrades.

i mounted my yard machines bumper on the mud lt4000 my gfs mower is the same chassis and everything fit so far i have the old motor pulled and hydro pulled and the 6 speed and shifter are in and the useless parts are gone i just have to figure out how im gonna engineer a gas pedal and frame strengthening i think one of the local drug addicts has flat bar i might be able to get from them for a decent price so they can get more drugs, LOL. im trying to convince them to build mowers instead of doing drugs. IM DOIN MA PART YALL . anyway if i get enough people togther in town we are gonna ride em through town and make the town council complainers angry because they cant stop a lawn mower unless people are being stupid. also theres no sound ordanance till 9-12 dpending on the season. i am freindish with the town sheriff so im alloud to ride mowers no matter how modified....
my drug addict freind needs to build a mud mower because he could do a hellva job if he tried he has a lathe and a TON of tools.

Does any one have a 6 speed LT1000 shift rod? Ill pay shipping im heavily in need of one i cant build one strong enough.

Part 81 on this drawing? I may have one in the pile-o-parts. Let me know if that is what you need and I’ll look.

Part 84 actually is what im looking for. Also R.I.P MTD body swap its scrapping time and im done with mtds they are too weak and burn up too many belts plus now i have a wheel horse and two craftsmans.

Tore the broken front axle from my craftsman GT sold the motor for 150$ which was a kholer vtwin 22hp didnt run got cash so im happy with that. Got two craftsmans for 50 and sold a motor for 150 broke even for four tractors ive gotten. Now ive got an lt4000, a GT, a work horse, and a sears suburban for barely any buckaroos. Ive got about 135 in all four

i paid 100$ for a simplicty broadmoor hydrostatic with a 16hp vanguard vtwin because it overrevved and the transmission was being over driven causing it to not pull any weight or go up hills. perfect seat good battery good brand new tires ran fine but revved too high because a spring fell off the governor linkage. ran strong though and mowed great. turned out the transmission is low on fluid i put half a quart of 10w40 down it and it worked better, and then i went and used it around town picking free stuff up and across town it decided to break a valve spring retainer and started blowing gas out of the carb and backfire from the carb making it run weak. valve isnt damaged i hope it doesnt seem bent sso ill replace broken parts and use it.