"The WarHorse"

both are cool i like the blue paint

Budget_gokart wrote:

both are cool i like the blue paint

It's all yours! Lol

Securing The Hood


It seems to be a common thing to make sure your hood is good and secure when off roading your tractor (and it makes good sense!) so I started looking around at different hood pins, flip style latches etc. and came across these Jeep hood latches and thought they'd be brilliant! Based on the dimensions and the design of my tractor I figured I could make them work and I did! Not only that but I think they look great, even better than I had imagined and they fit the offroad theme!  


For the first order of business I made a template out of cardboard, not only to mark where to drill but mainly to line it up and be sure it will even work. Turns out there's little to no room for error...




As you can see the holes are quite close to the edges, I had to push the hood down to mark the holes for the upper half or the lower bolt hole would've been out of bounds! Inside the hood I had to remove the random bolt, bend the tab out of the way and trim the washer to be able to secure the one bolt. With that side done it was time to move onto the next!
 




When I closed the hood with the template and lower latch in place it was WAY off from where it should've been as witnessed by the marks to the right of it.



Turns out the sheet metal is beat to crap on the front left corner and pushing the hood and grille way back.  Are these old Sears prone to being bought by people with a habit of sleep-mowing or what!? Lol.


It's supposed to look like this!



After a little tweaking with vise grips to start working the bad kinks out and a bunch of hammer/dolly work I got it straitened and stretched close enough to push the hood forward closer to where it should be.


And that's it, hood latches installed! They feel great, they lock it down good and secure which should mean no rattling! Not that I'll likely hear it over the exhaust but I'm still happy with how they look and work!  

Your really making me wanna hurry up and build my MTD

Very nice work on that! Looks really good.  

Budget_gokart wrote:

Your really making me wanna hurry up and build my MTD

Don't you already have like 9 on the go which is about 50% of all the current builds here! Lol. Just playing around!

Nevadablue wrote:

Very nice work on that! Looks really good.  

Thank you sir, I'm very happy with the results!

Electrical - Part 3

I got a start on some wiring today, I had grabbed a few small bundles of wire while I was at the salvage yard yesterday. I figured with the mess of wire I have kicking around, existing wiring in the tractor that I can use if I choose plus all of this I should be good to go!



First thing I did was install the horn (Hella low tone), wired it to the horn button, temporarily wired the illumination for the horn button to the running light switch and finally wired them both to the fuse box.



I also made and installed the ground wire for the fuse box and a couple other bits to get ahead of the game. I used red and black cheater leads to power the fuse box,  the green and yellow ones are hooked up to the headlights for testing.  Looks an awful mess right now but it'll be cleaned up nicely in the end.

Looking good man... I like to run horns in all my stuff.  Helps get attention if needed.  Nice bundle of wires there.

MightyRaze wrote:

Looking good man... I like to run horns in all my stuff.  Helps get attention if needed.

Thank you and I couldn't agree more, safety first! The horn is more for fun (and startling people), I'm installing a small (yet loud) car alarm siren hooked up to a tether switch in case something goes wrong. Also hoping I can connect it to kill the engine at the same time as it engages the siren, I think I can pull it off with some thought, testing and a 5 pin relay or 2! I want to paint the underside in blaze orange as well in case it ends up on top of me like that Simpsons episode! Lol.

A horn and hood latches wow that's fancy.

You need one of these stickers

Joe_the_mower_man_1320 wrote:

A horn and hood latches wow that's fancy.

But wait there's more! Lol. I scored a XL ATV cover at Princess Auto for $30!

Rustbucket Garage wrote:

You need one of these stickers

I like that, maybe I should make me one just in case! Lol. I've seen Jeeps with the upside down "If you can read this flip me over" on the windshield and always have a chuckle.

Electrical - Part 4

I got the headlights wired up and tested today after work.




I want all the body panels to be easily removable and not have to fuss around with wires so I'm adding these GM style waterproof connectors to make my life easy. I found a 10 pack on Amazon so for $2.90 per connector that's a small price to pay for some piece of mind! Instead of having 2 loose wires from the switch to the front I used a length of heat shrink tubing to keep them together and keep the wiring clean (as seen in above 2 photos).



I'm pretty particular with my wiring so all the connections I do are soldered and (heat) shrink wrapped, butt connectors are great when you're in a pinch but less than reliable in the long run as I'm sure most if not all of us have learned! I do crimp the end terminals but I heat shrink those over the wires as well, I'll add some dielectric grease to everything to prevent corrosion once all the wiring is complete as a finishing touch.



I also found these nifty wire clips that I'll use throughout the build to keep all the wiring secure.

man my wiring wont ever look that good! i plan to shine my mud mower up for the next car show! i hope my GT is ready for the next one if not my other craftsman should make it

Budget_gokart wrote:

man my wiring wont ever look that good!

Well sure it could! Don't forget the old adage "practice makes perfect!" I didn't wake up one morning with the skills to pull it off, years of practice and experience have brought me to this point. Keep at 'er and you'll get better each and every time!

You were right @Rustbucket Garage, I definitely needed it! Lol.  


If anyone else wants one shoot me a PM.

Nice job on the wiring! I made a harness for the Rat Rod, but may save that for my tractor rig instead and build a soldered harness like yours for the Rat.  

Nevadablue wrote:

Nice job on the wiring! I made a harness for the Rat Rod, but may save that for my tractor rig instead and build a soldered harness like yours for the Rat.  

Thank you and do it! It's time consuming but soo worth it in the end. Short term pain long term gain! Lol.


Electrical - Part 5

I had the day off work so I decided to tackle some more wiring! First thing I did was figure out the routing, I opened up an existing hole (circled) so I could fit a grommet to prevent the wires from chaffing on metal and rubbing through the insulation.



Then it was time to wire up the running lights and test the circuit, that's all good but the pilot light on the switch is way too bright. Not only do I think it will be an irritant but it overpowers the horn button so I'll have to figure a way to tone 'er down.




Next up was the brake lights.  They're not connected to anything yet but at least they're wired. A little something I like to do to make wire bundles is to use small bits of heat shrink tubing to hold the wires together nice and neat, even though I knew I would put all the wiring in a loom I did it anyways!  


Here's the finished product. I used different connector halves for each circuit so they can't be confused and had to tweak the clips a little to hold the loom, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out overall but I'll be even happier when all the wiring is done. It's so time consuming to do a nice job! Lol

Clutch/Brake and Gas Pedal - Part 1

I got what might be the least exciting upgrade done today but it sure will be one of the most functional so I'm darn happy. LH clutch/brake pedal swap complete!


Once I pulled the original out I lined the 2 up to make sure the brackets looked good, sure enough they were perfect! It was a true bolt in/hook it up affair and why I said least exciting upgrade.
 






The fun doesn't stop there though! I had planned to rig up the original as the gas pedal but first I needed to remove the brackets.


I had hoped to save them for possible reuse but no matter how much I tried to get rid of the welds and bang the brackets off they just wouldn't budge! I had to resort to slicing into them and snapping off pieces as I went.
 




Unfortunately I cut into the shaft a little, not enough to worry about but I'll still fill weld and grind it smooth so it looks nice.
  



With the brackets out of the way it was time to mock it up on the tractor. I found that if I flipped the mounting brackets around I was able to get them set up in a really nice spot located close to original by using existing bolts. The mounting brackets will be on the inside of the chassis, I have it hanging off one of the bolts I'll use on the outside just for mock up purposes.



There are a couple little clearance issues I'll have to sort out but nothing major. The first is I MAY have to shave a little off the clutch/brake pedal mounting brackets to make way for the gas pedal rod but maybe not, I'm not quite sure yet. The second is the drive belt guard plate, ill need to notch it (as seen in red) to allow the mounting brackets to slide up inside the chassis.  


With the mock up complete I shut er down for the day, I still have lots to do before the day is over!



Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the gas pedal installed and awaiting the next phase which is coming up with a way to route and connect it to the motor. I'm going with a dual throttle setup, gotta keep that cruise control working!  Lol. That's all for now, stay tuned for more soon!

Looking good, clean wiring job too, it's always my least favorite part of a build lol, but like you said taking the time to do it right and make it look clean is totally worth it. Good thing that pedal swap didn't put up a fight and went right in, hopefully throttle linkage will go smooth for ya, I've always used brake cables from bikes, four-wheelers, etc. for throttle linkage.

Thanks and for sure! Do it once, do it right, right!? Lol. I'm definitely going way overboard with the wiring but that's just me I guess! That LH pedal came from another MTD build Craftsman, before I found it I was just going to cut the brackets off and move them, now I know I would've been fabricating new ones! I was planning on bike cable/sheathing as I have a bunch kicking around and it's easy to work with, shouldn't be too difficult.

Clutch/Brake and Gas Pedal - Part 2

She put up a bit of a fight but the gas pedal is installed! It feels like I removed and installed the clutch/brake assembly at least a dozen times to keep modifying the brackets, what a pain! Lol.

I quickly learned that there is a clearance issue with the brake rod bracket.


I removed some material and tested it out, it still needed more removed... so I did that, tested it again and it looks all good! I wish I hadn't cut it back so far as to remove the adjustment hole but if I need it back in there I'll cut the piece from the other bracket I cut off the RH pedal and weld it in, doubt I'll need to though.






Then it was time to bolt the brackets up and have a look at the next hurdles. I had to trim a little from the clutch/brake mounting brackets to make way for the gas pedal rod (arrow facing up), then I realized if I trimmed the gas pedal brackets (red line) they should slide right up behind the belt guard plate (which they did) so I didn't have to notch that which is super! The rear most bolt for it is shown with the arrow pointing down so trimming the brackets killed 2 birds with one stone!


With the clutch/brake in place I mocked up the gas pedal brackets and they were overlapping each other, time to trim them up (red line)! I only had to drill 2 holes (one per side) for the gas pedal lower mounting bolt(s) which can be seen in this pic. That was probably the easiest part of the whole ordeal!



With everything reinstalled and snugged down it was time to check for clearance on the brake rod bracket one last time and... bingo! Enough of a gap to call it good!



There they are, all nice and factory appearing! I'll still need to make tabs for the pedal stops, return spring, brake light switch and throttle linkage but that comes later.
 




If I had taken the extra time to get my cuts perfect I could've welded the mounting brackets together and almost noone would've known any better that it didn't come from the factory like that but after the amount of times I had to remove and install the clutch/brake assembly my patience started to wear a little thin so I just made quick marks and cuts to get er done! Lol. That's it for now, let me know what you think!

looks good! I like the fact that you took the time to reuse the old brake or clutch pedal it looks very clean and factree looking!

Brilliant work, way to go!

Thanks fellas I appreciate the kind words!

Winch Plate - Part 1

I FINALLY got an actual start on the winch mounting plate! I made the design and template at the start of October but with the price of steel these days I stalled until I could find a piece to use for cheap. The metal supplier in my area wanted $60 for a 2x2 foot piece of 1/8" plate so I said forget that and decided to wait... mid November when I was at the salvage yard I made a deal to cut my own piece for $20 so the project moves ahead!


Here's the mockup, design and the cardboard template I made in October.




With the required steel now in stock it was time to re-mockup the template,  add to some measurements for wiggle room and subtract from others to account for the bends. I've illustrated the 3 point (technically 5 point) mounting system for a visual by using red dots and arrows, it should be plenty strong overall and won't be hard to beef up in the future if required.



Armed with the knowledge of adjustments to my measurements it was time to transfer it over to the steel.



Then it was time to trim the excess from around the outside...  



and then to cut out everything else!



Feels good to have gotten to this point with it finally, it was one of the first things I planned and started working on but the lack of reasonably priced steel held it back! Still lots to do in the form of cleaning, bending, welding and painting but I'm happy to have made this progress!

Until next time!