Brianator's "Mud Duck"- Tractor Recovery Rig/Mudder

Once it started to get too dark outside to work I turned my attention on getting more engine work done in the workshed.

I figured I should get the pulley free so I can clean up the shaft and it will make it easier for pulley relocation/add another set behind it. To my surprise it didn't put up much of a fight, not even the hub!





Then again I did start sprinkling it yesterday with my favorite penetrating oil, if you haven't seen or heard of this stuff trust me when I say you want to find it! It's the best I've ever used and it's really hard for me to come by, my first can lasted me almost 10 years I used it so sparingly and only when I knew I needed it! I didn't use very much at all and you can see in the above photos how well it penetrated. It's an American company (I'm pretty sure) and they had sponsored a Nascar team at some point so you have a better chance than me at getting some... if you do please let me know I want another can! Lol. But seriously...



Once I had the pulley and belt guard off I cleaned the front plate and noticed all these hairline fractures... I hope they won't be a problem! I think it's best for me to start poking around and see if there's any new(ish) plates to be found! Hope you can see them in the pic



I decided to have a look inside the voltage regulator, almost wish I hadn't that's nasty! Once the motor is mounted in the tractor I'll test it out but by the looks of this, it's only fit to be a spare IF it does still work!



Then I started replacing shotty wire ends, cleaning up and (dielectric) greasing all the connections.



This was about the time I realized my beer was almost empty so I shut 'er down for the night! Lol. It's been an eventful one, hopefully tomorrow is as well!

I can’t work (by choice, if I don’t have to) in the cold these days. Glad you can handle it, this is fun to watch. 
You will need dual tires or those tracks on the front. 

Taper lock hubs are nice for removal. Expensive to buy, but positive lock.

Nevadablue wrote:

I can’t work (by choice, if I don’t have to) in the cold these days. Glad you can handle it, this is fun to watch. 
You will need dual tires or those tracks on the front. 

I'm glad too or I'd get nothing done for 4 months of the year! Lol. Feel bad for you, you must be going stir crazy!?
Tracks you say... hmm.... nah not on this. That's an idea I've been tossing around for the derelict Cub Cadet, maybe next years build if I can find the parts over the summer!

No they're cheap as I learned today... look! I had to take a picture because I didn't believe it!




Now the idler pulley on the other hand....FOURTY freaking dollars for a 3" flat idler... not happy and shopping for another but I did grab it just in case I can't find another.

Brainator wrote:

Now the idler pulley on the other hand....FOURTY freaking dollars for a 3" flat idler... not happy and shopping for another but I did grab it just in case I can't find another.

GOOD LORD! That’s ridiculous! I payed under $15 for one at TSC about a year ago.

Brianator wrote:

No they're cheap as I learned today... look! I had to take a picture because I didn't believe it!


Now the idler pulley on the other hand....FOURTY freaking dollars for a 3" flat idler... not happy and shopping for another but I did grab it just in case I can't find another.

ha ha ha...
That's me everyy time I go to PP mart (Don't ask, it's what they renamed TSC) 4ft of fuel line is $30 bucks, I went to a local parts store the next time I needed some, IT WAS 3 BUCKS. Anyway, I feel you...

Those "fractures" could just be casting marks.  If they were fractures, I'd think they would be weeping.

I sleep a lot. 

Your junkyard isn’t deep enough. I have flat pulleys in the pile. But postage would be more than the pulley probably. Plus the pulley would have to be vaccinated… 

Nevadablue wrote:

I sleep a lot. 

Your junkyard isn’t deep enough. I have flat pulleys in the pile. But postage would be more than the pulley probably. Plus the pulley would have to be vaccinated… 

Lol, I guess not but I already have 2 working ATVs plus 2 ATV frames, 5 tractors plus implements, a working walk behind snowblower plus a scrap one, 3 loose motors, 2 generators, the Line Ward, various bins of car parts ect ect... I don't need anything else I have a hard enough time keeping my yard looking decent with all this stuff! Lol. Oh ya postage from there to here isn't cheap these days or I would've ordered the proper pulley from Bolens Parts and Supplies, might still as he has a couple little parts I could use for my G10 but this pulley should work, it's a touch smaller than the original but is JUST the right width for the double belt system and I like the lips on the sides just not happy with the price, I hope it lasts a long time then it was worth it!

It's snowing like crazy but fairly warm today @30F, glad I have dry areas to work in!

I already knew I'd have to repair this hole in the frame but never noticed the hairline crack in it until today



A little trick I picked up along the way is to drill a hole ahead of the crack to prevent it from spreading any further so I center punched it, drilled a pilot hole then opened it up with a 3/16" drill bit.





I'll tackle it in the future before I paint the frame but for now I need to get the motor in and tractor moving, it's all still in the proof of concept stage!

@Brianator lucky duck 30 degrees sounds really nice right now! currently in mn shes a brisk 3 degrees. what color you planning on painting er, black?

My snowblower junkyard has flat pulleys. 

Well it appears the frame on the other side of the hole is also fractured so that settles it, gotta fix it now before that behemoth of a motor is installed!

I gave it the same treatment as the other side...



...cleaned it all up, v notched it...



...and burned it in quick! I must've caught the power grid at a good time because the welder did it's thing like it's supposed to! Lol



Then I hit it with a quick shot of black lacquer to protect it for now.



I also trimmed the motor plate and it's ready to be mounted, when I was test fitting it I noticed the fracture on the other side and thought I better just deal with it right away.



I also have the motor mostly reassembled, the pulley is cleaned up, painted and sitting on the shaft loosely ready to align the belts/pulleys!

MN mudder wrote:

@Brianator lucky duck 30 degrees sounds really nice right now! currently in mn shes a brisk 3 degrees. what color you planning on painting er, black?

Very lucky but there's a bad storm blowing in! I don't know what I'm doing for paint yet except the frame itself, front end and transaxle will be black. Lacquer on the transaxle (will shed heat better than), bedliner everywhere else I mentioned.

Bed liner, I like that. 
I really would like to finish a rig in plain, clear coated steel. If I had a running sandblaster available, I would. The whole thing bare steel looking, ALA DeLorean look. 

So, with both sides of the frame cracked, IMO… make a saddle for those cracked areas and weld it all around. Looks like the flex is causing the area with the hole to ‘stretch’. Counteract that somehow.

Nevadablue wrote:

I sleep a lot. 

Your junkyard isn’t deep enough. I have flat pulleys in the pile. But postage would be more than the pulley probably. Plus the pulley would have to be vaccinated… 

Pulleys have to have 31.5 shots now and you only get express if you have 40

Nevadablue wrote:

So, with both sides of the frame cracked, IMO… make a saddle for those cracked areas and weld it all around. Looks like the flex is causing the area with the hole to ‘stretch’. Counteract that somehow.

It's already dealt with by drilling the holes to prevent it from growing and welding it up, I'm thinking I'll probably weld spacer tubes into the frame tubes to prevent the frame from compressing when tightening the motor mount bolts down. Speaking of which...


The motor mount is installed! I went ahead with "Option D"! Lol. I had to grind the bolt heads down to tuck them under the sump, I may end up tack welding them in place.



As you can see there's not much space and there's no cavities for the bolt head to tuck into, it's completely flush underneath.



I'm not sure if many of you have noticed (?) but all the replacement Briggs and Stratton carburetors these days are metric threaded, the ones I get anyways! So I picked up a M6 threaded rod and wingnut for the air cleaner (yesterday) and put a fancy chrome nut on the underside to hold the rod secure.


What's interesting is that the cover won't go on because it contacts the intake elbow so I compared the new and old carbs... they're identical! Guess someone put the wrong filter on and I'll have to find a taller one,  I left extra length on the threaded rod and will trim it after I find the right filter.




Then it was time to deal with the idler pulley. The only one that Princess Auto had that could work has a 5/8" ID but I want to stick with a 3/8" bolt... the steel bushings were all 17mm OD and I had a few at home already that have a 3/8" ID so I grabbed these 5/8" OD - 3/8" ID bronze bushings but decided I wasn't too keen on using them unless absolutely necessary...



So I chucked the steel bushings in my poor man's lathe and turned them down! I started off with the angle grinder then used a file to finish them off, it only took me about 20 minutes to get r done!





Then I bribed my friend/neighbor with a cold beer to come help me plop the motor in the tractor!  Lol. I definitely tweaked my back yesterday and don't want to aggravate it any further or I could end up being layed up for a couple days.



Hopefully tomorrow it will be moving under it's own power!  I still need to relocate the fuel tank, reconfigure the exhaust,  install the idler pulley, align the pulleys, hope I grabbed belts that will work, hook up a choke, throttle and kill switch. The starting/charging system can wait!  Lol

Where do you get your fancy chrome nuts? 

Do be careful with the poor man’s lathe. Using a grinder is pretty safe, IMO, but for those who may not know, most drill press chucks are held on with a taper and side pressure can make them fly off, sometimes not pretty.

Nevadablue wrote:

Where do you get your fancy chrome nuts? 

Do be careful with the poor man’s lathe. Using a grinder is pretty safe, IMO, but for those who may not know, most drill press chucks are held on with a taper and side pressure can make them fly off, sometimes not pretty.

Honda/Acura V6 spark plug wire/valve covers at the scrapyard! There's 2 nuts and a handful of nice chrome bolts on each one!

Good safety tip! Mine is tapered and fell out once while using a hole saw.

Well it's not quite as nice out as yesterday, hovering around 12F which isn't horrible but it's damp out! I'm still slugging away though, my goal is to have this running and driving today so I can play in the snow! Lol.

The idler pulley put up quite a fight but that's partly my own fault for wanting to use not only the idler bracket but also the PTO bracket, the holes are perfectly lined up and the PTO lever has a spring that adds a little extra tension to the belts! I would've had an issue regardless because the idler pulley is a touch smaller and a different design (with the lips on the edges) so that was most of the fight, took me about an hour and half to get it sorted out!


The first issue is that the pulley was contacting the bolt for the idler lockout and spring before it was even over enough to be aligned.



I thought maybe a carriage bolt would work... nope! So I thought I'd be smart and grind it down some... still didn't clear! I ended up having to grind the edge down a bit at the top to tuck inside the pulley!




To use as a spacer I happened to find a skinny Nyloc nut that's the perfect width and lucky me I had a skinny 9/16" wrench to squeeze in there!



I dug up a couple items that were (together) the perfect width to space the other side.


Alignment is looking good...




...and the 32" belt LOOKS to be the ticket... I was concerned that the flat side may contact a part of the frame and until I run the machine I won't know for sure, 33" Belts MAY be required. It was tough to get any angles on it but the arrows point to the airspace between the belt and the frame, there isn't much at all!

Nice work, I love seeing design stuff like this. Making something out of almost nothing is the BEST! 

(You are supposed to clean stuff before you work on it) 

No way man I'm not cleaning anything (yet) except for wire connections! Lol.


It's been a successful day for me! I was starting to get a little frustrated near the end but thoughts of taking it for a rip kept me warm! Lol.

I shortened the original throttle cable and graphite lubed the heck out of it! The throttle keeps creeping down on its own so I need to snug up the dooflicky on the side of the block and maybe add a wavy washer if I can find one in my stash, if not a dab of blue LocTite should do the trick!



I ran the choke cable around the front (for now), there was nowhere to fasten the sheathing on the other side without making a bracket and I needed to get a move on so I didn't run out of daylight. I used zip ties to hold it up and out of the way of the booster fan and belt...



...hastily installed a kill switch...



...reconfigured the exhaust...



...zip tied the wiring behind the gas tank bracket, got it running, gave the carb a quick tune and removed the hood because it can't come close to closing yet. Then I took it for a quick blast up the road and back!




It blasted through the snow left by the snowplow like it wasn't even there! What a difference compared to the test motor, this thing is a tank!


The wind that was blowing through the shroud was coming strait at my face and with force! I'll keep that in mind when I alter the hood, on a hot summer day that could really come in handy! Lol. Please keep in mind alot of the little things have been slapped on in a functional but temporary fashion for now,  there's a LONG way to go with this beast!

I think I'll put the blade on it tomorrow and have some fun pushing snow around! Lol

That's it for now, let me know what you think!

Tis a beast!

Well no real updates working on the beast, it hasn't been very nice out the last couple days and if I'm going to end up being miserable working on it then I'm not having fun so what's the point right?! I have been doing some thinking, planning and research though...


On the throttle/governor there's a spring unhooked i wasn't sure was even supposed to be there and a long rod I removed (shown laying across the oil fill), I did some research and found a diagram that shows not only the spring setup but that the rod is actually a throttle limiter so now I'll be able to get them setup properly!




I'll need to relocate the gas tank and find a home for a battery but the battery tray is the only spot I have to work with so it's going to be a little tricky... here's some mock ups:

The best (fitting) spot for the battery is here. Problem is that's not only the bestest spot for the fuel tank (carb is on that side) but all the wiring for the engine is on the other side.



Now, there's not enough room for the battery here unless I cut the engines output shaft and I'd really prefer not to do that plus once the pulley is slid ahead to where it needs to be for both belts the battery is probably going to be in the way of that too.



I found a Honda Civic battery tray in my stash and wouldn't you know it... it fits really well! It sits just above the belts/pulleys (about 1/8") and seems to be just low enough for the battery to still fit under the top of the dash. It would also act as a belt keeper plus it has the holes for the battery hold down already, the down side is it's going to make changing belts a real pain but maybe I can modify it to make that easier.



If I go with the battery tray I'll need to relocate the choke cable which is a blessing in itself because that would put the manual controls on the carb side and I could run most wiring on the starter/generator side! This is what I'm thinking...



As far as fuel tank relocation goes it might be awhile before I get to it, I'll need a fuel pump and to figure out where on the engine I'll be able to get a signal for it, there's apparently certain valve covers that are designed for it but might be hard to come by especially for a engine this old, maybe I'll get lucky and find a plugged port somewhere on the block though!?


I got new belts and a spark plug for it. I've had really good luck with these Gates belts on my G10, 3 years and still going strong! Lol




Well that's it for now, this week coming up is supposed to be decent working weather so I should get some stuff accomplished!

looks like your moving right along ! i can't wait to get mine to a point where i can take it for a rip.