Death Wish 4x4 lawn tractor

got all the wiring done, unfortunately the previous owner buchured the old wiring so I've completely rewired it and chose to wire in a fuse panel so everything is on its own circuit, in addition to that I've also chose to run the gen 1 craftsman wiring as that's what connects into the motor and i like the ignition switch better, and I've left one of the safety switches in the wiring as now its hooked up to the break light so I have a functional brake light.

Very nice!  Little word of caution.  Trust me, I know from experience.  Make sure you wire your break light where they do not work when the key is off.  If you set the parking brake...

MightyRaze wrote:

Very nice!  Little word of caution.  Trust me, I know from experience.  Make sure you wire your break light where they do not work when the key is off.  If you set the parking brake...

Oh of course i have it set up to where all the accessories are wired into a fuse pannel which only gets power when the key is on so i dont have to wory about that, the break light gets power as soon as the key is on then if i press the brake in it makes it brighter so very good for night rideing

I've disassembled the steering knuckle so i can measure it out to make the wrap around steering arm, and yes this thing is so heavy now i have to use a jack to lift it its definitely gona need frame strengthening

well i got the knuckles all measured out and ive determined what size of steel flat stock ill need, unfortunately no one in the area had anything that was 2 1/2 in wide so i had to make do with what i got.

Sorry for those of you (myself included) who wanted to see this project finish in the build off. But due to an awful case of appendicitis and surgery, I can’t work on this project for the time being and full recovery is estimated around the end to mid October. Which really throws a wrench into my life as this style of work is what I depend upon to make a little extra after ends meet. That being said, as soon as I make a full recovery you can bet your money I'll be working on this again. However I did make some progress before this happened and is below this text wall.

- getting the steel stock drilled to line up with the top holes


-heating and bending the stock to wrap around the knuckle





- drilling the 1in hole for the axle to go through and the 3/4in hole for the knuckles pin



- drilling and tapping the knuckle pin to retain and act as a pivot point for the steering arm



-fitting the whole assembly together

-doing some alignment, cutting to length and drilling the hole for the steering linkage

- final assembly and test (spoiler, IT WORKS!!!)



- Shortly after doing that i put another 6in pully on the engine and refitted the engine to the body, tried to start it and nothing, it ran before i took it off and now the engine doesn't want to run, i eventually troubleshooted it and figured out the carburetor is fairly toast, it was dumping gas into the oil which is weird considering it didn't do that before i removed it and i always store it without fuel anywhere in the carburetor considering that is a known weakness to those engines not only that but once the fuel pump on the carburetor was fixed it still refused to start and yet again was still getting no fuel into the engine, at this point i was getting upset because everything looked perfect and was cleaned thoroughly and so i decided to throw a different carburetor on and yet again it didn't work. (and for any of you wondering i could get the engine to run VERY good if i used a squirt bottle full of fuel down the throat of the carburetor. At that point i was so pissed off about that whole ordeal i tried to pull the whole machine inside my barn and park it because i decided i could get the new performance carburetors and use them instead however the dam transaxle that i had just put together locked and back on was extremely stiff and wouldn't budge so if any of you know why that's happening feel free to tell me because i have no idea what its problem is(and yes it was in neutral), the transaxle was the last straw for me and i literally DRUG the thing into my barn without mechanical assistance and boy is that thing heavy i was struggling the whole way. Well needless to say its a good thing i got it all ready for storage as about 3 days latter i was rushing to the E.R for extreme sickness and pain in my lower abdomen. So I'm hopefully going to get back to this project next year and try and finish the full functionality, performance, and astatic of the build.

-P.S, sorry for the HUMONGUS post but i felt it was needed, and feel free to offer any advice that might help with this project when i work on it next!

That really sux man!  Hope you get better fast.  

[adm]Is this an official withdrawal?  I can pull it out and throw a copy into the Offroad Tractors sections to continue your build if you like?[/adm]

MightyRaze wrote:

That really sux man!  Hope you get better fast.  

[adm]Is this an official withdrawal?  I can pull it out and throw a copy into the Offroad Tractors sections to continue your build if you like?[/adm]

Yes, that would be nice.

[adm]
Done...
[/adm]

Nice work on those knuckles! Hope your recovery goes well, rest up and get ready for next year's build off, as long as you've saved yourself enough work and stay under 50% completion you should be able to reenter this machine!

Brianator wrote:

Nice work on those knuckles! Hope your recovery goes well, rest up and get ready for next year's build off, as long as you've saved yourself enough work and stay under 50% completion you should be able to reenter this machine!

I believe i’m still under 50% completion I still have to do all the performance upgrades to the motor, finish the belt work to the transaxles, fix the hood not fitting problem, put some kenda of bear claws on the rims, finish the select shift four-wheel-drive shifters, somehow add a gas pedal that looks exactly like the clutch pedal, strengthen the frame, add some more support to the transaxles, and finally polish the turd with some paint, aluminum diamond plate, and sweet lookin decals.

Man that sucks! Hope you feel better soon.

JittyJat wrote:

I believe i’m still under 50% completion I still have to do all the performance upgrades to the motor, finish the belt work to the transaxles, fix the hood not fitting problem, put some kenda of bear claws on the rims, finish the select shift four-wheel-drive shifters, somehow add a gas pedal that looks exactly like the clutch pedal, strengthen the frame, add some more support to the transaxles, and finally polish the turd with some paint, aluminum diamond plate, and sweet lookin decals.

OK, if you plan on re-submitting for next year. I can lock this one up and put it back in the build-off area. Then you can start a new thread for the next build-off.

MightyRaze wrote:

JittyJat wrote:

I believe i’m still under 50% completion I still have to do all the performance upgrades to the motor, finish the belt work to the transaxles, fix the hood not fitting problem, put some kenda of bear claws on the rims, finish the select shift four-wheel-drive shifters, somehow add a gas pedal that looks exactly like the clutch pedal, strengthen the frame, add some more support to the transaxles, and finally polish the turd with some paint, aluminum diamond plate, and sweet lookin decals.

OK, if you plan on re-submitting for next year.  I can lock this one up and put it back in the build-off area.  Then you can start a new thread for the next build-off.

yea that works, thanks!

Any updates?  Im interested to see the engine build.

JittyJat wrote:

reinforced shaved heads, hotter plugs, and the 2x 28mm  Mikuni flatside carbs.

With higher compression, more fuel and more ignition advance, you will probably want to go with colder plugs.  A hot one in that application will likely promote spark knock but the engine will tell you what it needs when you start tuning on it. As a starting point in your tuning, i dont think going hotter than stock would be wise.  Very much more so if you boost it.  You would be better off with a higher powered ignition module / coil so you dont suffer from the spark getting blown out, though closing down your gap would probably help with that if you run the stock ignition.

Krawler86 wrote:

Any updates?  Im interested to see the engine build.

JittyJat wrote:

reinforced shaved heads, hotter plugs, and the 2x 28mm  Mikuni flatside carbs.

With higher compression, more fuel and more ignition advance, you will probably want to go with colder plugs.  A hot one in that application will likely promote spark knock.  Very much more so if you boost it.  You would be better off with a higher powered ignition module / coil so you dont suffer from the spark getting blown out, though closing down your gap would probably help with that if you run the stock ignition.

This topic has scene been closed and continued on
https://www.atltf.com/t6910-withdraw-22-bo-death-wish-4x4-lt-1000-mud-mower
However i do appreciate your subjections, but plans for the engine have also been revised and go as follows, higher compression on flatheads is more of a hindrance than an aid and as such airflow and static compression have become more of the priority, that being said hotter plugs would be of greater help and i no longer plan on supper charging it has that alone would add another grand on the upgrades. But i do still plan to add 2x 28mm Mikuni carburetors and all of the performance goodies (aka flywheel, connecting rods, and pistons) but due to a recent surgery ive had work on it has come to a hault and don’t plan on starting the project back up until 2023 if not 2024 as life for me has gotten quite hectic. But rest assured that im not going to let this project slip between the cracks as im so heavily invested into the concept and project.

Here is a little update for all you guys on my mower death wish and the future plans i have in store for it.

[adm]Merged your topics all back together in one Topic until you move to the next step.[/adm]

You have quite the plans for the tractor. I'd love you see you pull it off and I think you can.

Its been a while, I'm glad to say that I've made a full recovery after my surgery. that being said I've finally started back up my mower project. So for the last 2 weeks I've been on and off making the willow lock swivel frame and now it's all done. Now ill be making 2 right angle gearboxes to act as the pivot point for the frame and the method to transfer the belt work through the willow lock swivel frame to the rear transaxle. I do plan on reentering this years build off but I'm going to wait until I've got the parts for the gear boxes to do so, which should be in a week or two.(edit: would it be possible to change this topics name to "Death Wish 4x4 lawn tractor" for future ease of reference)

Name will be changed.  When you are ready to re-enter.  New pic with what you have and I'll mention the less than 75% re-enter rule for this year.

Glad to hear your recovery went well!

PS:  Also like before.  We will lock this thread again and move with that new topic as if a new build in the build-off.  Then we can merge it back and it will keep it's chronological sequence.

[adm]Topic changed to:

Death Wish 4x4 lawn tractor[/adm]