SS-16 OFF-ROAD BUILD

My son and I are building our first off-road mower, I’ll do my best to take the time to document and post updates here.
Build to do list:
26/12/12 kenda bear claws (done)
Weld up transaxle (done)
6” pulley swap engine and trans (trans done) (engine ordered)
Front stretch????
Gas pedal
Separate brake pedal
Exhaust
Move fuel tank so we can lower the seat
Paint

We got started this weekend with welding up the 633a, it was pretty straight forward until reassembly, we got everything cleaned up and applied a nice bead of RTV but once we cinched up all the bolts the trans had way to much drag when trying to rotate the pulley so we split the case halves again to verify that we had all the shims in place and we were missing one, so after some searching  we found the missing shim and reassembled but everything thing was still way to tight, so now we’re just tired of fighting it and decided to call it a night. Now it’s the next morning and we split the cases again and tear everything apart making sure there isn’t any debris between the two JD of the shafts and the bearings “cups ?”…. Everything looked good so now I have two options, make a gasket in hopes this would give us the clearance needed or try and tap or press out the bearing backer cups that look to be pressed in the case We went with the gasket option and thankfully this cured all our problems.  Now the transaxle is ready to go including a 6” pulley swap and new belt guide.

Played with the front stretch, I have a good idea what I want to do and still be able to mount the snowplow using factory hardware and our bumper winch mount that attaches just like the plow.

I'm going to try and get some stuff done during the week while I'm waiting for parts.
First thing is brakes, do I stay with the band style drum brake? I know we want to run an independent brake pedal and running hydraulic brake lines are easier than figuring out mechanical linkage so how do I convert to disc? adapt a disc to my existing brake drum? easy to do if I had a lathe. I had a thought of trying a hydraulic slave cylinder to actuate the brake band as this might be an option and could increase braking leverage, I also need to look at different brake liner material, what are you guy's using to re-line your brake bands? adding front brakes could be a easy option but hard to balance with the rear.
I also need to figure out how I can re-locate the fuel tank from under the seat, these Onan twins are massive and don't leave a lot of room under the hood.

Anyway I'm just thinking out loud here "rambling"

Neat build, can’t wait to see more! What’s the reasoning behind moving the gas tank?

Nice Project!

Brake material I have used on the now 4 times with 100% success:

McMaster-Carr (6175K811)
McMaster-Carr 
Metal-Free Brake and Clutch Lining

I believe 1 foot is good, should give an inch or two extra to be cut off.

I used JBWeld with the red label, not the yellow.  I's supposed to be stronger and just basically glued it on with it while clamping it overnight.  The first one I did was nearly 6 years ago and is still holding like the day I put it on, stops great too!  The other 2 are just the same.  Heck I did it with the brake shoes on my peerless 2300 and it works great too. 


Sears Suburban band should be just like yours:

 


Craftsman GT6000 I did, pretty much the same as well:





As I mentioned, I did some brake shoes with the same stuff with just as good results.

Rustbucket Garage wrote:

Neat build, can’t wait to see more! What’s the reasoning behind moving the gas tank?

Thanks @Rustbucket Garage
The reason for moving the tank is too lower the seat height, it's way to high, optimally I'd like to get it down close to flush with the fenders

Here's the stock seat height

Thanks @MightyRaze that's what I was needing to know, that looks like good old brake pad material and should work much better than whatever the heck that factory "woven" crud is

MightyRaze wrote:

Nice Project!

Brake material I have used on the now 4 times with 100% success:

McMaster-Carr (6175K811)
McMaster-Carr 
Metal-Free Brake and Clutch Lining

I believe 1 foot is good, should give an inch or two extra to be cut off.

I used JBWeld with the red label, not the yellow.  I's supposed to be stronger and just basically glued it on with it while clamping it overnight.  The first one I did was nearly 6 years ago and is still holding like the day I put it on, stops great too!  The other 2 are just the same.  Heck I did it with the brake shoes on my peerless 2300 and it works great too. 


Sears Suburban band should be just like yours:

Strombug wrote:

The reason for moving the tank is too lower the seat height, it's way to high, optimally I'd like to get it down close to flush with the fenders

I don't blame you one bit, my friend has one as a offraoder and the seat position is definitely high. The whole tractor is top heavy even with a 13hp GX series clone but it is one heck of a good rig.


I'll be following along the build, good luck and have fun with it!

Brianator wrote:

Strombug wrote:

The reason for moving the tank is too lower the seat height, it's way to high, optimally I'd like to get it down close to flush with the fenders

I don't blame you one bit, my friend has one as a offraoder and the seat position is definitely high. The whole tractor is top heavy even with a 13hp GX series clone but it is one heck of a good rig.


I'll be following along the build, good luck and have fun with it!

Same with my snapper, that thing feels tippy all day long even with a ton of wheel spacers.

Update
We decided to wait on stretching the front so we put it back together this weekend, I'm liking the 6" pulleys, it still has a very usable low range and a top speed right at 20mph un-governed, we ended up modifying the mule drive lever and linkage for our throttle and so far it works well. Thats the good news........
The bad news is last night I flipped it up and over on me and then it rolled down the hill 2-1/2 times, she actually held up pretty good except for the upper grill and steering wheel but still extremely disappointing, so we got it flipped back over and drug it out and back to the shop, pulled the plugs just to avoid hydro locking and she fired right back up.

Before pics

Glad you are OK; those are not light tractors.  Yeah, that fiberglass nose is a bane for most sears owners.  The roper nose that has the headlights in the lower half are metal cast.  Both are getting a little harder to find.  Depending on how bad yours is broke, maybe you can fix it.

Hope it didn't beat you up too bad!? My friends engine pulley took a chunk out of his leg when it flip/rolled over on him. Amazing machines offroad but very unstable and I would never recommend adding more articulation to one of them.

I’m really just disappointed in myself on this one, definitely driver error and totally could have been saved, I just need more seat time on this machine. It’s funny, your brain knows to just push the clutch in when the front end comes up but natural instinct tells you to bail off. In hindsight leaning forward in attempt to keep the front end down really puts your feet out of position to get the clutch depressed.
I’m really wishing we had stretched the front

Strombug wrote:

I’m really just disappointed in myself on this one

Don't be. Those tractors love to dig in and grip even with less than stellar tires in my experiences, you have some serious treads that are going to add to the unpredictable nature of that beast. Taking your time to learn it is a great idea! Great looking rig btw, I love it!

Hey man don’t beat yourself up! You seem to be okay, the tractor can definitely be fixed up good as new. Happens to just about everyone, I’ve nearly flipped a full size tractor over before and I know people that have totaled cars up pretty good. At the end of the day: no harm, no foul.