John Deere L130 Flexible use

I picked up a John Deere L130 from a coworker a few days ago and im looking forward to building it into a general purpose go-cart / mild off road vehicle.  I want to be able to drift / slide in the rain / dirt / grass, go fast in a straight line, and just generally fool around with it.  Its not being set up for anything in particular, just an overall fun machine.

I luckily talked my boss at work into letting me come in and do a bunch of shop cleanup and organization to give us all more space to work, but also to take over a small area in order to build my project.  I wont be building it in my livingroom like my GT18 so many years ago.  On to the actual project.

This is the evening i picked up the tractor.  It has been sitting in a barn for some years, but cranks over and ran great before parked.


I brought it to my space at work and started stripping it down.  The engine is a Kohler Command Pro, 23HP that runs good and has had regular maintinence.  the battery was dead from sitting when i got it, but i started it on a jump pack before pulling it out to make sure.  It runs good, doesnt smoke, but leaks fuel from some rotten fuel lines.  All that stuff will be replaced.  Hopefully the engine will have the power im after, 23 seems like a pretty stout number for a cart like this, and im also planning on running the rpms up to around 4200, higher when and if i get a good flywheel for it.  I do plan on abusing the drivetrain.



The next step will be more stripping down to the frame because i plan on lowering it, body drop and suspension drop.  Not super low, but i want a low CG for stability.  I havent decided on tire sizes yet, but i do want to go a little smaller in the rear, and keep them pretty hard for drivetrain reliability.  
Speaking of drivetrain, im planning on designing my own belt arrangement and clutch to go with the new transaxle.  This JD is a hydro stock, but i purchased a few MST200 series transaxles for the manual swap.  I bought a 205-509 complete, a 206-545C complete, and another 206-545C minus the case for more spare internals.  Like i mentioned earlier, im not planning to be nice to the drivetrain.  The 205 was the first to arrive.  I cant seem to post any more pictures in this as my upload limit has been reached, but i think you guys probably know what a 205 looks like.  Its in decent shape externally and shifts fine.  Im going to be opening it up and adding bearings and a gear oil conversion.  Im still learning and researching the best things to do to these transaxles for reliability, so id love some suggestions.

I like working on transmissions, i rebuild them occasionally at work along with automotive ring and pinion setups, and transfercase rebuilds, they are some of my favorite jobs to get, so im looking forward to getting into this trans and seeing what i can make better.

Future plans include many things i want to learn more about.  I have basic fabrication skills, but i want to learn more about tube bending and things like that.  So im going to be making a header, sheet metal fabrication with lowering the body, possibly making new straight spindles to lower the front, things like that.  I want to take my time with each little piece of this build to make something im fully proud of, as well as refine my skills, which should improve my work quality, as the vehicles i work on are generally very nice, and my goal is to make them leave even nicer.

Il be going in early tomorrow morning for some more project time, so hopefully il have some updates to post when i get home.

Picture test, MST 205. Awesome, the picture hosting setup is more flexible and powerful than i thought.

Some other newer upgrades that are becoming more popular for these transaxles are a vent tube and a grease fitting in the input shaft. It’ll build pressure when you start running it faster than it was meant to and there us nowhere for that pressure to go on these, so most of us nowadays pop a vent tube in em to eliminate that.

As for the oil swap, it is a good idea, but I’m starting to lean more to adding a little grease to it as well and making a good concoction for it. Too much grease and it’ll overheat and not get lubricated and if it’s too much oil then it will sometimes leak. I don’t know what the best ratio would be as I haven’t done this yet but I can definitely see why they do it after failing to make it leak free like 8 times.

Good news for you is the MST 200 series are already (gear) oil filled and have bearings so you can scratch those off your list!

@Murraymountains suggestion to add a vent and a grease nipple on the input shaft are valid ones, some guys like to add grease nipples to the cases near the ends of the axles as well. I personally have a MST203 (3 speed) and it's been working and holding up really well so far!

As for as your picture upload limit, it only does 3 per time but a little loophole is to "insert all", then "remove all" and then you can select and add up to 3 more. You can repeat that over and over again if you're making a long and picture heavy post.

If you were intersted to enter it in the 2023 Build Off you could read the 2022 Build Off Rules with the link I just provided, the 2023 rules look basically the same and the competition kicks off in January.

Hope this helps and best of luck with your new build!

Brianator wrote:

Good news for you is the MST 200 series are already (gear) oil filled and have bearings so you can scratch those off your list!

Are you sure? I've never had a 200 series MST with bearings or oil in it and I've had quite a few of them and still do. Albeit the ones I've had were used. Are you sure it's not just a Canadian thing or possibly the new ones are designed that way? I could be wrong but it's just that I very rarely see one with that already done to it and I've never heard it said that they come with that before.

According to the Tecumseh/Peerless manual it is so...

Hmm.. my MST205 and 206 were oil filled.  I know my 206 DID NOT have bearings on the axle, but it has provisions.  I have not cracked open the 205 beyond the oil plug.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I really like the grease fitting on the input shaft idea, as well as the vent tube. Il probably do a remote vent up in the chassis or under the hood to keep crap out of it. Is the grease fitting on the input necessary if i swap to needle bearings? I feel like there might not be a means for oil to be pushed up there by itself.

Also is the grease in the ends of the axle tubes to help seal in the gear oil? i want to try and figure out a lip seal to put in there so i can have a sort of leak free case, though leaks are not a huge concern right now.

For today i didn't do much with the transmission other than clean it up a bit and remove the input pulley. I will most likely open it up tomorrow before work and see what im getting into.



I also finished removing the dash and console. Luckily everything has been coming apart fairly easily. No broken fasteners yet, no stripped fasteners and nothing i havent been able to remove without hand tools. The seat was full of water, the steering wheel center cap was full of spiders and the console itself was full of grass and dirt. Im glad to get it all cleaned out and i can start modifying it when the time comes. I want to lower the seat and steering wheel about 6in if i can when it goes back together.




Ive been thinking about the front suspension today and i think i might want to make my own front axle. The stock one is cast, and has some lift J shaped spindles that i dont like. I want the front axle stubs to share a centerline with the axle itself, be a bit wider, and have about 1.5 degrees of negative camber. It looks easy enough to make one from some rectangle tubing, i just need to figure out some knuckles. Making knuckles isnt out of the question, im undecided on that avenue still. On steering as well, i havent yet decided on leaving the gear drive stock setup with two push-pull tie rods, or doing a more direct steering with some dirt bike handlebars, or something inbetween.

Its so fun thinking about what exactly i want to do with this cart, and considering the best avenue for the best component design for the application. Thanks for the suggestions so far, i appreciate them.

Grease in the axle tubes? Also, there should be oil seals in the axle case ends.  If you plan on abusing it, and running a smaller pulley.  I'd go ahead with the mod to add an input grease point.  On my MST, I threaded the oil fill plug for a brass nipple for venting.  Sorry I do not remember the size. I ran a hose just under the seat with a fuel filter to keep mud out.  I have been told if you run in deep water, maybe run that up under the dash or (high point) so it doesn't suck in water.

Well needle bearings are already on your input shaft and oil doesn’t really get up there plus, like Mighty said, if you’re planning on running a pretty small pulley it would be a good idea.

MightyRaze wrote:

Grease in the axle tubes?

Brianator mentioned also adding grease fittings towards the ends of the axle tubes.  I wasnt sure if that was to help the oil not seep, or just to lubricate the outer area of the axles.

I only had 2 hours to work on this today, but visually i feel like i made pretty good progress.

First was splitting the 205 open to see what i got.  Its definitely used, but everything looks in pretty decent shape.  Some of the gears have almost no wear on them.  The two top gears look almost identical as far as ratio goes, is that normal?




Next i stripped the deck apart, and kept anything that might be usefull.  Three blade spindles and a handfull of flat and V pulleys.  Also a pivoting mechanism that i might be able to use in a tensioner or as part of my belt clutch and a couple belt guard tins.



I pulled the body tin off the frame and removed the gasoline tank.  There was tons of grass, dirt, and crud packed into all the nooks, so i quickly brushed it down and hit it with the shop vac.  It will be actually cleaned up when i get closer to the building / assembly portion of this project.  I want it to be basically new looking when it goes together.  Removing the body was surprisingly easy and i was really stoked to see how much room there was above the stock hydro transaxle.  I will be relocating the fuel tank to somewhere under the hood for room to sink the seat down into the body tin, but i was not expecting there to be so much excess room.  Il be able to really lower myself down between the tires now.





Im having so much fun so far with this build, especially being at work.  Its fun thinking about it and designing parts and brackets while im working on other people's rigs.  

I also recieved my last transaxle today, a complete 206-545C.  Now i have 3 sets of internals and 2 cases to play with, no worries when i break stuff. Tomorrow im hoping to get the hydro out, the front axle out and get the chassis on its side so i can start looking at pully fitment and clutch positioning.  I want to run as large a pully as i can physically fit between the frame rails on the engine, and since my overall drive ratios are undecided, whatever transmission size is appropriate to get me to my desired road speeds.  I dont want to deal at all with belt slip under load, and when i dump the clutch, i want to DUMP the clutch.  Specific pully sizes will be determined when i choose my rear tires.

Does anyone have any suggestions on steering knuckle or spindles that i could use/ look at for lowering my front end?  I am considering buying some and building a front axle to use them, or possibly making my own spindles, but id like to look at what works so i can get some fabrication inspiration / ideas.  I want them even with the axle, not a J shaped lift spindle like these stock ones.


I might stay with these stock front tires, or possibly go a little bigger if i want more ride height.

I completely missed that above about grease on the ends of the case.  I'm not sold on that mod personally; I am on the input especially on the radical pulley swaps and when you want to get the belt tight as possible.

I am really sold on the grease, mine had it standard and it was pretty clear to see that it didn't really creep inwards that much.
It will however help with sealing the axle against dirt aswell, lube the bearing better and potentiallly make it harder for oil to seep out.

Mine is filled with cornhead grease however.

For spindles I would look at go kart spindles for inspiration,

I was offered a knockoff peerless 700 last night that is making me reconsider the rear end. Ive wanted to put a hydraulic hand brake on the rear axle since the beginning and that will be difficult but doable with the 206. However with a live axle I can use a larger axle diameter, bigger brakes and very adjustable gear ratios with sprockets. There's lots of pros to the transmission over the 206, but also cons. Most the cons seem to be in the category of ease and quickness of assembly, neither of which are much concern to me.

Does anyone have any experience with the 700s from eBay? I did a bit of research and they seem pretty good, but I haven't spent a ton of time.

A regular racer on YouTube used them and seems to have really good luck with zero to minimal issues through an entire season. I'm trying to find more cons to steer myself away from them, but if I can't find any, then I think that's the direction I will take. The brakes alone so far are the biggest pro, followed closely with the adjustable final drive ratio.

I’d run the 206 for now. I think the benefits are outweighs by the cost, but that’s just me. Neat build!

Rustbucket Garage wrote:

I’d run the 206 for now. I think the benefits are outweighs by the cost, but that’s just me. Neat build!

The 700 would be basically $65, what I paid for one of the 206s. My friend said he would give me the 700 straight across for one of my 206s and the mower deck shell that I was going to scrap, so it's no money out of my pocket. I would have to buy sprockets and an axle. The trans itself would be no additional money from my pocket which is why it's so tempting.

The brakes are so tempting. A big disk or band and some free takeoff hydraulics from work, and it would be a great drift brake. Luckily there's no time constraints, so I'll wait for more input from here and let it stew in my brain while I work on other parts.

Kind of depends how much of a project you want.

The 700 to me is much nicer because you can run a thicker axle first and foremost.
You can adapt it to suit your needs exactly and I guess that if you want to have options open in the future that is really nice

But having a transaxle is an easy way to fix most issues with limited parts.
Firstly having a single belt and no chain to worry about is really nice.
And most of all it allows you to drop it in now and troubleshoot later.
Brakes you can always add at some point.

Again, it depends what you want.
I went out of my way to get a transaxle while 700s are more available here.
I just felt it was more trouble than it was worth on my machine but you might feel that differently

Another update from my time today.  I did some more cleaning and mockups.  The hydro is out, and in the scrap pile.  The 206-545C is in, at least ,mocked up.



This mockup is pushing me further towards the live axle and 700 series knockoff.  Im not a fan of how narrow it is.  The hydro was 2.5in wider per side and i have to run no wheel spacers.  The hydro had 2.5in tubes and a couple thrust washers between the wheels and case whereas only a couple washers fit on the axles of the 206.  I could buy a longer set of axles for it or a single wide live axle, but then im getting wide and unsupported on a 3/4in axle and i couldve spent that money on a 1 or 1 1/8 live axle to use with the 700.


Next i tried a basic seating position mockup.  I want to be as low as i can get.  Sitting on the body pan, even without the seat felt super high up.  



Sitting on the input pulley of the transaxle felt much better.  Though to do this il have to cut a bunch out of the body pan and sheet metal it all back in.  Other than a greatly lowered CG, il also be able to build in some padded side supports that will help keep me in place and the cup holder / pockets will then be elbow rests.


To make that work, il also have to lower the foot rests and foot controls.


The last thing i did today was set the hood on.  There was a 5in tall plastic duct piece attached to the bottom inside of the hood that didnt let the hood sit down low, so i removed that.  Im pretty happy with the hood line, but il definitely have to put some screen or inlet of some kind for the engine fan.




Im liking the overall direction im taking with this so far.  I appreciate the input from you all so far as well.  

I still have a week to decide on using the 700 knockoff or the 206, but after seeing how narrow the 206 actually was, im having a hard time continuing with the setup of the 206.  I think the next thing to focus on will be the clutch and belt arrangement.  Im going to do a bunch of reading and watching to see what works for others.  Id like to find a as good a simile of an automotive clutch as i can.  I want controlled slip for launches on various surfaces, but also be able to do a firm clutch kick.  I think the larger diameter pulleys will help with that, but as with the other things on this project, im learning as i go.  
The larger pulleys will have the same drive ratios, the belt will be moving at a higher speed and there will be more surface area for grip.  I hope this combination will allow a finer control of belt friction and allow me the type of clutch feel i want.  Clutch design seems pretty critical.

I see where you want to go at and in that case I would definitely go for a cvt mounted as high up as possible and shielded against water and mud as much as possible.
Either from a jackshaft to under the seat or build a second removable cover over the tunnel so you can have it more forward but still above the frame rails.

I also really wanted the same and I have been looking at manual kart clutches but they are so damn pricy.
I guess the next best thing would be a cvt and 700 combo.

fbisurveilancevan wrote:

The 700 to me is much nicer because you can run a thicker axle first and foremost.
You can adapt it to suit your needs exactly and I guess that if you want to have options open in the future that is really nice

I appreciate your reply, its a good angle.

Those are the reasons that really do it for me. Time constraints and the size of the project are no concern. Il be making each little piece its own project when i start building. Clutch is next, then probably front suspension. Another thing i like about a live axle and chain over a transaxle is the disconnect. An impact on the axle is not into the trans case, plus the reduction will take even more torque load off the transmission. I can play with input rpm vs chain ratio to try and find the transmission the most ideal range. I dont know if the 700 would rather spin fast or have a higher torque load, more research is needed.

fbisurveilancevan wrote:

I guess the next best thing would be a cvt and 700 combo.

A CVT is out of the question. I am not at all a fan of that style of mechanism. Standard belts and chains is all i want to have to replace and take care of. Plus i want to feel a direct connection to the clutch, road speed and engine rpm. I dont enjoy driving automatic cars for the same reason. Thanks for the input, i really appreciate the other points of view.

So after draining the oil and removing the stock oil filter, I discovered that a Toyota YZZD3 filter fits just fine. I tried to post a picture but it won't let me from my phone. I don't think it likes heic format. I'll have to post it later tonight after I convert them with my others.
That's pretty darn cool though, more capacity and a known good quality filter with an anti drain valve. I don't know what's in the jd ones, they're probably good as well. I just have access to the Toyota ones as well and they're really inexpensive.

More progress.  I installed a toyota YZZD3 oil filter and filled the engine with Shell Rotella T4 10w-30.  I run this same oil in my pickup because of all the zinc and wear resistance, so i think it will perform well in this engine.  Im happy that this filter will increase the capacity by about .3-.5 quarts as well.  The extra length is no problem in this application.



The only other progress i made was in cutting the body pan.  I removed a large section from the seat area and dropped the seat down into the pan by 11in.  I have another 2-3in to go if i modify the seat mount and the frame rails so that im basically right on the input pulley, but to finalize that im going to wait until i make the decision between the 206 and the 700knockoff.  I definitely want to move the seat back about 6 more inches, but since i will retain the stock body pan, i need to make new rear mounts to support it before i can cut off the existing ones for room.  I think sitting just in front of the rear axle line will have a nice low CG for going fast, and also still have a decent forward weight bias for steep hills and wheeling.





As far as wheeling goes, with myself lowered down so much, i might end up not going with straight spindles and leave the stock lift spindles in place, just with some extra bracing welded in.  I dont want to kill ground clearance because i do want to be able to take this to an OHV area not far from me at some point and cruise some of the easy -moderate powerline roads, and possibly try some of the trails i used to wheel on back in the day.  A trail called firebreak 5 would be pretty fun from this type of perspective, as well as cedar tree.

Yes but no, i just jumped out of bed so excuse me for not going into detail too much.

That Toyota oil filter has a pressure relief valve while the Kohler doesn't if I recall correctly.
Iam a mechanic and not the library of Alexandria but as far as my knowledge goes id stay away from changing it to something else.

When it comes to quality or quantity a lot of these oil circuits on small engines are just somewhat redundant.
John Deere fiddled with the quick oil change system on the 1xx a few years back and actually did a recall reverting it back to original.
Don't know the exact details but apparently it was also too much of a hassle.

We got a couple of ancient country clippers in the scrapyard with Kohler command engines and they all will still run if you'd try.
Kohler doesn't die they fade away so I really don't think they need the capacity.

Krawler86 wrote:

Brianator mentioned also adding grease fittings towards the ends of the axle tubes.  I wasnt sure if that was to help the oil not seep, or just to lubricate the outer area of the axles.

Right on both counts! Although oil seepage in your case isn't as much of a concern as your MST has proper oil seals it just seems like a good idea to have a little extra wear protection on the ends of the axles tubes, I think it's safe to assume this rig won't be lady driven on Sundays! Lol.

Man you're really trucking along! Nice work and I like how you've lowered the seat! I'd definitely reinforce the front spindles if I were you, I've done it and don't regret it, probably would've bent them by now if I hadn't!