Murray Monster Mudder

Hey guys so i basically decided to lift my mower because im having clutch and pulley troubles and it was a bare chassis so while everythings apart im gonna lift it. The only thing I'm not quite clear on is the shift linkage and the steering. Any help on how you got shifting and steering to work or even links to other posts about engineering lifted mowers would be cool. thanks.

you are gonna have to stretch the shifter by welding in a piece in the middle. that will probably make the shift pattern wider, so you will have to make the hole in the tunnel bigger. same thing on the steering (stretch the steering rod. hope you have a welder or a weldor the works cheap. $100 shop minimum sucks on little jobs like this. you are gonna have to raise the tx input pulley too. an inch or so isnt too bad. 2 inches or more , you will need a jack shaft with atleast 1 bearing. if you get up past 4 inches, you will need 2. the taller you get , the more squirrly the are. might think about welding the front axle solid. then you get into frame flex and cracking stuff.

yea i just went down in the workshop and took a good look at the shifter and steering and its not as hard as i though, and yes i have a welder haha, paying a shop would suck, but i didnt wanna buy a bearing so i was wondering if i could just make weld some brackets with metal loosely wrapping around the jackshaft to hold it in place? like just a metal ring not attached to the jackshaft itself

bearings are cheap. you can get a 5/8 pillow block for under $10. you will spend that much the first time you chuck a belt

does tractor supply co. have em?

the ones around here do. the stamped steel block are cheaper but not sure if they will hold up if you are gonna be dumping the clutch alot..try to mount it so the shaft is pushing on the block not pulling on it

Heres all the pictures for the front of the lift


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built the rear lift, new transaxle and bracket, and welded everything up. now steering, shift linkage, and clutch/pulleys

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I get my pillow blocks from northern tools (northerntool.com) - theyre around $10 - ive bot stuff from them for years and always had no issues.

Actually just bot some stuff from there - had a $20 off coupon - so bot a set of clamps, punches , new puller and some square pillow blocks .

You might want to add some angled braces for the front and back - a good hard hit and the front would fold right under - id get a set of the same rear tires for the front- would set it off nice- just looks a bit odd with those lil dinky wheels up front.

You might also want to think about making a solid subframe for it - those stamped steel pan chassis's will break if twisted hard enough .


Youll also want to upgrade your spindles - those wont take a whole lot of abuse . As for monster mowers some use rack and pinions out of small cars - youd bypass the power steering by filling the rack with oil and blocking the ports with plugs .

I do plan on putting trac bars connected to the front and back lift brackets and also plan on putting the same tires on the front so they're the same all around so im getting to it just not yet.

the steering... i dont know i really didn't wanna mess with the rack and pinion, i feel like the original would work good enough.

my real issue is with the shift linkage, i sat in the shop staring at it for about an hour and have no idea how im going to extend the linkage because everything is different now. I came to the conclution that i might just have to build my own shift system from scratch because it would just be easiest rather than screwing with the orginial shifter and trying to make it work.

Any suggestions on building a shifter (or the steering) would be hugely appreciated, especially from you engineering geniuses (FeerlessFront!!!helppp)

Thanks guys, happy mowin.

i found a 1in bearing from the old mower deck that already has a pulley on it so im gonna cut out the orignal pulley and support i made and weld this bearing on so that is perfectly centered and won't budget even a little bit
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and here's the shifter that i made today, i scrapped the original one and made my own from scratch using the old deck lever. the shifter came out great and shifts through all the gears perfect with no problems, comfortable to use when sitting on the mower too.

once again... suggestions always accepted, thanks guys

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hope all the pictures dont get overwhelming, i just want to show you guys as much detail as possible.

i got some updates on the monster murray

made the new rear input shaft and pulley supporter by a bearing that is welded onto the lift brackets so that the pulley doesnt wobble all over the place when its spinning, with the bearing, the rear pulley doesnt move at all
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i put an american flag on the back, gotta represent... (no hate to all you canadians out there)
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also thinking about mounting this winch guide on the front even though ill just have a come-a-long and no winch :/
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hope you guys like the mower, shes been a long way since i got her and hopefully it wont be long until shes driving again. any suggestions for steering from anyone whose lifted a mower before would be awesome, im kinda confused on how to do it and i DONT want to put a rack and pinion in because i have absolutely NO money to spend, thanks good luck with all your projects

small little update today, just messed with the dash, mounted my toggle kill switch and got a new push button for the ignition. push button is right to the left of the steering column
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guess what... more pictures! build some supports for the rear bracket, still gotta do the front bracket and then build some trac bars

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a lot of stuff starting to fill the rear end haha
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built my steering (kinda shitty) and drove it for the first time today, no clutch so i had to start it out of gear and then just jam it in gear when i wanted to go, used a broken belt i found at the dump, just stiched it up and it worked for my little test drive

fu*$kin awesome.... just about to finish welding up my direct steering and i run out of welding wire and now im leaving for 3 days so until i get back the fact that its incomplete is going to eat me alive

so i got 2 idler pulleys from TSC and built my clutch that ive been wanting to do for a while. just need to finish the linkage for it and she'll be done!

I made about 75% of this mower was made from scratch using scrap metal from the dump. cant believe shes almost ready to romp

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well, nobodies commented on this post since i started... good thing i dont care. I haven't touched the mower in months because i got a 1990 K5 Blazer the things a beast so i've been tied up in my truck. I went out and drove the monster mower today a little bit though with the new steering set-up that ACTUALLY works this time and its not too bad. Good little run through the woods and almost flipped it a couple times but we're good. gotta love mowers...
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livin the good life (disregard the kimme license plate... it was transfered from my moms car and is temporary haha)

didn't know you had a build thread here.... glad to see your doing the lift correctly and making supports, i've seen way to many hack job lift kits done on lawnmowers so good job!

AH! a comment!!! haha thanks man, didn't really know there was a right way to lift a lawn mower haha but hey all for the safety i guess

Hey I read a post earlier in the build saying you planned on putting the same size tires in the front. Idk if you know but your going to have to cut down the front lift and weld it back up or else your gonna put the tires on and it's going to sit real high in the front looking good though

Ya I thought I made the lift so that when i put the same size tires on the front it would sit even but it does sit 4inches higher in the front some how... Now I plan on putting all 4 31x10.5 BFG all terrains all around it so if I ever have time off from my truck I'll do that and cut down the lift in the front to accomidate the 31's

Can you post some pics of your steering setup?

sorry, i would but i actually traded the mower for my first motorcycle so i no longer have it