86 Craftsman rebuild

As you know ive been tinkering on 'freshening up' a 86 craftsman garden tractor.

From the beginning its been a serious pain, BUT im starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel ( hopefully).

As a recap, heres some progress pics/video-
Started with this - a rusty hulk of a tractor:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3130/259448...032435917_o.jpg

Soon was reduced to this:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3189/263661...67835fa65_o.jpg

Chassis has been repainted/rebuilt to a certain point:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXSTz6Vwcwg

As i found out, the deck mandrels were all seized. Instead of spending a small fourtune on complete new assemblies, i managed to take them apart to replace the issue- bad berings.

Yesterday i managed to get some time to clean and prep the deck for repairs, as well as sand all the sheetmetal down and get ready for primer, but still need to remove all the old stickers first.

Are the 16x8 fronts not on it now or did you get it with the 15x6's?

It needs a flux capacitor modification. Always wanted one of those

I believe theyre the 16x8's ( taller/wider then normal wheels in front)- id have to look.

I put those tires on it now just to roll it around the shed- the originals wouldnt hold air- ill fix em and put em back on for its first test drive.

i still need to paint the rims and sheetmetal- i just bot some paint today.
Im debating if i should use a chrome type paint on the rims or stocker silver.



No flux capacitor- cant seem to get 1.21 jigawatts........

No biggie. If you can get it to 88 mph all will be well

I cant even get my modified murray to 88 MPH.....

Well.....the sheetmetal is officially painted- silver. I bot a couple cans of a pewter color( shoulda bot more) i ran out of paint after just painting the hood and side covers- 2 cans!

I still had that silver paint i bot originally, so on that went- one can did the whole thing and used the other can to recoat it.

I couldnt find a closer color to the original- silver will have to do.

Im gonna let it sit and cure a couple days before putting it back on the tractor.

Ill get some pics soon.

I decided to splurge and buy a spraygun for painting - im not happy with the way the spray can paint is comming out.

I picked up a couple hvlp guns at TSC , i need to pick up a air dryer setup, some paint, and im ready to go.

Update: Tractor project has been sorta idle for a while- ive been trying to get the original deck madrels apart to no avail. I refuse to pay $80 for a single mandrel, much less $80 a piece for all 3.

As a fluke, i happened to look at one of my spare MTD spindle assemblies lying on one of my shelves- after doing some mesuring, from the mounting flange down to the cast blade holder, its exactally the same depth as the original setup.

I think with some modifications to the pulley setups ( on two of them- the normal hieght on the center one is exactally the same hieght as the stock center pulley- nice!) - the center pulley will need another pulley welded to it, the other two will need to have thier pulleys reversed- or lowered. The only sorta downfall to using these spindles is ill haveta cut a couple acess holes in the sheild cover for them to exit thru- no biggie.

i figure doing this for under $50- well less then a original mandrel- with the added bonus of having berings that can be replaced easily.

Ill get pics soon.

Hey Dangerous
Nice to see someone else working on one of those Craftsman machines.
I have two with the gear drive transmissions.
I am planning to install a sleeve hitch on one of them. Either an electric or manual version. I am not using the motors main shaft at the front of the tractor, so I may install a hydraulic pump and add hydraulics to the machine.
Maybe I can bug you for notes and tips on what to look for and where to find parts for my machines.
Till then, keep up the good work!
Rusty

Update on the 86 GTII- well ive sorta forgot about the thread- oops.

I did finish the tractor, runs, its all back together, 'borrowed' the decent deck off the 90's GT6000 ( which isnt running yet) and have already mowed the yard with it- the electric clutch works flawless!

Its still got the bleah paint job i gave it - but its gonna get scratched up anyway- so heres a first 'real' startup video of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Zpoq9R8go