Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

got your attention now ill bet .

ive had an old roper garden tractor for some years ,was worn out when i got it but i managed to get a few years out of it .

mostly used it for plowing snow .

the engine was very tired and eventually the con rod went square,didnt blow just got noisy.

anyway i had planned to repair or replace the engine but my life was quite busy for a while (some of you will know about this )

so last summer i finally got around to thinking about the tractor again.

i should mention that it was a 1977, 16 horse roper with the high and low range tranny.very heavy duty compared to a new one .

cast iron briggs engine.

motor had been poorly cobbled up long before me and was not cost effective to repair it.

i thought about  putting a honda in there ,even pulled one off the shelf at work and set it in but it didnt look right.

i had an onan that came with its own transmission.

very nice engine,cast iron with roller bearings on the mains and  inserts in forged steel rods.

has a real clutch and pressure plate attached with a 2 speed tranny and reverse.

but how to put this monster in my tractor.

anyone familiar with my type of tractor will know that the weight is not a problem and the transmission will handle the horsepower fair play.

but i eithet had to remove the onans tranny and make a very interesting (read expensive ) engine pulley.

crankshaft pto is 1 inch long and has an unusual taper on it.

i opted to keep the onan tranny.

thatswhere its gets interesting.

meant i had to put  18 inches in the frame to accept the added length of this setup.

i unbolted the front frame section and just pulled it ahead and then put in 2 lengths of 1/4  x 4 inch steel.overlapped it 6 inches on each end and bolted it together in the original holes very nice so far.

i set the engine in clamped it in to lign the tranny pto up.

the engine is mounted sideways.pistons pointing left and right .now your thinking thats not right but the tranny has a right angle pto.

however the trannys pto is a sprocket.  and of course the shaft its on is another wierd taper and i cant change it .

so i put a cross shaft in the frame below the the tranny.

put a pulley on it to match the belt and a sprocket to match the tranny.

it sounds easy but it took a while.

worked out quite well actually,the pulley i put on is the original 4 sheive one and it is in the original position that the old briggs engine placed it in.

i know it sounds strange but a picture is worth a thousand words.

the clutch and brake still function normal and im using the original belt.

with the onans tranny and the original one i have 12 foreward gears and 4 reverse .

its not real fast but close to normal just a lot in between.

i have to build a hood yet and paint it but it looks okay i guess and sure turns heads.

its still at the shop.

we thought about using it as a puller but around here they run a lot more horsepower than this one (100 plus)

so when i finish it i will take it home and use it for hauling a trailer and putting in firewood and that sort of thing.

if i spent a little more time engineering i could even put the mowing deck on ( i have a 48 inch one in very good shape)

i dont however have a lawn yet.

in time i will have a lawn and ill use it untill then as a tractor.

later chris   

Hi Chris,

Once you get it sorted do you intend on welding in the extensions or do you feel the bolts will suffice?

Can't wait to see the pictures,

Marc

Hi Marc...

i plan on welding it on all the edges and adding some bracing.

i used grade 8 bolts and a lot of them.

i will try and attach the mower hangers before i weld it though because those mounts use the same bolt holes.

and the original frame is 3/16 steel.

it is quite heavy and dosent flex as i thought it would .we tried lifting it with a jack under 1 front spindle and it actually twisted less than a new tractor does when we lift them to service blades

we use an engine lift with a rope around one spindle will stand a tractor right up on end if necessary.

later chris

Pretty neat Chris. Hard to pull a wheelie now.

The pictures really don't do it justice.  It looks a thing right out of monster garage.

It's all his though.  I don't really want much to do with it at all.  I'm not into tractors like that.  I know I'm in the wrong business.  I'm more into the car scene.  But that's a whole other tale.

The tractor is really a sight to behold.  Brings many people inside to ask what exactly is the purpose of the whole modification thing.  Most just don't understand it - but the odd ones that do come back to check on it's progress.

Sherri

as i look at the pics of it that Rob posted for me,i remember that the onans tranny had the vertically mounted shifters.

1 for foreward-reverse.

1 for  high range- low range.

i modified this so they would shift with the setup on its side facing rearward.

this is so i can operate them from the seat,and i will put the hood over that area of course.

the onan also has an automotive style alternator.50 amps i beleive,battery charging is not a prob anymore.

engine also has an oil pressure port and i have an autometer gauge installed inthe dash 40 psi hot idling.

at present im using a cub cadet muffler but plan on using a dual exhaust setup ,only question there is pointing it up like the pullers do or down so i dont worry about water entering,dont like those lil flappers.

oh yes it will pull...i hooked on a full size ford 4x4 and i could easily pull it ...truck was not in gear of course,but was pulling up small grade.

i do have one thing yet to do to the motor...it has no governor in it at all and i will have to put one in it if i use it  for much more than idling around...and getting a governor for an old onan is not easy.

later chris

Chris,
My old Gravely had a belt driven govenor. If you can find somewhere to mount it, they seem like they would work on anything.
Those smoke stack things look real good. But they need to be a little high so they are not too loud for the operator. And you need to do a real good job of support so they don't break off or break the head. They do look neat though. I would love to have one. But I'm chicken.
I bought one that exhausts forward for my K321, It is pretty big, so I hope it is kind of quiet (not running yet). I got the forward facing hoping that it would keep down on the heat in the summer.

hi Rob..

did that OLD GRAVLEY have a gravley moter or was it someone elses .

i have seen belt drive governors on large stationary engines but never on OPE ,now im curious as to what you had. and the larger muffler on your 321 kohler should be quiet.

the muffler im using on the onan is a cub cadet one and is very quiet .if i split the exhaust and use one on each cylinder it will be louder but different.the twins with twin mufflers seem to break up the harmonics somehow and they sound sweet.

later chris

The govenor is the silver part wit the rod comming off of it over to the carb.
Mine was a model L with 6.6 HP, the above picture is from gravelyinfo.com. Not my machine. I had single ag tires and no chain guard.

Chris,
Is the blue chain driven thing the original transmission or a hydraulic PTO?