My Newest "Grassroot" Project

Update:

Went to Granger and bought a new pulley for the tractor. Original rear pulley was 9 inches dia. the new pulley is 3 inches.

Gonna pop some beer in the fridge and start channeling/ body droppin the thing.

used up whipped cream cans are an excellent source for a quick burst of nitrous on small engines.

get some reddi whip and some pumpkin pies. when you eat the pies up shoot the rest of the reddi whip into your mouth and make funny faces at your brother. then run a hose from can to air filter and off you go. mad power.

After much blood sweat and beer the tractor now is 300% better then stock (according to my poor math calculations)

I threw it all together to take a ride stock to make sure it all worked before i took it apart and messed with it. it all worked but holy crap that thing is slow.

so i got to work

After swapping the factory 9 inch transaxle pulley with a 3 inch pulley from Granger and getting a new belt i went for a ride around the block.

This thing surprised the hell outta me. I started in gear 2 and got it rolling and got bored so i put it into 6th gear and went all out on the throttle and let the clutch out. It lurched, and took off fast enough to where my heart jumped a beat and my body tensed to keep me on the damn thing. hahaha it was a riot!

So i had a van pace me and with the pulley swap and the deck off and me pushin on the governer a bit i mustered 17 MPH.

17 MPH!!

Freakin insane. felt great but steering was a bit vague.

Ill be going back to Granger to find a larger pulley for the engine. Hopefully tomorrow.

can i sandwhich a crank pulley between two of these and have to hold strongly/ safely enough to drive?

Its got a governer? And its still installed?

I do have access to a pair of mowers that have useless decks (but rust weighs nothing!) that I have access to. You guys are horrible enablers!

YEESSS, aren't we?

Seriously though...you may want a LEETLE more wheelbase before you get too crazy. Really.

Then you could put your brother's mower's engine. A sort of grassroots Frieght Train, as it were...

Riding lawnmowers never go for $50 around here, you got a great deal.

I have been looking at old Cub Cadets and they easily get $300-$600 for beaters.

Derick Freese wrote: I do have access to a pair of mowers that have useless decks (but rust weighs nothing!) that I have access to. You guys are horrible enablers!

Start tinkering with em.

Honestly i was in a little project car slump. I was bumming about not having anything to work on and then this came along and now i have something to tinker with and have fun with for dirt cheap.

CarKid1989 wrote:

Derick Freese wrote: I do have access to a pair of mowers that have useless decks (but rust weighs nothing!) that I have access to. You guys are horrible enablers!

Start tinkering with em. Honestly i was in a little project car slump. I was bumming about not having anything to work on and then this came along and now i have something to tinker with and have fun with for dirt cheap.

challenge car here soon, you be on my team. good reason to go to florida next fall.

Would this be in the ST class then for auto x?

patgizz wrote: challenge car here soon, you be on my team. good reason to go to florida next fall.

Im in. Curious to see what the build is though. PM me?

digdug18 wrote: Would this be in the ST class then for auto x?

Try to run it in a carting class? I think the wheel base and track is too small for A mod.

http://jalopnik.com/5677496/lawn-mower-land-speed-record-returns-to-merica-where-it-belongs

I love the quote "It scared me so good"

priceless!

slantvaliant wrote: Hmm ... how about a vertical Wankel?

No thanks I'm driving....

Usually the base of those is pretty much a pan with a bunch of holes cut in it. In HS we took one apart, flipped the pan upside down, and bolted everything from the suspension back on on the top instead of the bottom. It was like a 6" drop, had about 2" of clearance. Perfect.

Also there was a trick for using certain varieties of smog air injection pumps as superchargers for small engines. Not sure the specifics anymore, but if your google-fu is good...

Here's an idea....

oldopelguy wrote: Usually the base of those is pretty much a pan with a bunch of holes cut in it. In HS we took one apart, flipped the pan upside down, and bolted everything from the suspension back on on the top instead of the bottom. It was like a 6" drop, had about 2" of clearance. Perfect.

maybe its late and thats causing me to scratch my head but can you explain that again. mostly from the suspension part down

Those flat head mower engines are easy to m0d. I once shaved the head on a 3.5hp push mower and it only took me like half a beer. It must have been pushing 3.7hp after that. Removing the governor and adding a straight pipe helped, too. I bet the neighbors loved me so much that night.

RealMiniDriver wrote: Here's an idea....

Unbeknownst to me several of my greatest dreams and nightmares were just realized in NZ.

This is the stance i would like to have. Dunno how he did it with out jack shafts though

That is a nice stance. Looks like the axle could be flipped to put it back inline, if it's an old pulley on top arrangement.

Brian

Hold on, the world speed record for lawnmowers is under 100MPH!?

Stick a turbo 'busa engine + transmission in there and make history