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

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