Race Mower - Weekend 2 - Front end lower & better steering

     It came time to dive into the thick of modifying this mower. The stock front axle on the mower was not set up for speed. It is tall and would likely get very shaky at higher speeds. The wheels are also loose on the spindles.

    I dug through a pile of steering components from various mobility scooters I had parted out, and managed to find a perfectly suited pair of spindles. I cut them off the rest of the scooter steering arms they were attached to, and removed the front axle from the lawnmower.

    I took the mower axle inside and got to work on removing the original spindles.

    After some hammering, pressing, and grinding: I had the old spindles out.

    I welded the new spindles right onto the ends of the axle. This widened it out a bit, and dropped it about 4". We set the spindles to have 6 degrees of camber and 6 degrees of caster.

    I used the tie rod from the same scooter I took the spindles from, and extended it using a section of the stock mower tie rod. After the new spindles and tie rod were in place, I put it back on the mower with some wheels - to see how things were looking. We used the stock wheels and tires from the same scooter I took the other steering components from.

    The big issue to solve in the steering was how to get the stock steering shaft assembly to properly drive our new spindles. In stock form: the steering shaft has a gear at the end that drives a small gear rack that pivots on a single point. There is a small arm extending from one end of the rack, and a rod runs from that arm to an arm on the stock spindle, to push it forwards or pull it back.

    The issue was firstly that on the mower, the arm extending from the stock spindle was pointed outward over top of the tire, and our new spindle had and arm extending inward (in behind the wheel where it belongs). This meant if we hooked up our steering this way, it would steer backwards. Secondly, it wasn't exactly pointing inwards. It was sort of sideways, and was meant to be pushed from side to side - not forwards and backwards. Oh, and thirdly, the new spindle with the arm for the steering rod to connect to was on the wrong side.

    The first thing was to reverse the spindles. I left the axle in the mower the same way to keep our proper caster (actually at first I just turned the whole axle assembly around, before realizing my mistake) and swapped the spindles around. This meant my tie rod had to move to the back, instead of the front. That worked out ok. To connect the rod coming from our steering rack, we were going to need some kind of pivot with arms at opposite ends - to reverse the direction of travel in the rod. In fact, to direct it in a sideways motion we needed the two arms at more of a 90 degree angle. Another scooter spindle would work great for that. I found the perfect spindle that was low profile, and bolted on top of the axle nicely. On the arm that normally would have had a tie rod going to it, I used a short tie rod to connect it to the arm on the scooter spindle. On the spindle itself, I welded on a piece of flat bar and drilled a hole to mount the mowers steering rod.

    I now have a rolling chassis that has been lowered in the front a total of 3.5", adding the 4" spindle drop, and slightly larger tires. The steering is also much tighter than the original lawnmower steering, and is set up for taking corners much better. Next week I am going to put on a new belt, set up new throttle and choke cables, and see if we can get this thing moving under its own power.

Race Mower - Weekend 1 - Drag er outta the bushes.

    This mower was a project I had been meaning to get back to for almost 20 years. I purchased it when I was roughly 8-10 years old. I had accompanied my dad and my grandpa to look at a motor for my grandpas truck. The man selling the motor was selling out everything and there was this 1970s? Craftsman lawnmower, the perfect go kart for me.

    My dad and I worked on it for awhile at that time, but the project was eventually abandoned. It ended up outside in the bushes beside the garage, where it has sat for many years now. 

    Fast forward to 2023. One of my coworkers (knowing my interest in go-karts) asks if I happen to have a race mower. He informed me that there are a couple guys in the shop who have race mowers, and enter them in a yearly race. To nobody's real surprise: I did have a mower, and suddenly a reason to finish that project... Well maybe a little differently than my 10-year-old self had imagined.

    I drug the old mower out of the bushes and gave it a good wash off. The main body of the mower looked really good for its decade plus in the rain. The hood that was freshly sanded did not fare as well, but was still good and solid despite the new pitting. When we got it all cleaned off and took a look, it seemed the project was most of the way along when it was abandoned. 

    We had the whole thing apart when I was young, so it appeared we had gone pretty far in putting the mower back together. I stuck a battery in it just to see what would happen, and that was the real shocker. I hit the key and it turned over. It also sounded like it had compression. Now that I could see it might just run, it was time to get to work seeing if this neglected motor could run for us.

    We took the flywheel off and cleaned up the points. After a few attempts at cleaning: we had spark. All we needed now was fuel, and this motor would theoretically run. We mounted the hood and grill (as the hood holds the gas tank). We also cleaned out the gas tank, and ran a fresh line and filter. My dad took to cleaning and setting up the old carb. 

*Probably gonna leave the hood and grill rusty for that rat rod look.*

Would you believe the thing ran? It sure did. To my surprise: this old motor took little time to fire up, and with all the glorious roar to be expected of an old flathead with no exhaust.

^Tossed on some rusty moon caps from a scooter.^

    We still need a new carb, but we know she runs and that's a great starting point. Unfortunately the belt blew off when we tried to get it mowing... I mean, uh... Moving, so we are gonna have to wait to test out the transmission. There's only one good tire on the front right now anyways, so we may as well put together our new steering and front tires. That's got to wait until next week though.