The $1 Craftsman

[jakesmurray]

Re: 60s Craftsman Eager-1 Project

Replaced the needle and seat this evening. Very easy job, took all of a half an hour to do...
Used an old mower deck on saw horses as an engine stand. It worked great. :thumbsup:

 

[primerbulb120]

Re: 60s Craftsman Eager-1 Project

Looking good! Now if you mounted the engine on that deck and put a blade on it, it would be one powerful push mower...:laughing:

 

[jakesmurray]

Re: 60s Craftsman Eager-1 Project

Haha, I actually thought of that as I was working on it last night- man this would really cut the grass...

 

[jakesmurray]

Re: 60s Craftsman Eager-1 Project

So I tried cranking up the engine that's on this thing before I take it off the machine. It has great compression, but zero spark. I took the shroud off and there was a big mouse nest and the plug wire had electrical tape all over it. It had been chewed before and someone wrapped it in tape. There are two wires coming out from under the flywheel that go to a circuit board looking thing. I'm assuming this engine has points and a condenser? I'm not going to put any more effort into it, I'm going to sell it as is once I get it off.

 

[jakesmurray]

Re: 60s Craftsman Eager-1 Project

Made a little progress today. Got the deck removed and the engine pulled. Gotta love the simplicity of these old machines! Makes them very easy to work on... :thumbsup:

 

[Pumper54]

Re: 60s Craftsman Eager-1 Project

Looking good and I bet when all is said and done you end up with a machine you want and more cash in your pocket then you spent building it.
Tom

 

[jakesmurray]

Re: 60s Craftsman Eager-1 Project

Looking good and I bet when all is said and done you end up with a machine you want and more cash in your pocket then you spent building it.
Tom

Thanks Tom, that's the desire!

 

[jakesmurray]

Re: 60s Craftsman Eager-1 Project

8 horses of reserve power baby!

 

[jakesmurray]

Re: 60s Craftsman Eager-1 Project

Got some time to work on this thing today. I took off all the remaining bracketry for the deck, and while I had it flipped on its side, I learned that the transaxle is a Peerless. That's kind of encouraging. I also discovered that the bearing in one of the v-idlers was shot. I've got a whole new pulley coming from ebay. The bracket holding the front of the deck was a thick piece of steel with a 1" nut jammed in it! You sure wouldn't find that on one today. I got both the front wheels and the hood primered. I'm going to paint this thing gloss black. I think it will look good when it's done. As for tires, my rear tires hold just fine, but my fronts have seen better days. Thanks to craigslist, I tracked down a used pair of 15x6-6 Kendas. :thumbsup:

 

[Pumper54]

Re: 60s Craftsman Eager-1 Project

Your project is coming along very nicely. I saw a video at YouTube where a gentleman was rebuilding idler pulleys by drilling out the spot welds, pressing out and replacing the bearings and then bolting the two halves together using small bolts. Seemed like a good idea, I have a couple of questionable ones on a new to me trail mower that I might try that out on.

Tom