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My brother gave me his old craftsman mower to tinker with. I have a rider for the yard already so I wanted to strip this one and make a play tractor. Not really building it to go fast as much as just something to ride around on and play. Is there an easy way to adapt from the lever throttle to a foot pedal throttle? I'm just not sure how to go about adding a return spring to the carb.

I haven't really decided what all I'm going to do with it yet but I would like to add a second battery to it so I can run better lights at night. Wondering though if the mower will be able to keep 2 batteries charged.

A simple and cheap way is to mount a brake handle and cable from an old bicycle to use as a foot accelerator pedal. Bolt the brake handle to the running board on your tractor. This will be your foot pedal. Remove both ends of the throttle cable from both the hand throttle and carburator. Remove the cables from their casings. Thread the bike brake cable through the hand throttle cable casing. Attach the bike cable the same way as the old hand throttle cable was attached at the carburator and you can add a return spring to it to pull the throttle back when you let off your new foot pedal. Pretty simple and inexpensive way to do it.
As far as lights add some LED type bulbs and you will not need an extra battery as they draw very little amperage and will not be a significant drain on your battery as incandescent bulbs would be. They also can provide a lot more illumination. :thumbsup:
Oh and by the way Welcome to the forum. Lots of good people here with tons of knowledge. :welcome:

Using LED's is a good idea.....I hadn't thought of that. I was thinking more along the lines of offroad lights which would be a pretty large draw on a battery. There looks to be room for an extra battery in front of the steering shaft....I would just have to build a box and mount it in there. I will definitely look at the LED idea first though as it makes more sense if I can make them bright enough.

I want to go a little better than the bike brake though....I will study it and see what I can come up with. The way that throttle works is pretty odd looking to me and at first glance looks more complicated than it needs to be. The hand lever pulls a plasic slide piece that then pushes on a another piece that actually works the throttle. I believe I can make something that pushes on that piece directly from the pedal instead of using the slide.

I got a few repairs to do before I get too involved with it. The steering drag link needs replaced as it's popped off that bottle knuckle from where it's just wore out. That was part of the reason he gave it to me.....he was just due up for a new mower. I'm not looking to make this thing a racing mower or anything like that as much as just something to goof around on. I may look at swapping the front pulley for a little larger one to get a little more top end out of it but not much. Mainly right now I'd just like to have throttle control instead of it being basically all or nothing.

You could run your off road lights and go with a marine battery. And I bet you could find a gas pedal off of a go cart and run a spring on the pedal

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got the drag link on there and the elbow piece on the carb that was broken off. Been too busy really to go out and do much with it the last couple of days. I think I may start with the bicycle idea on the throttle for now until I can get a different pedal set up on there.
Been looking online for a little larger front pulley but not sure what I can use if any other makes will fit on the craftsman or if I'm going to have to make my own. I'm thinking it'd be pretty tricky to get a pulley welded to where it spins true. I also need to look into getting better brakes on it. I don't want this thing to do 30-40mph or anything crazy like that but a little faster would be nice.

Better lights

0rion said:

My brother gave me his old craftsman mower........I would like to add a second battery to it so I can run better lights at night.

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To get more light, buy better lights. Hella makes some fantastic lights for tractors. I bought 2 for my wheat combine that light up the field 1/2 mile ahead of machine and everything closer. They are a little higher than regular lights but are much brighter.

Hella started producing lamps for a young automaker called Mercedes-Benz, and the rest is Hella history.

Hella ranks as one of Germany's largest companies due to a continued passion to supply the most advanced lighting available. More than 23,000 employees in 65 facilities around the globe manufacture lighting products for the world's leading automotive companies. Who else would you trust with your high beams?

Unless the generator/alternator is producing more amps than the lights are drawing, it doesn't matter how many batteries you have, they'll go dead. Batteries don't make any power, they simply store it. All the second battery would do is delay the inevitable.

Most of the garden tractor pulling parts guys make pedal conversions. Not the cheapest route, but all the design work is already done for you.

An alternative I've found to work quite well, and this came from the lawn mower racing guys, is put a lever on the steering wheel for a throttle like an ATV or snowmobile. Depending on speed and smoothness of lawn, you might find it difficult to hold a steady throttle position with a foot pedal. The hand is stabilized by the steering wheel, the foot tends to bounce, and it's a lot easier to maintain a steady speed. Of course, if you're going real slow, or have a dead smooth lawn, that's a moot point.

I should add, if going with a lever, put it on the outside of the steering wheel, and just hook a couple fingers over it, not your entire hand. That leaves two fingers to hold steady to the steering wheel. That's where the stability comes in.

I upgraded my mower with a car battery,mainly because I got tired of those small batteries not lasting very long.
I had plenty of room in the stock battery location.
As mentioned,it is still only a storage device and won't produce any more power.
Even with my electric clutch though I didn't need to recharge it very much.
Make sure you get a good quality battery,preferably a deep cycle as they are made to be discharged and recharged numerous times.
Stay away from the walmart crap,they aren't built well and discharging them usually dooms them.
I use duralast gold series from AZ in all my vehicles including the mower for a long time with excellent results.
I use a redtop optima in the mower now and have no issues.

Not sure how much your looking to spend on the lights,but autozone has some sweet HID lights for 4 wheelers on the shelf. Can't remember price but it's either $89 or $149.
Had my eye on them a couple years now,just waiting on them to get clearanced

Wish I could help on the throttle control,haven't found a good way myself.
The above advice about the lever on the steering wheel is about the best way i've seen to do it,mainly for the reasons listed about being steady/stable.
I've held back mainly because I like my cruise control,though a 4wheeler brake lever with the tab that locks it in place might be an effective cruise control.
I use mine to mow still,pulling a 60" finish mower on 2 acres. So losing cruise in my case would really suck.

Jsh80st said:

You can run your off-road lights and marine battery. I bet you can find the spring of a vehicle accelerator pedal and run on the pedal to the uShop Amazon Gift Cards - Perfect Father's Day Gifts
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se of space from my iPhone to send LMF

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you are right josh. bet you can good stuff in amazon. some can be found cheaper that you expected. well good luck with it.


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