Mighty's Sears Suburban "Thor"

I've shown it a few times, here is one of my Sears Suburban's.  It's the yellow/white '77 precursor to the 78 Black and Silver Hydro's.




I know I was going to focus on Patriot and Li'l Red, but I need to show a little love to this guy too.  I need to get this guy mowing again to take a little wear and tear off my regular mower.  This was my secondary mower before the engine took a dump.

PLANS:

1. I need to swap those old nasty tires off the front from Li'l Red.  I have tires off rim so no cost there other than time.  
   
2. Need to remove dead ONAN.  As you can see on the frame under the engine, it has puked it's last time.  I funneled lots of dough into keeping that engine going.  Now I have a couple horizontal briggs ready to go.  One of those is going in.  Yes, I will probably keep the stack, but may end up turning it towards the front.  That is uncertain at this time.  I may also modify it a bit. (shorten)
   
3. While the engine is off, look into possibly fixing the hydro release if that is possible.
   
4. Change the seat.  I hate that seat.  Maybe a pan seat to match Grandpa.  (My 75 Sears Suburban)
   

Long range, I would like to change the dash hydro controller to a foot control.

Went and got a 60+ year old homemade deer butchering a-frame from my In-laws that I am going to use to lift the onan engine from the frame.  I have lifted it several times in the past, but after having back pain for the past 8+ months "constantly" and finally for the first week no pain.  I don't want to mess that up again and I know that engine is HEAVY!  The briggs I put in, I can probably just manhandle it in.  They are not as heavy.


Letting the engine cool a bit.  It was 104 at the house in the shade. 


Got it back home and unloaded.




Got it set up and ready to use.  Just need to remove the hood, grille, and disconnect the engine.  Then unbolt.

The onan is out....





I'll store it for another day.

Lucked out, drive pulley came right off.

MightyRaze wrote:

Lucked out, drive pulley came right off.

hah thats how i usually judge how my swaps are going to work out, if the pulley comes off, or the puller bends breaks or doesn't move it.

That sears must be a bit newer than the ones I have seen. With the holes in the running board and the back edge blended into the fender. The ones I played around with were around 70-71 and I think I had one around 68 too.

Yeah, this one is a 77.

Dash hydros are dumb. I had a Cub 108 for a few weeks. Torque could pull a damn house over but slight bumps on the lever would completely screw the cut (at least in my bumpy yard). One of the few things I sold for a profit.

Foot operation is the bees knees, especially on manual steering.

No issues getting the pulley on the Briggs opposed.



Just need to put in the set screws, looks like the pulley has a jam set screw on top a set screw.

PS, that key is an extra.

I know Rich will balk but, I will probably have a gas pipe exhaust until I can make my own.

All right... 

Update on Thor.  It was the only tractor I worked with today.  It was slow going, but I got a lot accomplished.

New heart inserted...




Little cowl touch up.  I got the fuel line, throttle and choke connected. 




Pulley came out in the exact same location as the onan.  A new belt was not needed.  Also, the flywheel side engine mounts were dead on as well.  Just had to drill 2 new holes for the PTO side of the engine.





Hood reinstalled.  Just need Exhaust, Air cleaner, and tires.  I have the tires.  I just need to install them.  Need to change out the wiring for a magneto instead of a points and coil system. Maybe a seat as well.

Jeez at first glance it looks like you're lifting the engine by the air cleaner in the first picture. I was quite shocked for a second there!

Good job on the swap so far Mighty! That Briggs looks right at home on there.

HAHA... I have S hooks in there.  Thanks.  Half way done doing front tires right now.  I should finish those Tuesday.  Tomorrow I am busy.

The Briggs fits like a glove in there, looks mighty clean beside the Mighty Thor!

It is a little snug with the hydro cooler.  Had to shave back the dash a little bit so I could snug it in.

Are those 20x9.50s on the front?

I'm not sure, they are in TERRIBLE shape. They were the original backs on my Li'l Red Murray. If I were guessing, I would way 18x9.5-8. I have already taken them off the rims and put my other tires on. I just haven't seated them yet.

Rear tires from this...

Destructive wrote:

Are those 20x9.50s on the front?

I was wrong they were 20x8-8.  Soon as the city has free tire drop-off again, I will dispose of them.

These are your run of the mill 16.5x6.5 tires... but then again, this is my co-mower for the yard.

Old front tires back on.







Things of work still"

• Change out rear tires with better ones.  Right rear goes flat in a few hours.  (not going to use tire slime-blah!)
  
• exhaust
  
• key switch (sourced from parts mower)
  
• minor rewiring.
  
• Grease the deck and reinstall
  

Then I need to figure out how to flush that gas tank.  I think the gas in it is about 3yrs old.  Has half a tank in there.  I have a siphon.  I'll try that.


EDIT:  Also time to change out the hydro fluid as well.

If you have one of those Shop Vacs you may be able to vacuum the gas out of the system. It worked for us on the Husqvarna...

Yeah, my shop vac is one of those that pulls the goop through the motor.  Not feeling flamey there.  LOL  I have a siphon that should work fine.  My sourced key switch did not work.  It was bad.  I have one other I can source.  If it does not work, I will steal the one from Red and convert that one to push button.

SO... I am off work today and decided to work on Thor a bit.  I changed out the seat with the old aws and was hooking up the starter wire when "snap" the post busted inside the solenoid.  No bigs, I have another.  I realized that it was getting rather warm outside.  Stopped there and grilled some burgers and brats for lunch.  After lunch I was going to tackle getting the solenoid changed and redo some wiring.  It was even hotter.  Came back to the house and checked the temp (sensor 6ft in air in the shade on the N side of the house)  It says 103 and I noticed the sun was creeping towards the tractor.  I noticed the air in the garage was cooler.  I checked and sure enough it was only 88 in the garage.  With a fan that would be nice.  I was thinking.  I am at a point I could start this thing with a direct jumper cable to the starter and get this thing to the garage.  It fired up, but would not run with the choke off, but it was running and backfiring.  Got it half way to the garage and it just out right died.  Popped open the carb and since I last ran it in the fall till now, it had gummed up and was full of junk.  Got Patriot out and drug it the rest of the way.  Pulled the carb and I now have it in a vinegar bath.  Other than getting it to the garage, it was fail today.  Nothing done other than pulling the carb today.

Sometimes you just can’t beat the heat. I’m used to the 90-100 degree SC heat, so here in Indy it’s beautiful at only 80 haha

That SC heat has a lot of humidity too.... that is the thing about this year here is the humidity.  Typically not this high.

80° would be so nice right now.

Oh man high humidity absolutely smothers you. Not to take the thread too far off topic haha

I agree about that humidity.

Little update.