Thread: Frankenmower

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I originally bought the little 38" craftsman lawn mower almost 30 years ago (30 years ago it was a "big" mower). It did good on our 2 1/2 acres for about 15 years until the mower deck just wore out (stress cracks where the blade arbors bolt on). I bought the MTD as a replacement and kept the craftsman around to move cars and small trailers around.

The MTD lasted 2 years before the transaxle went out. After repairing that twice I said the heck with it and modified the MTD deck to fit the craftsman (the transaxles were too different to just put the one out of Craftsman under the MTD). The MTD transaxle got repaired one more time and that along with the front axle got robbed for the grandkids "Tot Rod".

mowers by M Patterson, on Flickr


I kept using the Craftsman until about 3 years ago when it got hard to start (bad intake valve and worn out starter). When I went mower shopping for a new mower the smallest one I could find was a 42" deck and I quickly found out there were some places that it just wouldn't fit thru. So I kept the Craftsman going to do those places.....until about a month ago when I just couldn't get it started. The poor old Craftsman is on its 3rd set of tires, second deck and 5th or 6th battery and god knows how many pairs of blades...... by rights it should just be hauled off but it's just too handy to have around and besides it's a challenge now to see how long I could keep it going.

As the motor on the MTD had only been used a couple of years I decided to see if it still ran so I put a little gas in it and hooked up a battery and it fired right up. Looks like it's time for and engine swap


The Craftsman came with a 12 HP flathead engine and the "new" motor from the MTD is a 13.5 HP overhead valve that is physically a bit bigger. The exhaust exits differently on the 2 engines and there were enough differences in the switches and wiring that that was transferred from the MTD too.

I've gotten to the point where I hate hearing "......when your only tool is a hammer every problem is a nail......". That being said I guess when you're a hot rodder every engine swap is an opportunity.



eng swap by M Patterson, on Flickr


The old tin was too narrow to fit over the OHV engine so I changed it out for the MTD stuff. I also threw on the seat from the old mower. So this is the result of crossing the Craftsman with an MTD.


Frankenmower by M Patterson, on Flickr


Total I've got about $15 in the swap for a new carburetor (turns out the rebuild kit and fuel shut-off solenoid were more expensive than a new carb). I actually had at good time pulling off this little project.



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