began installing 440 snowmobile engine in 782 cub

   / began installing 440 snowmobile engine in 782 cub #1  

Ryan03

Platinum Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2006
Messages
657
Location
Chardon Ohio
Tractor
Farmtrac DTC270, Kubota G5200hydro, Honda recon 250, Suzuki King Quad 450 4x4, 2003 2500 DMax/Allison 4x4
hello, last year about this time I aquired a 782 cub that had been sitting outside under a pine tree for about 7 years. The tractor was rough and rusty but all there. I felt at that time that it would be the perfect tractor for my freinds annual lawn tractor demo derby that he holds in conjunction with his annual pig roast in September. No you did not read that wrong, I said lawn tractor demo derby. I got the tractor home and disassembled and cleaned the carb, changed the oil, soaked the cylinders with pb blaster and got the engine freed up, reseated the valves, and threw in some fresh gas and a set of points and condensor jumped the starter and that old KT17 series 1 roared to life[or something like that]. I drove it around a little bit and everything seemed to work fine, so the next day I began welding on my armor plating. finished welding for the day, went to move tractor and it launched a rod and grenaded the engine, may have had something to do with governor modifications. I was forced to find another tractor at the last minute [ a murray] that to this day has been through 3 demos and served me well but is no longer repairable,demo derbys realy have caught on and now we have four a year.l which brings me back to the cub , which much to my beutiful wifes displeasure,I could never bring myself to part with. recently, I came across a artic cat panther 440 for free that I also rescued from a long outdoor storage, it has an old rockwell jlo twin 440cc 2 stroke that appears to have good compression and be unmolested and complete and thats about all that appears to be any good on it. the 440 is said to be between 35 and 40 horsepower. Yesterday I began modifying it for its future home in the cub, which consisted of removing the clutch from the crank and modifying the rockwell flywheel to accept the cubs modified rag joint coupler which was not to difficult to do and came out realy good. tomorrow I will set the engine in the cub and bolt it down and work on getting spark, hopefully cleaning points will accomplish this. I will try to post some photos of my ongoing build of cubzilla, and if there is interest, my other compete demo tractors and some of the rules and modifications that we do. P.S. I am not making this up , nor am I under the influence of alcohal or drugs, I am just a regular guy with a irregular hobby
 
   / began installing 440 snowmobile engine in 782 cub #2  
Before you get too far you should know that the 2 cycle engine only produces good power in a very narrow rpm band. It was successful in the snowmobile because of the variable ratio centrifugal clutch. I'd be very supprized if it will move in direct drive or that you can control the clutch enough to keep it in the band. It can be kept in the band at full throttle by spinning the tires but that's drag racing/pulling stuff. Hope for your success, send pictures. MikeD74T
 
   / began installing 440 snowmobile engine in 782 cub #3  
This.... i'd like to see some pictures of ! Years ago, i met a farmer who put a 440 a.c. motor in his golf cart. He told me the only problem he had with the conversion was the steering. He found it difficult to steer when the front tires were not touching the ground much !! True the two stroke will have a fairly narrow powerband, but i say go for it ! While your at it..... a couple big expansion chambers coming out of the side of the engine compartment, and shooting straight up ala tractor pulling style would be perfect.

I would also like to see some rules on your LT demo derby. I suspect this could catch on !

Got any pictures of the demo derby?
 
   / began installing 440 snowmobile engine in 782 cub
  • Thread Starter
#4  
There are not many rules, mainly just unwritten ones like no spikes or anything that could drasticaly increase the danger factor involved with doing this, there is a 18 horsepower limit, any type of tire is allowed, armoring in the way of mad max looking front and rear bumpers is encouraged, side leg and foot protection is strongly recomended and used, pulley swaps for maximum speed are the norm as are welded spider gears. We have run 8 of these and have had no seriose injuries , we only let people participate whom we feel can exercise self control and have respect for other participants safety and well being for example , not trying to roll people over, though it has happened, and not hitting someone who is in a compromising position,[for example messing with battery cables or putting belts back on and not paying immediat attention to the derby] We have all 8 on video, although these are not in my possesion,but do belong to a good freind, maybe in the future I could get my hands on a copy and post it. I do have a couple of built mowers that I can photograph and post as well as the cub I am building. I will have my wife take some pictures of the derby this month and post them., as far as the cub and 2 stroke, I was planning on setting the idle around 4000 or so and using the throttle to ease in from there , I think the hydro trans will allow me to ease into it enough to move tractor, my main concerns are if the trans will stand up to 8000 to 10000 rpm imput shaft speeds and also with building driveshaft loops for trans to engine shaft and a full lenghth scatter sheild out of 1/4 plate for this shaft and trans cooling fan just in case.
 
   / began installing 440 snowmobile engine in 782 cub #5  
Pictures!Video!Pictures!Video!
 
   / began installing 440 snowmobile engine in 782 cub #6  
A couple of years ago I saw the garden tractor class at a tractor pull in Denmark, WI. They had 440 engines and pulled a mini eliminator. It was pretty cool to watch. They steered with body english since the front wheels were off the ground.
Don't forget your hearing protection - those babys were loud!
 
   / began installing 440 snowmobile engine in 782 cub #7  
Just wondering how you match the engine RPM to the final drive ratios?
 
   / began installing 440 snowmobile engine in 782 cub
  • Thread Starter
#8  
We do not realy put much thought into it, we normaly install the largest crank pulley that we can find and the smallest trans pulley and go from there, normaly we can not take off in 4th or 5th gear as gearing is to high, most of us take off in 2nd and upshift on the fly from there. For the cub , I have not done the math on matching the final drive ratio to the powerband. I have no idea as to the exact point the power band comes in on the 440, although I am assuming it is on the top end somewhere, and I also have no Idea what gear ratio is in the cub, I know how to figure it out, by counting ring gear teeth and dividing by number of pinion teeth, but I have not been inside to weld spiders as of this writing
 
   / began installing 440 snowmobile engine in 782 cub
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Hi guys, got 440 installed in cub , driveshaft hooked up and angle set, and mounts bolted to frame. will now remove engine again to rebuild carb and replace points and condensors, sprayed some gas down carb and pulled rope, fired up and idled for a few seconds, but is in good need of tune up. I have also posted pictures of two of my demo tractors other than the cub. this is my first time trying to post pictures and attach them to a file , so if the link does not come up here, you can go to the photo section of this site. stay tuned for more photos and updates later this week.P.S. sorry for poor quality of photos, they wiil be better in future
 

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  • modified coupler cub to 440.jpg
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  • murray demo mower.jpg
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  • prototype demo mower.jpg
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   / began installing 440 snowmobile engine in 782 cub #10  
dude i hate to rain on anyones parade

but man those are some craptastic pics!

lets do better next time shall we.... :p
 

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