# '99 weedeater steering retrofit



## dangeroustoys56 (Jul 26, 2010)

Ive owned a '99 weedeater tractor ( call it a craftsman) for quite a few years now, when i bot it, it was in pretty bad shape - needed a ton of work on the deck, trans, steering and a whole repaint. I liked the tractor so i rebuilt it.

After it was rebuilt, i started having steering issues, turns out sears cheepened up and replaced metal with plastic parts.

After a 'retrofit' with copper bushings to repair the worn plastic, it recently started acting up again.

Since its a craftsman, i came across the idea of swapping a whole steering setup out of a parts '85 LT12 4 speed i got for free with another tractor quite a few years ago.

With minimal modifying, it fit perfect in the weedeater. Basically the only mods were radiusing the steering wheel adapter a tad ( so wont hit the dash), and opening a slightly bigger hole in the steering wheel washer- thats it.

To do the mod, youll need the entire steering gears/column - the stock weedeater wheel adapter will work with the new column, youll also need the '85 drag link to the front spindle - its about an inch or so shorter then the original link ( it wont work with the new setup).

The steering wheel adapter ( that bolts to the column) needs to be bolted thru the bottom hole in the adapter and the top hole of the column- another thing is there will be a gap between the steering wheel and plastic column protector ( basically just for better looks - i found another plastic protector off another tractor ( MTD?) and just slipped it on- looks like it came like that.

The only bad thing about the whole swap was the motor needed to come out ( more room) gas tank also removed as well as the hood.

Was probably a good time for me to do the swap because i found a broken wire and a idler pulley with worn berings.

Heres some pics:


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