Hey Dale!
Capitalization and Punctuation is not only inexpensive, it's easy to use and worth twice the price in improving clarity! I'll try'n reverse-engineer what you wrote and answer... if I misunderstand you, well, I gave it my best shot;
>did the 104 have a 12hp engine?
--104 should've been 10hp, however, if the engine is not yellow, it's most likely a 'service replacement' engine... and I wouldn't be surprised if someone replaced a 10 with a 12...
>its gear dive looks like a 104 from the side but the frount looks like a 106
--Well, all the even-numbered Cubs (that I'm aware of) were gear-driven, while odd-numbers were hydros. Models prior to the 100 might've had an exception, but someone else would have to verify that.
--If the grille surround has a compound-slope, then the Cub Cadet is of the 1x6/1x7 series. If it's straight, it's earlier. IF you copy down the serial number, and look it up in the serial-number cross-references located on this (and other) Cub-Cadet websites, you'll be able to determine exactly which model the SERIAL number was associated to, as well as it's manufacturing year and month. Now, someone may have ASSEMBLED your Cub-Cadet from parts of different series, if they just happened-to-have the right parts lying around, but my guess is you've got a predominantly original machine with a replacement motor that's either the same as the original (in which case, it's a 12x) or different (a 10x) model.
>>any ideas I bought it cause it has a frash motor in it and a 3 point hitch and the guy only wanted 200.00 bucks
--You mean a 'fresh' motor? (hopefully not 'trash') Well, with a 3-point, and good 12hp, I'd say you got a good deal.