Archive through August 25, 2013

[fcurrier]

Ron: (Thanks for turning the page).
General concensus is to remove them. Tightening them would involve new needle bearings, maybe shims, and worse case scenario new shafts. Search crankshaft balancing and see what you come up with.

 

[jdiederichs]

Brian B,
When you install the main bearings please verify that the oil hole is located properly. The vendor had shipped a few that were not, dealers were notified to check stock but just to be safe double check

 

[kide]

Jeremiah:
Time to put down the pencil, teesquare and slide rule; get scissors, cardboard and a hot melt glue gun and make up a prototype pattern.. For extra credit, mail it to Harry and have him critique it....

 

[bjamison]

Quick question - I'm thinking about harvesting the front axle out of my 122 for use on my 126. From the parts list, they look like the same part.

I jacked up the 122 and the axle is a bit wobbley in the frame clevis. Question is - what is the wear item on these Cub Cadet axle assemblies? I know the clevis sometimes needs a pinch get tighten it up - which I did on my 1650. But does the clevis/frame holes wallow out or does the axle pin become wore or does the hole in the axle wallow out? I was surprised as to how much 122's axle moved around.

 

[kide]

Bill:
Yes....

 

[jchamberlin]

Bill Jamison: Experienced users report that most of the wear occurs on the pin and secondarily on the axle. My experience is with the 82 series on which a washer was welded to strengthen frame penetration. I would start by replacing the pin. CCSpecialties features a piece that is much harder than the original. I found evidence of wear in the cast iron of the axle on my 782, so I enlarged both it and the frame holes for a metric bolt that seemed to remove all play from that source.

The real issue, as was pointed out to me, was failing to properly service the axle pin. I think the manual calls for greasing it every 10 hours fo use, if it doesn'<font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font> should, IMHO.

 

[kostendorf]

Well I didn't work on the pto this weekend. A friend dropped off a couple old craftsman implements when I was in town Friday, so I took the mower deck off and got my welder out. I made this hitch bracket to work on the blade and the disc. The blade works great, haven't tried the disc yet.

 

[dfrisk]

BILL J. - A 3/4" dia. X ??? bolt, preferably a Grd 5 long enough to have all the threads "OUTSIDE" the bushings on the frame channel works nicely for tightening up the wiggle in the frt axles. Think I used a 7-1/2" or 8" long bolt and "Stover" lock nut, a deformed hex jam nut on my 70. And Jeremiah is right, all the owner's manuals say the pivot bolts should be greased every ten operating hours. I wonder how many people even know there's a zerk on the pivot pin/bolt? All my CC's had a zerk on the back right side of the axle, except the 70, which I think was built in the short period of time where IH didn't install zerks in the pivots, but Dad installed one on the left back side sometime during the 40 yrs he had it. Now if I could just make sure SON greases it regularly. Only takes him 15 minutes to mow, so 2-3 times a year would be enough.

 

[bjamison]

Humilitating day camp duty mowing tonight with the 109. Got myself caticorner in on an embankment and when backing up, somehow managed to get the deck caught on something. While all that was going on - apparently the bale that secures the deck hanger to the frame was in the open position. The deck moved forward enough that the belt came off one of the mule drive pulleys.

I got the tractor over to a flat spot and couldn't get the subframe back in place with the deck still attached. Finally got the deck free of the subframe and out from under the tractor and reinstalled the subframe. Got the deck back under the tractor and noticed the deck belt had a nice crack in it, but gave it a go anyway. Made about a 50 ft cut and the belt broke...

In the mean time, my 81 year old Dad was tooling around on what amounts to a box store Husqvarna lawn tractor - no problems!

Not a good day when the IH is broke down and a cheap lawn tractor needs to save the day.

OTOH, great seeing my Dad out an about mowing instead of sacked out in a chair at home.

Thanks for the replies on the 122's loose axle - very helpful info.

 

[tbdavis]

Bill - from my limited experience I would say that all the axle parts you mentioned could experience wear. Most of mine have been limited to pin wear but a couple have wear on the bushings (not sure what they're called) as well. One popular web site discusses the use of a bolt as Dennis suggested, in lieu of the pin and also talks about re-bushing the axle carrier (clevis) to accept a good pin. I'm actually having new bushings made now at a local shop and a tool to remove the old ones. Anyway, with all that said, it sounds to me like the bolt method is probably your cheapest and most sure fire solution.

 

[dfrisk]

BILL J. - Sorry, but to me, a HUSKY will always be a dirt bike, enduro bike, motocross bike, the Best of the Best from the late 1960's, early 1970's until the Japanese invasion of Honda, Kawi, Yamaha, & Suzuki came along. If you pulled up to the starting line with one of those bikes with the shiny Chrome & Red gas tanks everybody KNEW you were Good and serious about winning.

Anyhow, I've read some posts that the Husky brand makes a pretty decent lawn tractor by today's standards.... But lets see how they run when they're 45 yrs old?!?!?! Like your 109. The fix for the sipping mule drive is simple, either new springs, or a simple nylon zip-tie or bungee strap on the quik-tach release bar.

I don't think there's much of a relationship between the old motocross bike brand and today's lawn tractors, but Husky back in the bike days had an interesting design & build philosophy, "Keep it Simple, and Make it Light"!, or was it "Keep it Light, and Make it Simple"? Oh well, doesn't matter, they usually won whatever the case.

 

[jdiederichs]

Dennis,
The Husky and the Craftsman are the same product with interchangeable hoods. They are definitely not built up to the standards of the older bikes you referenced. Those were decent in their day, the riding mowers, not so much.

 

[stanner]

Terry,
that is my powder coat curing oven/ welding table. I rescue this appliance from a dead end country road where someone dumped it... Not fond of the 70's harvest gold color scheme, although it could be considered a twisted shade of cub yellar....

no work on the 149 this week, as the wife and I are camping in the Adirondacks till September 4th-ish... I painted the hydraulics before we left, so they'll dry real good by the time we return. Used TSC's Majic brand of paint, as the don't sell valspar anymore. The school bus yellow seems to be real close to cc yellow. It went on good, covered well, and dried shiny...

see ya'll in September..
Scott n Mary..

 

[dschwandt]

Picked up a cub blade and part of a mule drive at a local car show swap meet yesterday. Not sure about what it fits though. The lift bracket welded to the push frame has me stumped. Not like the one on my 1650 blade and the sub fram is different also. I looked through the manual section and saw none just like it. Perhaps one of you can clue me on as to what I have here. Think the mule drive part is from an 82 series and was just "there".
I think it will evolve into a front weight hanger or box for use w/the tiller or plows.

 

[dfrisk]

JIM D. - If the Husky brand mowers are that closely related to a Craftsman, that says a lot right there. I don't even try to follow who makes what brands anymore. About 3 companies make ALL the mowers now until you get into the Zero turn mowers, then there's more choices.

Dad kept the old CC 70 around that I refurbished this spring long enough to loan to a neighbor who always bought a new Craftsman every 6-8 yrs. He mowed more with Dad's old 70 than his new Craftsman most years. Even when only 2-3 months old the Craftsman would break down and be out of commission for a month waiting for parts to be repaired under warrantee. After the warrantee ran out He'd have Dad fix it! ;-(

One thing the Japanese Invasion of dirt bikes did is really speed up technology advancement. My '73 OSSA 250 Six Day Replica had a whopping 6-1/2 inches of travel on the frt forks, and about 3-1/2 inches on the rear shocks. My buddy I worked with was a member of the local motorcycle club and one Saturday we went riding together, me on my Ossa and him on his '76? Honda CR250. Needless to say he was MUCH faster everywhere, but what really hurt was he could ride over logs & stuff on trails sitting down due to 10-12 inches of travel on BOTH ends of his bike that I barely got over if they were small, or had to ride around if they were big. But I had a blast... till I sprained my ankle really good. I rode another hour and we loaded the bikes and called it a day.

 

[kmcconaughey]

David, that would be an early blade for an Original that routed the lift rod through the frame. Photos to follow...

 

[dfrisk]

DAVE S. - The quik-attach bracket you got is what I made my frt weight bracket from. I welded some 1/4" x 4" strips of steel to it, and hang 10-12 10# MWSC weights on it.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Original Blade lift rod configuration:

 

[dschwandt]

Thanks Kraig, I kinda wondered about that. But I checked the manual section again though and the only thing there about a blade on an 'O' shows a different setup all together.

do you think the undercarrage that came with it is the correct one? If not, what am I missing here?

Dave S.

 

[kmcconaughey]

David, that would be the correct sub-frame for that blade if used on an Original:

You have the "1961-1962" blade A-frame mount (item # 10") and the "1963 - 1967" sub-frame (item # 15) in the drawing above.

However, note that in the photo below an external lift rod is being used in place of the internal to the frame lift rod. Yep, the transitional implements can be confusing.