Archive through July 31, 2012

[dfrisk]

Shultzie - The one thing that has plagued the CC since the first one was built, was the lack of ground clearance under the frame & rear end. The lower class belt drive mowers can route their belts up and over the center of the tractor and that allows the mower deck housing to be much taller, which allows more air movement inside the deck, lifting the grass for a better cut. Look at the early Simple Tractors, Wheel donkeys, etc., their frames are shaped like an inverted V, the CC frames are straight. The mower decks on CC's have to be shallower, less room for air inside.

Another thing that greatly effects mower performance is whether the grass is dry or wet. Wet grass sticks to everything, builds up and disturbs the flow of air & clippings inside the deck. I mow when the grass is dry. If I walk in the grass and the toes of my boots get damp the mower stays in the shop.

Another tip that improves the look of the yard after mowing is to change the direction you mow every time you mow. Set up a criss-cross pattern so the yard looks like a checkerboaard when you're done.

 

[dfrisk]

KIRK S. - I'd check the Onan under the hood out closely. No tools required. Look for accumulations of dust & dirt and oil grunge. Maybe remove a side panel, they should have wing nuts on the back attaching point. Pull the dip stick and check the oil, and make sure a new oil filter was installed with the last oil change. Make sure the wiring is in tact, no shoddy splices from hap-hazard repairs.

It would be good to take a peek at the hydro by removing the center frame cover between the seat & steering column, but there's four small screws holding the cover on. They may take a straight blade screw driver or a small open end wrench to remove. Plus the cover can be hard to get out. Normally you can see the trunnion & hydro itself by looking around under the seat which flips forward.

Making sure the engine runs smooth, doesn't smoke, and the hydro speed control is smooth and progressive is about the best determination of condition. Over all condition of the tractor, tires, paint, battery, etc is a good indicator of how the tractor was run & cared for.

Make sure the tractor has the options you want on it. They can be added later but at GREAT expense. I find my Cat O 3-pt very handy, and the aux. remotes on my 982 are the ONLY way I have to raise my hyd dump cart unless I drop a loader off one of the old Farmall's I have. The steering brakes are nice, but I've never had the need for the rear PTO, but it came with the option package.

 

[whecht]

Thanks Charlie I think Iam being dead headed so it is my understanding that the rearend and the transmission both fill at the same place on the back of the rearend ?

 

[mgerecke]

I'm working on my new to me restored 149 and can't seem to get the front PTO adjusted correctly. This tractor was done about 5 years ago with a complete engine rebuild as well as the PTO. It has never cut a blade of grass. I was working on the engagement rod from the handle to the PTO. When I get the front PTO to not spin when the engine is running, it seems like the fiber button is still touching the steel button on the PTO with a fair amount of force. This will wear the button down pretty fast I assume. Currently there is no mower deck or belt around the PTO to help make it not turn. Is it possible that when the PTO was rebuilt, the 3 screw adjustment was not set correctly?

 

[kmcconaughey]

Willis, the transmission and rear differential share the fluid, note the connections between the transmission and differential in the cross-section view:

Here's the info from the Owners Manual on the transmission lube:

 

[dfrisk]

MARK G. - The fiber button on the engagement lever at the frt of the engine pushes hard on the thrust button in the middle of the clutch to release the spring pressure.

If you read the fine print in the owners manual it says when there's no PTO driven attachment on to run with the PTO engaged as much as possible. The 149 has a PTO safety interlock switch which requires the PTO to be disengaged before the starter will work so the PTO lever has to be pulled back to start the engine, but then it can be moved into the engaged position.

If the PTO was rebuilt and never used the fiber disc on the PTO clutch will be "FUZZY", which will make the clutch drag a lot when disengaged. I'd back the adjustment off until there's the clearance specified in the owners manual between the center button and fiber botton.

 

[digger]

Willis H.
What Kraig said.

 

[vthomley]

Shultzie - make sure your mower deck is clean from dead grass, etc. AS Dennis and others may have said any of the typiclal build up will alter the air movement and grass movement from the left side blade. This will show up on taller grass, thicker grass, and higher speeds.

Many guys here use slipcoat or some other graphite paint after cleaning the deck to help eliminate dead grass build up.

Last year I helped a neighbor friend with a much newer Cub Cadet solve this very problem by cleaning his deck - then last fall he said the problem was back. So we pulled the deck turned it over and sure enough there was build up under the deck. Cleaned it again and the problem when away again. I have not heard from him this summer so he must be cleaning it.

Several years ago a commercial mower company(I don't remember who, but it was probably a golf course rough rotary mower) came out with a fix which was a 1 1/2" piece of steel, this was added somewhere under the deck and it fixed the airflow/grass build up on that particular deck. It seemed odd the the tech guy I was with that day but it sure worked.

Funny thing - friends neighbors and more tell me I'm a cub Cadet Guy and they think I(We) know everything about all Cub Cadets... MY knowledge literally ends at Cub Cadets built prior to 1981 - thanks to all you on this forum. THANK YOU!

 

[hydroharry]

Mark G and Dennis F - I generally agree with what Dennis has indicated. I'm not sure I'd say "the fiber button pushes hard" on the thrust button, but it does have to push the springs enough to release the spring pressure. What could be happening is the centrifical force is continuing to rotate the pulley. I've found this often happens when you don't have a belt on the pulley. I would adjust the clearance between the fiber button and center thrust button to the spec in the manual as Dennis noted (I think it's .020 or the thickness of a match book cover), and then, if the pulley is still rotating, take a wooden stick (piece of 1x2 or even a small tree branch of similar size) and carefully touch it to the edge of the pulley to see if it stops the rotation. If it does stop then you're all set (and I think once the fiber button and thrust button wear up together this centrifical force rotation will eventually stop). But if lightly touching the wood to the pulley doesn't stop the rotation and the wood starts smoking/burning, then your clutch is still engaged and you need to adjust it to just a little less clearance. If this still doesn't work and you end up with the fiber button set against the thrust button before it will stop the rotation, then you will quickly burn thru the fiber button. If this is occurring then most likely the spring pressure on your PTO is not set up correctly and you'll have to remove the PTO clutch and check over the spring adjustment settings.

 

[lkortkamp]

So a few months back I wanted to put a new set of points in my 149. It was getting hard to start and figured it was time. I got that taken care of thanks to the helping hands here. It started better, but still not great. I still had to choke it when warm and really work the battery to restart it when warm. Something was amiss, but just couldn't put my finger on it.

Move foward a few months. Due to lack of rain, the tractor just sat in the shed for the last 5-6 weeks? The last time out I noticed a "squeak" noise and determined it was a blown headgasket. Wunerfool. After procrastinating for a while I finally remembered to pick up a new gasket so I could get it fixed before the rain came and woke up all the dead grass in my yard.

The tractor still fired up and ran enough to get it up in front of the garage so I could work on it. I pulled it apart(pretty easy to do), inspected everything to determine nothing damaged beyond just a gasket. I cleaned the block surface with some 220 sandpaper and wire brushed what little carbon was built up on the top of the block between the valves. Surprising clean for a '72 vintage. Absolutely NO ridge at the top of the cylinder, everything is still in very nice shape and this things uses NO oil.

I took the head to my large flat belt sander and carefully laid it on and with basically no pressure was able to polish the surface up and get rid of any marks from the previous gasket. Perfect.

After a quick google of torque specs, I cleaned the bolts, oiled them and torqued everything down. I then started and ran it for 5-10 minutes to get it warm. I then let it sit for 1/2 hr of so to cool it off and recheck torque. All was good, sorta. It still would not restart easily.

I pulled air cleaner and started poking around carb. I had adjusted it some last summer trying to tune it up some. After tinkering I figured what I had done wrong. Not familiar with low speed mixture screw, I had set it too lean and that was the reason for not starting without more choke even when warm. After some slight richening and restarting a few times I got it PERFECT. It now starts quicker then you can let off the key.

Life is good, we got rain and finally got to mow again(at least knock the thistle stuff down anyway) after a month or so of not having to.

Just wanna say Thanks to the guys here for their support and knowledge.

 

[bjamison]

Quick question - how interchangeable are the KxxxAQ engines vs. the KxxxAQS engines in the Cub Cadets. In other words, how difficult is it to swap an engine out of a QL series tractor into a 1x9 tractor and vice-versa?

 

[whecht]

Thanks Kraig and Charlie I will get my head out of you know where all the info was right in front of my face the whole time AGAIN THANKS

 

[drglinski]

Mark G-

A bit of advise about the PTO-- Mine is set up correctly as a rebuild was done about 3 months ago, and without some resistance like a mower deck any amount of force on the button the clutch will still turn. If you tighten the crap out of the wear button like I did against the clutch it'll blow apart. IE it works fine with the mower attached, I take the mower off, dis engage the PTO and it'll still turn. I agree with an attachment off to run the PTO in the engaged position as much as possible to minimize wearing out of the wear button.

 

[aschumacher]

Just a side note here in ref. to what Larry said about his idle adj. In Charlies FAQ's there is a listing (#42) Why is my engine hunting/surging. That info can fit other engines as well as Cubs. I had a 5hp on another piece of equip. that was always ugley to start. After cleaning and setting the idle properly and adj the high speed jet it now starts on the first/second pull and runs like a <font size="-2">(15 yr old)</font> top!.

 

[ksharpe]

Kirk Lorenz – thanks for the info, I put it on my calendar already. Sounds like great time! Where is the event at (park, fair ground)?

Dennis – Many thanks for the great advise. The machine only has the dual break option. I would really like to have a 3pt. Xtreme Motorworks put a very nice looking aftermarket unit together. But you’re right, not cheap. Not sure how much use I would get out of a PTO.

The pictures I was sent by the seller show the paint is in good shape. It’s got the wrong hood on it (from a 782) same sheet metal different decal. Brand new rear tires but the fronts are older. The seller told me it’s been sitting in the barn for several years only used occasionally and that it needs some carb work, but it does run.

I am planning on checking the engine compression – any idea what “good” is?

 

[dfrisk]

KIRK - I think the B48G Onan is supposed to have about 100-120 PSI compression. And the closer both cylinders are to each other the better.

The Onan intake manifold is made from two parts, bottom is a diecast trough, and a thin sheet steel top is bonded onto it, maybe soldered. Anyhow, they often leak which causes surging at idle.

Also, the governor on the Onan opposed twins is a TERRIBLE design. The flyweights are steel balls lke in aball bearing flying around inside a plastic finger wheel with ten fingers. Only five balls are used on the Onan in the 982. Anyhow, the plastic finger wheel is only pressed onto a finish machined hub of the cam drive gear. Eventually when the engine gets a lot of hours on it the plastic wheel expands and won't grip the hub anymore when the engine is at operating temp. STUPID design, plastic expands about FIVE times as much as cast iron.

Several different ways have been used to fix this problem, new camshaft, which requires a new drive gear to be pressed onto the crankshaft, which requires complete engine disassembly and about $500-$600 in parts. A second way is to glue/epoxy/Lock-Tight the finger wheel onto the hub, no new parts except gaskets required. And another is to use a small piece of nylon to stake the finger wheel into position by installing the piece of nylon between two fingers and extending it out to a knotch cast into the cam gear.

My 982 has this problem. When I mow, if the grass gets longer while I'm mowing a pass the engine RPM will drop but when I get to the end to turn where I've mowed the engine will race. And that's not a good thing, the Onan conn rods are weaker than the K-series Kohler rods! What happens is the engine governor doesn't accurately sense the engine RPM, so it's like running a non-governed engine. I mow with my hand on the throttle all the time when it's not on the hydro speed lever.

 

[hydroharry]

Larry K - here's the way I describe these Kohler K series engines:
When these Kohlers with S/G's are set up correctly they will start "almost before you turn the key".

Bill J - here's a long answer to your "quick question". It's not difficult to swap the AQS from a QL unit into an XX9 unit, but you want to make some of the changes to the engine while it's out of the tractor. You'll need the old xx9 engine for conversion items. I think the most difficult to address is if you have to change the oil fill tube and dipstick location since you'll have to figure out a method to plug the hole in the block on the AQS. It's possible some of the 10, 12 and maybe even some 14hp AQS engines will have the oil fill tube that goes thru the top of the block and will not interfere with the S/G but you'll have to check that. Both engines should have the same special oil pan unless one has the flat style 10hp pan, but the engine still mounts to the frame with the same 4 bolts. You have to remove the AQS muffler and muffler box and duct work, you have to remove the S shaped exhaust pipe coming out of the block, you have to remove the electric PTO, you have to remove the carb, you have to remove the flywheel shroud and the flywheel, you have to remove the coil and other tin work. Then you have to install the xx9 style basket pulley for the S/G belt and the manual PTO clutch, you install the exhaust elbow into the block and the xx9 style muffler and the heat shield, you install the xx9 style carb (or you could convert the AQS carb fuel inlet, choke connector, throttle connector, but I wouldn't recommend it), you have to install the xx9 style flywheel and shroud, you have to install the coil and connectors for the choke and throttle cables, and the correct style throttle spring and governor linkage, you have to install the S/G mount and S/G, and belt onto the basket pulley. you have to convert the air cleaner to the xx9 style. I think I covered most everything. It's not hard to do but you do need the xx9 donor engine. If there is a hp difference (you're swapping a 10hp to a 14hp) then the xx9 flywheel and shroud won't fit. It's not hard to make the conversion if you have the same hp engines, but can be a little more complicated for different sizes.

 

[jbaker]

Larry K

 

[mhomrighausen]

Dennis F. About rescuing that poor IH pickup truck. It has been sitting at that gentleman's place for over 20+ years. Angel would definintely kill me if I bought that thing. Three days ago a co-worker asked if I wanted another OLD Cub Cadet. A neighbor has one that he wants to get rid of. It is either the salvage yard or me. HOPEFULLY he'll only want salvage yard money for it. I really don't need another project of any kind. The summer heat has taken its toll on doing anything outside on weekends or after work.

Jeff B. That 169 is way too good of condition. You really were fortunate and scored an excellent catch.

Now all this recent talk about putting horns on your Cub Cadets. I can just see it now at the future Plow Days. Some poor soul isn't plowing fast enough and causes a long line of fellow Plow Day enthusiasts on Cub Cadets all beeping their horns at him. ... However if it was one of those John Deere guys causing the slowdown that would be funny.

I think if I don't have a horn on one of my Cub Cadets for the next Plow Day then I'll bring along my WWI Calvary bugle. I'm pretty sure it is Key Of B flat.

ALSO... WELCOME to all tne new members.

 

[jbaker]

Marlin I can see someone hooking up a electric airhorn with the buggles mounted on the hood....

And yes I did find a nice 169 all I can say is "nines are wild"
forum members here are great when it comes to buying and selling

I mounted the seat pan and restarted it, I plan on cleaning and fixing any thing under the hood side next.

I plan on bringing my cubs to the fair this year.

what a sound the 16 has