Guy from Maine with a 1330

[liam.gilpatrick]

I bought a cub cadet 1330 last summer for $130. The trans axle leaks, it needed a drive belt, and the plow and deck it came with were in very poor condition. The motor runs, and despite being abused. I then poured around $60 worth if parts and such over the next year or so. Now the only problem I have run into is that the belt drive system is very sloppy and only has one tension pulley. I would like to look for a shaft driven machine as they are more reliable but I do not have such money. I was promised a free machine from Florida by my mom's boss, so maybe that will be my big break. the only thing I know about is it is orange.

So yeah

 

[wh cc guy]

Welcome. Hope you are lucky and get the other one.

 

[fhiggenbottom]

I bought a cub cadet 1330 last summer for $130. The trans axle leaks, it needed a drive belt, and the plow and deck it came with were in very poor condition. The motor runs, and despite being abused. I then poured around $60 worth if parts and such over the next year or so. Now the only problem I have run into is that the belt drive system is very sloppy and only has one tension pulley. I would like to look for a shaft driven machine as they are more reliable but I do not have such money. I was promised a free machine from Florida by my mom's boss, so maybe that will be my big break. the only thing I know about is it is orange.

So yeah

More accurately it's the hydrostatic pump on your transaxle that's leaking, and the leakage indicates either that the seals are failing, or the hydro pump isn't getting sufficiently cooled by the hydro fan due to a oil and debris covering and insulating the transaxle or a missing cooing fan (Cub Cadet 931-3080) and if these are not the case then the hydro pump seals themselves may soon fail catastrophically. You have to stay on top of this to prevent seal failure and it's a real pain in the butt to check fluid levels or to periodically add Hytran transmission fluid to the hydro pump because it requires removing the battery cables and battery to get to the cap located on top of the transmission reservoir so fluid can be added.

But I found an effective solution for the sloppy belt situation on my Cub Cadet 1330s which have only one tension pulley. I purchased custom length 1/2" x 79" long hydro drive belts for the hydrostatic transmission on Amazon or Ebay instead of the 1/2" x 80" Cub Cadet 954-3037 hydro drive belt that is specified for this mower.

I also purchased and installed a new tensioning spring (Cub Cadet part # 932-0429A) for the 1330 at the same time when replacing the drive belt because the original spring had degraded over time due to rust and didn't provide the proper tension.

And when all this maintenance was completed Walla, sloppy belt Problem solved!