Hello Everyone. New Member Here.

[CraigClickner]

Hi Everyone. I recently bought my first "classic." A 68 Cub 104. I have ZERO experience with anything tractor related (though I've wrenched on a few old cars).

While I've always thought tractors were really cool, I'm a city boy, so the closest thing I've ever come is a Husqvarna riding mower. In any case, this is what it looked like when I picked it up. I've already bought a starter for it and I'm going to bench-test it soon to see if it needs a rebuild.

I'm looking at doing a full resto, adding a mower deck and sleeve hitch. I've already got the engine out and ordered the gasket kit, points, and condenser from isavetractors.com. Once I get the engine torn down, I'll see what else it needs. I think there's a broken shifter fork in the transmission as well. I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew.

I hope y'all don't run out of patience with all of the (probably stupid) questions I'm going to ask.

 

[wh cc guy]

Welcome. Glad to have you with us. Seems like most of the fun with the old tractors is finding out how they work and what problems yours has. Then figuring out how to repair them. If you know how to repair old cars then the tractors have lots of thing that work the same way.
Good luck and have lots of fun with your new toy.

 

[kmcconaughey]

WELCOME! Other than the missing starter/generator your 104 looks complete. The grill screen is often missing on those. The seat is not the original style, that one appears to be from a later series Cub Cadet, perhaps a Quiet Line series. The original seat was a fiberglass pan seat with white vinyl upholstery. THis might come in handy:

1x4/5 Series Operator's Manual

1x4/5 Series Service Manual

 

[dropte]

Welcome! Super simple machines to work on and it's pretty fun to bring the old stuff back. No stupid questions, but there's a better than 95% chance you'll find the answer if you learn to use the search

 

[CraigClickner]

Thank you very much for the welcome. Funny enough. I did exactly zero research on these things before I bought this. I had no idea the starter was missing until I got it back to the warehouse and started doing some reading on it. Lesson learned! No biggie though...I found one on ebay (that thing is HEAVY)!

As far as the seat goes, I also realized that was the case after I got it back to my place. That one's gonna be tough to find, so I may have to be happy with the seat I have for a while.

I've already got it disassembled for the most part. All that remains is driveshaft and transmission removal as well as some of the levers and whatnot. I have taken boatloads of reference photos so I can figure out what goes where...but I'm sure there will be extra parts left over that I'll be asking about

And thank you for the manuals, BTW. Any type of reference material is immediately printed and/or saved to my "tractor" folder. I actually found this site when I searched for wiring diagrams and found the great thread "Roland's Fancy Colored Wiring Diagrams." That was a godsend since I'm going to rebuild the wiring harness.

 

[dropte]

Thank you very much for the welcome. Funny enough. I did exactly zero research on these things before I bought this. I had no idea the starter was missing until I got it back to the warehouse and started doing some reading on it. Lesson learned! No biggie though...I found one on ebay (that thing is HEAVY)!

As far as the seat goes, I also realized that was the case after I got it back to my place. That one's gonna be tough to find, so I may have to be happy with the seat I have for a while.

I've already got it disassembled for the most part. All that remains is driveshaft and transmission removal as well as some of the levers and whatnot. I have taken boatloads of reference photos so I can figure out what goes where...but I'm sure there will be extra parts left over that I'll be asking about

And thank you for the manuals, BTW. Any type of reference material is immediately printed and/or saved to my "tractor" folder. I actually found this site when I searched for wiring diagrams and found the great thread "Roland's Fancy Colored Wiring Diagrams." That was a godsend since I'm going to rebuild the wiring harness.

You might find TC-113 The narrow frame parts reference helpful too, though you can find good diagrams on cub's website, or on places like partstree or whatnot as well. Basically everything on those is pretty easily findable either NOS or used by a half dozen or so places that part out old cubs.

 

[Stevenovick1]

Craig Welcome. Tractor life! lol

 

[Stevenovick1]

Nice Tractor! Restoring tractors. What a ride.

 

[glippert]

Craig - Welcome! You might want to consider making a sub-folder under your "Tractor" folder & name it "104" because once you get the fever you're likely to end up with others, too!

 

[CraigClickner]

Craig - Welcome! You might want to consider making a sub-folder under your "Tractor" folder & name it "104" because once you get the fever you're likely to end up with others, too!

Oh good! I thought I was weird for obsessively checking Craigslist every day!

 

[kmcconaughey]

We call it the Yellow and White Fever, no known cure, only temporary relief after new acquisition. Can mutate into Red and White Fever. I believe Greg may have contracted a case of that...

 

[CraigClickner]

To be honest, I'm kinda brand-agnostic when it comes to tractors. They are all pretty cool (though I'm kinda sick of seeing green and yellow!). I think I got pretty lucky finding a Cub Cadet for my first project since they are simple as an anvil and have loads of aftermarket support.

There's a pretty little Allis Chalmers on Craigslist that looks pretty tempting right now...but I have learned the hard way to stick to one project at a time.

 

[cubs4lifeofme]

Welcome 2 the site, nice looking cub.