Good morning Mr Bedell.
Had a look and my number is 13I271DE603. If you could point me in the direction of some parts diagrams, that would be a fantastic help.

OK....I'll be looking.

Would I be correct in assuming that you have the Owner/Operator Manual...???

Ah, there's a thought. I never thought of that. Haven't looked at that the all. Will dig it out and have a nosey to see if there's anything useful

I have found that and downloaded it.

Just had a read of mine and it doesn't have any info other than the safety use of the machine, how often to change oil etc and tire pressure. i thought that given the number of books and their thickness, surely it will have a lot of info. Got my hopes up, but it is all repeated in 27 languages!

Do you have someone to help you at home? As in, let someone get on the tractor and set the brake and then release it while you are looking at the linkage? You don't have to have it running, just get a light and watch the operation of it. This really help me figure out things.



Randy

Not today, but my son can do that for me tomorrow. Have tried looking myself already, but I need arms like a gorilla to operate it and see underneath at the same time.
I've had another tinker this morning and when I disengage the parking lever, it doesn't lift up all the way very easily. I have to force it up higher and this allows the tractor to move. So I believe it is something to do with the linkage not being correctly tightened/lubricated or both.

Tomorrow, I will remove the guards from around the cutting deck pulleys and get a proper look underneath at all the arms and nuts. If I take pictures, are there people on here who could identify parts for me if I get stuck? I should be OK, just not very confident and like the idea of somebody holding my hand if I can't do it. If I could find a parts diagram, I would be fine. But neither Google, yahoo or Bing are coming up with anything remotely like what I am looking for

Cub Cadet has an excellent Parts Lookup site here in the States. I punched in your numbers but it comes up as "no such model".

I have done a "Europe Cub Cadet Parts Lookup" search but haven't found anything...yet.

From what I have found, seems your tractor was made in Germany. Also....it would "appear" that MTD made the same tractor under the Toro brand name as... "Optima LN165H"

Just took the guards off the cutting deck and the first thing I noticed was a spring sitting on top of the deck, broken. One of the ends has completely sheared off. Second thing, this machine has a lever which enables neutral gear by pulling a metal rod out which is connected to the drive shaft. This however does not actually engage neutral in any position. The tractor is unable to free wheel no matter what position it is in.

Given that there is definitely two faults here (though I am not sure if they are actually connected) I am going to have to take it to the dealer for repair. I am far from impressed with this tractor. It's less than a month old, cost me over £2k and has less than 15 hours running time and already has a break. I will be calling the dealer first thing Monday with a view to taking it over next Friday.

But I would like to thank you all for your help.