New member with a new to me 2182
 

Hi folks,

I'm new to Cub Cadets (really tractors in general), and just recently bought a 2182 with a 54" deck to replace a very used JD LX277 that came along with the house when we bought it this past spring. It is intended to serve as mower duty and general yard chores for my 2 acre lawn, but I wouldn't mind finding a blade or 2-stage blower for it someday.

Condition:

It has only 1115 hours on it, which sounds like is next to nothing for that kubota under the hood. Motor runs like a dream. I know it sounds silly, but I was so excited when I heard that little 3-cyl pop to life and settle into a nice smooth idle. Frame and rear fenders are rust-free outside of a couple little nicks, but the deck and "foot plates" (cant' think of the right word for these) have heavy surface rust, though they're still solid pieces with no rust-through.

The only other major issue is the steering has TONS of play in it (previous owner reportedly had a snowblower on it, so that would make sense it had a lot of wear on the front end). The ball joints on the power steering ram as well as the tie-rods have lots of visible movement, so I've ordered up all new joints to tighten that up, but I would like to take the front axle play out as well which i believe will involve a bit more work. I have no idea how much play there was in these pieces when new... I can't imagine they were machined to very tight tolerances, but loose steering in any vehicle is a pet peeve of mine, so I will go to borderline-psychotic lengths to make the steering right on this guy :)

Restoration plans:

• I've already got the front end apart and my new ball joints should arrive today
• I'd like to take all the play out of the steering. There's about .029" gap in the steering pivot where it fits into the axle which I'd like to shim to take out the vertical play. The front axle pivot has significant play... trying to decide how to handle that. Maybe machine it for a bushing.... we'll see.
• Paint deck, foot plates, belt covers. I'd love to freshen the plastics up, but we'll see what that takes in reality. They aren't bad, but my OCD wants to make it perfect ;)
• Drive it.

Can anyone enlighten me how to figure out what belt I need to drive the deck? Deck belt is in good shape but the PTO to deck belt is in sad shape. Can't figure out what part # I need and I know these were available with several different decks.

I will preempt the requests for pics by dumping the entire album of pics and videos I have of it here https://goo.gl/photos/45i8HNrAbTrA2HLZA :beerchug:

Here's an inline one too for all of your instant gratification needs ;)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/eF..._=w800-h931-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/CP...l=w800-h931-no

Looks nice!! You will really like that tractor. Those Kubota gas motors are super smooth and powerful.. and they sound cool to boot!!

There are two thrust adjustment bolts on the front axle.. if the pivot pin isn't worn a simple adjustment may take care of the rest of your play.. my 1782 had tons of play with 917 hrs... original owner never adjusted the bolts.. a 5 min adjustment took all mine out.

Sam Mac has several great threads on here full of pictures and info about the Cyclops super series.. I would suggest taking some time and reading through them.. They have been a great help to me..

Have fun...:beerchug::beerchug:

Some light reading for you. :beerchug:

http://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=33244

Oh I like your gauges on the 1782 .... that's sexy... I'm a sucker for data (software developer by day ;) )

Thanks for the links!

Thanks for the tips, sir! I didn't see those adjustment bolts when I took it apart, though I wasn't looking for them. Are the bolts on the axle itself or the frame?

They are on the frame... they keep the axle pushed to the rear.. if they are out of adj it will let the axle run fore and aft.

If you would like the service manuals PM me your e-mail address.

Oh, that's very generous Sam. Thanks! Will send a PM shortly.

Unrelated:

I found the part # for the belt I need for the 54" deck : Cub Cadet 954-3047

Reference:

http://www.partstree.com/parts/cub-c...mower-adapter/

Is there any opinion on the aftermarket vs factory Cub Cadet belts? What's the best option? This is going to be my primary mowing tractor (about 50hrs/year I'd guess) so longevity is paramount.

Sam is the Cyclops King... He has hooked you up with lots of great info!!:biggrin2::biggrin2::beerchug::beerchug:

I hope you didn't order all the tie rod ends from cub cadet.

Nope. Patton Acres via eBay. I found the equivalents in the McMaster Carr catalog for a few bucks less, but figured this way I'd get "the right stuff" first try. Peace of mind is worth a few bucks now and then :)

I ordered the blue Kevlar belts from epay for my 1864. The local TSC does not carry any older cub belt sizes:bigthink: I have over 100 hours on those belts. I even had a stick derail the deck belt one time and smoke came off it for a second until I got the pto shut off. I am probably due for a new set soon , but I will run them till they break. I do need to order the next set to have on standby. :beerchug:

The plastic will clean up using Meguiar's Plastx and a dual action buffer or by hand and lots of rubbing. Take care of the plastic stuff, it can be expensive. The pealing paint on the foot rests is normal for this series of tractor.

Great tip. I'll give that a shot. My neighbor's father-in-law does tractor repair/restore/paint, so I'm going to give him the deck and foot rests over the winter.

Today I'm trying to just get it back together so I can mow with it a couple times this fall. Which brings me to....

Is the subframe bent aft of the hinge bolts? I can't find any good pictures on google of a subframe, but it sure looks like the longer part of the subframe should be parallel to the short piece and it got tweaked to the right at some point during it's life.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Iu...q=w800-h779-no

I'd found a couple options on eBay that looked promising. I'll give those a shot I think. If they practically speaking last just as long as the more expensive options, no need to overspend :) :beerchug:

It's bent but that will straighten out easily. Just clamp it in a vise and you can pull it back by hand. BTDT. :beerchug:

Haha, you overestimate my puny vise ;) Thankfully my neighbor has a beast. I'll take it down there and pull it out. Thanks for confirming the bend. Must have been a hard hit.

Here is the one I have on my 1641 that I straightened. I'm sure you can fix yours.

So, it seems like Cub Cadet (MTD?) didn't bother using decent bolts for the power steering which added to the excessive play I had in my system.

Look at the threads at the top of the rusted bolt.... just mashed. This created movement of the ball joint on the bolt itself, never mind the worn out fit of the ball joint itself. This added up to just massive play in the steering when I got the tractor.

I replaced the old bolts with shouldered bolts from Ace Hardware. They didn't have the right length, which doesn't matter much for the front axle end of the power steering, but at the frame, the bolt would interfere with the chassis, so I cut it down to the length of the original. Teflon tape made a good makeshift marker for my cut. After reassembling the power steering with the new bolts, ball joints and tie rods ends, and adjusting the axle "movement" bolts, the entire steering system is MUCH improved. I can almost drive it in a straight line now. The steering pump does need to be rebuilt, but I think I'm comfortable enough to use the tractor for the rest of this season to mow.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nO...h=w600-h914-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xd...J=w800-h779-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/4S...a=w800-h779-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/y6...Q=w800-h779-no

Let me know when you are done with this one because it will probably be close to new. Well done! :beerchug:

Congrats on getting the 2182! I recently acquired one a couple months ago and its amazing. The Kubota gas engine is just awesome. Mine has less than 100 hours on it.

Wow that's a pretty Super! What luck finding one with so few hours! :beerchug:

Doesn't seem like youtube video embedding is enabled on this forum :(

Here's a video of a cold start. Why? Because I love the sound of these engines idling :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA_kBCY8ni8

Put the plastic on it last night to see how much repair work I'm going to need to do. Thankfully not a ton it turns out. Going to do either threaded inserts or studs on the broken locators at the front of each panel, but otherwise, the worst of the damage is the missing piece of the side panel between the hood and the muffler. Unfortunate, but considering how fragile these body pieces seem to be, I'll count myself lucky it's even that good. I really like the Cyclops look, though, so I would prefer not to do a body swap and pray I get lucky someday and find a good set of panels from a donor :ROTF1:

Has anyone put a layer of lightweight fiberglass cloth on the inside of their panels to keep them from getting any worse?