Cub Cadet "O" repower project
 

Hello all. I have not been on here for a wile but I just wanted to show an ongoing project that I have going. It is my 61 original that I repowered with a harbor freight 420cc engine. They claim it is a 13 horse. I have not been able to really put it to work yet.

I have some pictures of how I modified the engine to drive off both ends but they are burried in my email inbox somewhere. I will post when I can. for right now this video will have to suffice.

At the end of the video you can here an awfull squeal that I am trying to figure out. Any help on this would be much appreciated. it sounds like something is spinning/ slipping that is not intended to. is this the clutch? I lightly sanded the clutch plates when I put the creeper in (I know i dont have the creeper lever on but the gear is there) Any ideas?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IARtp-MzjoQ

I can only see the video on my phone and not computer but I can see thumbnails. let me know if you are having trouble viewing.

a couple pictures

Interesting!

It could very well be the belt slipping on the pulley on the engine or, the clutch. What diameter upper pulley are you running? I have one on my "parade tractor" that is about 7 inches and it speeds up the little cub pretty fast. It also slips once in a while when I first start out. it's an aluminum pulley but not like the original one.

My guess would be, if nothing else has moved around, that it most likely is a belt. Did it stretch a little bit from use? Maybe a little bit of tightening per the instruction manual might help it out?

I've got a 10-horse in one of mine and it has the original-sized pulley on it. It's actually our pulling tractor. I'll include a picture of it. Interestingly, the belt doesn't slip on it, even when pulling. It has enough grip to stall our 10-horse with the nose in the air!

An original with a creeper and lights, that's pretty cool! Here's ours.

http://i1282.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9b770344.jpg

It uses the factory pulley bolted to the flywheel. The sound just does not seem like a belt to be however I am sure the belt could be tightened up a bit. Now that I think about it this summer pulling kids around the yard it would do it in 2nd gear and today it did not do it in second gear. it does seem load dependent and was worse when hotter outside. Beautiful tractor by the way. I would love to get mine all shined up looking pretty some day.

I found the pictures of how we modified the engine. hopefully You can kind of follow along whats going on here. I am not always the best at documenting what I do. I get going on things and just want to keep working.

I would think that it would be either the clutch plates or the belt. It could be the belt if perhaps the clutch material might be worn and/or the spring weak.

It looked like a snow blower was on the front of the tractor. If the front pulley wasn't driving anything, that would mean it would have to be the drive system. If the spring is found to be weak, you can put a little more force on the clutch plates by using some more washers between the spring and the dowel that goes through the driveshaft. If it's the belt, you could try tightening it up.

I did find out that if the belt is a little too long (or ALMOST a little too long) then the belt might tighten up most of the way, but the bolts will reach the end of the slots in the adjustment and the belt would SEEM to be tight. You might want to check that also. I went to a shorter belt and could just get it on with the pulley pushed all the way up. As it stretched a little bit, I then could adjust accordingly.

Also, make sure that the drive cup (upper pulley) still has the alignment dowel in place. The bolt that holds it on might keep it tight most of the time, but as more load gets added, you don't want it spinning on the shaft!

yep the pin is there. (unless its possible for it to come out without removing the upper pulley). A slipping belt or clutch is far better than my fears of trying to chase a bearing and what kind of damage the sound is making. well I will try to keep up in updating this thread and what I find!
MO

Not alot of time to be on the threads these days but just a quick update. After tightening the belt and replacing the front bearing on the driveshaft everything is working well. Two new ideas in my head for playing around. First is a direct drive electric motor into the front of the creeper. I got a 350W electric gokart for 20 bucks at a garage sale and think it could be fun. Second is that I see harbor freight is coming out with a 670CC V-Twin big brother to the motor I have in now. More Power! (insert time allen more power grunt here) Now of course I dont come close to using he power of the 420cc motor but you never know....

That O looks like it might be early. I like the headlights too. What's the serial? Glad you got your noise solved although my vote is to put the k161 back in but good luck whatever you decide.

That's a sharp looking machine! Could you post up some pix of the other side (not to hijack the thread) but that stack looks perfect lol