Well I took off for the big city today and went to the biggest parker store in Cincinnati. I took the new 149 suction tube and one of the tubes with the fitting that screws into the pump on it from my 147. A seasoned counter man at Parker looked at it and said the fitting from the 147 was 7/8 but had an odd ball thread, maybe metric. I told him it was off of a 1971 IH and he said it is not a standard thread. He was super nice even gave me a nice real tree camo Parker tube store hat since he couldn't help me and I had driven so far to get there. He then steered me to the biggest hydraulic place in Cincinnati. A guy took the tubes to the back and 30 minutes later he came back out with a new fitting that would work with the 149 suction tube and said the fitting from the 147 tube was an oddball but they could remove the 147 fitting from the tube and weld it back to back to their fitting that would fit the 149 suction tube connector. He estimated it to cost between $75 and $85.
Confused, I chose not to make a decision. How could my 147 have a tubing connector with oddball threads? Before you start to tell me about a previous owner rigging it, let me tell you this. I am the original owner of the tractor and I am the only one who has ever worked on it. The only time the suction tube was removed previously was when I replaced the cork hydro/rear end gasket about 20 years ago. April 22 will mark the 50th anniversary of the day I bought it. I was only 14, but I remember it clearly. I helped to remove it from the krate and put the wheels and mower deck on it. (long story but at 14 I traded in a cub cadet original and gave $800 for it) I was the happiest cat in the barn. We took it home and I waxed the hood, fenders and the back of the seat that night. For its 50th year I may write a post about "My 50 years with a 147, a 3.5 acre lawn with 2 acres of hillside steeper than 40 degrees" My butt has rode on the side/edge of the fenders steering with one hand, more than in the seat. I teach math so for grins and giggles I figured out that I have driven the tractor more than 14,000 miles in my yard.
But back to the problem, I need to mow now and the tractor is in pieces. I guess I will give up on buying a new fitting. I see a rear end on ebay that I think has the fitting on it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/CUB-CADET-1...MAAOSwzaJX5Wg~
He might pull it off or have another one on another rear end.
Here is a suction tube off of a 1440 that has the connector, will that connector work?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/CUB-CADET-1...QAAOSwGJhgIYSB
Is this the same connector? It is part number 927-3002 and is available. It says it is for a 1440, but seems to have another different suction tube.
https://www.ccparts.com/cub-cadet-pa...285-404-161964
Any help would be appreciated.