IH CC 70 Tranny problems, help?, ideas?

[LAWN BOY]

As some of you may know my IH Cub Cadet 70’s transmission has a problem. 2nd gear doesn’t work at all and reverse only works half the time. Sometimes it won’t shift into a gear and I need to wiggle the shifter a bit. Why is this? Do I need a new used transmission? Are there any certain parts or gears that anyone thinks might be bad? Will I not know until I look inside it? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

[cubby102]

Originally Posted by LAWN BOY

As some of you may know my IH Cub Cadet 70’s transmission has a problem. 2nd gear doesn’t work at all and reverse only works half the time. Sometimes it won’t shift into a gear and I need to wiggle the shifter a bit. Why is this? Do I need a new used transmission? Are there any certain parts or gears that anyone thinks might be bad? Will I not know until I look inside it? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Pop the seat off and remove the shifter plate. I bet the shift forks are bent.

May get lucky and can simply bend them back

[jbrewer]

My guess is that the "shifter forks" on your transmission are bent.


If you remove the umteen bolts on the top of the transmission, you'll look down on two rods that shift the gears in the transmission. If you look at the underside of the plate you just removed , you'll see the ball on the end of the shift lever that manipulates them.

You'll probably see one or more bent pieces too.

The service manual probably has a section on removing and inspecting. As I recall, I straightened the ones that were bent on mine (due to the previous owner being hamfisted in trying to put it in gear), but it's probably been a dozen years since then.

The good news is, your transmission is probably good (unless your tractor was used as a puller) and you just need to repair the shifter mechanism

[LAWN BOY]

Thanks you both. I’ll check on that. Happy to hear the trans is probably actually good.

[ironman]

Read this post, might help....
https://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/...14&postcount=4

[jbrewer]

Originally Posted by LAWN BOY

Thanks you both. I’ll check on that. Happy to hear the trans is probably actually good.

Mine were bent in the area on the forks where the ball on the shifter handle meets them and I was able to bend it back into function without further disassembly. It's been working ever since (12 yrs?) .

There's probably also some rust and other mung under the shift handle plate you'll want to clean off.


When you look at the quality of the transmission when you have the shifter and plate off, you'll see why it's probably not your transmission. These things were made to work, unlike today's plastic fantastic disposable mowers.



Let us know how it goes!

[Graflex45]

If you haven't thought about getting one of those cheap borescope cameras off am-a-zon for helping with projects around the house they are a great help for working on engines and transmissions. its essentially a tiny cell phone camera on a flexible wire with a little handheld screen.
I used it to inspect inside my 70's transmission to see if i needed to crack it open to clean it since i have no idea when the last time it was cleaned out or oil changed. I was able to put the little camera in the fill hole an peer around and see that it was absolutely clean and free of sludge after draining so I didn't need to crack apart the paint and worry about tearing the gasket. Its also good for shoving in the crankcase plug or in the spark plug hole to see if you've got a bunch of carbon buildup or any scoring.

[LAWN BOY]

Thanks for the further clarification and help. That picture sure will be helpful Ironman. I’ll look into the mentioned camera. I won’t be doing this until spring just so you guys know as I’m rebuilding the motor this winter and the tractor is buried in one of my sheds.