149 Repairs Have Started

[Ambush]

Being new to Cub Cadets (any tractors actually) and to this site, I thought I might as well chronicle my progress to maybe help others and to certainly give a laugh to those that actually know what they're talking about.

I bought the tractor a couple of weeks ago, mainly on the advice of a brother who is a compact machinery nut, but who also lives several thousand miles away so he's no real help after the fact. It's a 1973 149 with hydraulic lift. The tractor is in a good, largey unabused state. It also came with a IH push blade and a #2 tiller. But the mule drive and corner drive is missing for the tiller.

The first thing I found was a lot of slop in the rear lift and not a complete range of motion. Taking the tunnel cover off answered that question. The rocker arm had been poorly welded, probably because the clevis was wrecked. Also the block for the link was missing altogether and had been replaced with a single 3/8" bolt which was rattling around in the hole on the link. The link was upside down too, just for good measure. The link has a 5/8" ID bronze bushing on the front end, which I'm not sure belongs there?

On the bright side, the front rocker shaft is in pretty good shape. The spiral pins had all been replaced with bolts, but there is not much slop for the years of operation. And that's where I'll start. Repairing the arm, link and making the mounting block. Unless I can buy them cheap, but it won't be local.

I will be making the rocker arm solid, as I have no need for the float there.

Anyway, I'll update as I go along and get this thing fixed up into a food plotting super power!

[R Bedell]

Keep us posted.

[finsruskw]

Curious...What are you going to use the tractor for if you think you don't need the float?

If you are going to mow, push snow, use a snow thrower or pull a plow it's best to have it operational.

It's there to avoid damage to the implement or tractor should you hit something and skip over it while doing any of the above chores.

[Ambush]

I'll be putting a float bracket on the front lift to the plow.

I'll provide float for the brinly style hitch for the rear.

There will never be a mower deck. (as long as I own it anyway)

The tractor's main purpose is tilling and the tiller has a built in float with the chain to rear lift.

I will eventually add a second hydraulic system.

But then some days if I was any dumber, my wife would have to water me. (dumb as a plant)

[Ambush]

Got a little bit done on the fore rocker shaft tonight. Sometimes deciding what to do takes way longer than actually doing it.

A quick spin in the lathe and some fine emery showed all the bumps and burrs on the shaft so they could be carefully filed off. I thought about filling and redrilling the spiral pin holes in the shaft and rocker arm or going oversize. In the end I picked up a 1" bore weld-on sprocket hub. I cut a 1/4" keyway in the shaft and the hub will get welded to the rocker arm. A person could buy a one foot piece of 1" keyed shaft and three hubs and do all three arms. I may do the front lift arm too.
,

[ol'George]

Good to see your doing things right, AND you have the equipment to do it.
Make sure you get a good weld on the new keyed bushing-to-lift arm as that
does get a lot of torque and shock.
( tell wifey your dumb as a rock, ---they don't need water)
Long thinking usually produces good results, along with common sense.
As you prolly thought of already, put the coiled pin in the old hole to get your bushing alignment before you weld it up.
( I don't know your abilities/experience) so no offence intended.

[Cubcadet_107]

Looks good! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product!

[Ambush]

ol'george, absolutely no offence taken. Better for you to state the obvious than for me to miss it!

One of the implements for the front will be a dozer/scraper blade. I have several 42" pieces of brand new Cat grader blade cutting edge, 3/4" thick and 6" tall. They are sharp and being concave curved, they dig in and pull down, so the keyed hub will endure some guff on occasion.

[Ambush]

Got a few more things done. Not having some of the old parts I had to make some guesses and do some test fitting to get the new ones made. While I had the fenders off I took the top cover off the diff and the rear cover. I was very pleasantly surprised to see how clean it was! Might as well fill it through the top cover too. So I went looking for the correct filter to replace the engine oil filter that was on it. The only hydro/diff oil I could find was Shell Spirax. No problem, quick check on OCC and thumbs up, good to go. Napa 1410 filter. The end of the drag link was pretty egg shaped, so I machined that out to the next size up bushing.

[Ambush]

Test fitting for range of motion and interference. ,