More work than I thought it might be

[dodge trucker]

but will be worth it in the end.

I have had a 129 for a few years, a 1X9 has been a machine I have been wanting since I was a kid, neighbor had one/ and all Dad would buy was another crappy cheap Crapsman LT, kinda jealous I guess.
I always liked the looks of that series of IH built tractor, the best. That, besides the neighbor down the street had his same Cub 1X9 (I think his was actually a 108 or 109, had green stripe) as several Crapsman LTs came and went, around my house.

I brought my 129 home and had to get it running "right away" when I got it. which I did. then it went to my buddy's barn til (I thought) the next spring, wound up being 3 springs coming and going, before I got it back home to get it all back together. at least the "got it back home" part.

In the meantime I acquired a "parts" 129, no engine, no trans, no wheels, for a couple of things it has that I need. cost me less than those few parts would have separately. It followed my original 129 to storage. Then I got a pkg deal of a 1200 and a 1650, 1200 was complete but hadn't run in years/1650 was engineless. Tried finding a Cub spec K341 last summer to no avail. only one that popped up was a bare block w/an asking price of $150. Forget that. tried to sell here and other places for what I thought was very fair and never got a nibble.

I found the Phillips gov gear retainer screw from the 1200 sitting on the frame, among old clippings soaked in oil/ so I decided to yank the engine and tear it apart, to see if anything was trashed within. It wasn't, but I still did a total overhaul. Got it running, got it almost debugged, and the guy who owns the barn where my 129 was stored, begged and pleaded me to sell him the 1200, so he would have a "backup" mower. then he proceeded to tear up the (new) clutch in short time, I have threads on the 2nd clutch rebuild on that machine, elsewhere here.
I know of 1 issue with the 129 from back when I got it, which was why I parked it for "later," in the 1st place. I wound up having to remove the driveshaft to allow the engine to start without the extra load of the tractor constantly wanting to lunge forward, no apparent neutral or reverse position. Yeah, the shift handle splines were stripped but hitting the neutral pedal would force the linkage back towards neutral, tried turning shift linkage with channellocks but never did find neutral or reverse.

so, this past weekend I got the 129, the parts 129 and the 1650 home, and started evaluating what I had out in the daylight with all 3 side x side.
plans are to take the ported pump and everything else associated with hydraulic lift off of the 1650, and the nice pit free hydro handle and any needed associated linkage from the parts 129 and put onto the running 129, then sell/trade/dispose of any good remaining leftover parts. I'm early in the process, so I'm nowhere near ready to start telling anyone what parts I may have left over yet. I have a bad habit of selling/ trading off good parts before I finish something, then having to pay more to re buy those parts than what I got for them..

got to looing at all of the different linkages for the hydro lift and though it still looks plenty doable, I didn't realize all of what would need swapped over to make the 129 a hyd. lift machine. more than I originally thought might need messing with..... still gonna go ahead with it.
though smaller than what I waned, I horse traded a guy some other leftover parts from past projects, for a very nice 42" triangle deck and mule drive that will look right at home on this machine. I have a 50A deck, 2 more 42" triangles and a 48" triangle deck in various conditions (all need stripping and paint) but for not much more than gas to run a 160 mi round trip, I got me a nice one that's very clean and don't need anything but a tractor to be mated to.... eventually would like to run either the triangle 48 or a 50, but for now.... this deck will do fine. Never have been much on posting pix to the various forums.... where's my kid when I need him?

any pitfalls/gotchas to be worried about in swapping the hydro stuff over to the 129? any feedback on the constant lurching/lunging forward issue? I haven't gotten the fender pan off yet, hopefully the cause of the lurch will make itself obvious once I get that apart.

and now I found a 109 that looks like a bailout after a partial (very nice apparently) start on a restoration that may eat up some of the other leftovers from the "parts" 129 and/or the 1650..... thinking of going after that one too.... the wife won't like that idea.

[sawdustdad]

That's a lot to digest. If I understand you want to put the hydraulic lift from the 1650 on the 129, plus some cosmetic stuff off the parts 129 to pretty up the target 129.

The hydro lift on the 1650 under the hood is basically the same as the 129, and the 129 dash tower should have the holes in it to accept the lift control handle. So swapping it out should work out OK.

Two approaches might be considered--swapping the entire rear end or just the hydrostat. Depends on brakes--if one has tractor has internal brakes and the other has disk brakes, then the linkages won't match up. So look at that.

The 1650 is such a nice machine, I'd tend to want to keep it in hopes of finding an engine. They are out there. Even if you had to put a 14 or 12 in it. It would be easier to find and install a 12hp in the 1650, than trying to get all the stuff working in the 129.

The 129 would work swell with a spring assist, a much less involved endeavor.

Go that route and you'd have two good tractors. That's what I'd do.

[CadetTommy]

I'll second the spring assist comment. My 126 has it and it works great, that's coming from someone whose other machines are all hydraulic lift too.

[dodge trucker]

Both the 129 and the 1650 are external disc.
I wanted to get the 1650 going in it's own right but tired of looking for a suitable engine. I have a couple of k 301s, a M12, an M14 and a tired but rebuildable k341. All wide base. No narrow base.
The 1650 is missing a few other things besides. I need to get rid of some of my "junk" as I have a feeling that my storage situation is going to change in a bad way later this year.
Besides my son getting married and I'm sure that I will have visitors to my place as a result. I'm going thru those engines to see which ones might be able to go on to CL.

So going to get the goody out of what I have. This is the best way that I know to do that.

I have been looking but don't see the same holes on the 129 towers as the 1650 has. So I'm probably going to swap those out along with the hydraulic valve and all that stuff.

Something weird is that the uprights on the tower of the 129 that I am putting the parts on to and the 1650 are white while the same parts on the other 129 are yellow.

Don't ask how I wound up this way, but I have 4 Ariens machines from the 70s and 80s with decks, and 1 each snowblower, rear mounted tiller, and snow blade. At least 1 of those things will probably be going away this season. Probably 2. One will be going to my son who just got a new to him house, with over an acre. The other one if it goes will be going to CL. I'm keeping the attachments though besides maybe a deck. I want this 129 as a keeper.
So I'm going to build a sort of custom machine from the best of what I have.
Always liked the cub cadets and for some reason the 70s/early 80s wheel horse but have never had one of those.

[ironman]

Now you got Johhny Cash singin' "One Piece at a Time" in my head. I just can't help it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18cW_yHo3PY

[dodge trucker]

But I have most of the pieces and then some on hand.
IDK if I said this earlier but the fact that there will be leftovers, I have my eye on a 109 that I discovered locally that looks like someone mostly restored but gave up on and the guy that has it now has made a parts tractor from. NO NO NO NOT another one, remember I need to thin my stash.....
I'm more of a Woodstock/early 70s rock/progressive rock fan, haha..... Last 3 concerts I went to (all in the last year) were Steve winwood, Hall and Oates, Paul mc cartney...... Though I love country living I'm not into the music associated with it, hahaha.

[jes6388]

16hp Kohler K341aqs engine from Cub Cadet. Rund Great. 1000,1200,1250,1450,1650

Copy and paste that into eBay. Just showed up today. It’s in PA, I’m not sure where you live? But saw you were looking.

[dodge trucker]

I'm in Illinois. PA too far. thanks anyway. I see a Deere spec 321 on CL all reassembled but fragments of busted rod removed...
last year I had "WANTED" ads around for a K321 or 341 out of a Cub, got a phone call out of the blue from some yahoo in California thinking I'd jump at a claimed "low hour" engine, sight unseen for $700 + shipping. Can buy any of, at least half of the wide frame or QL tractors I see advertised for sale with engine AND the rest of a tractor attached for that around here--- and no shipping.... the guy who had the bare block for $150 had the crank for like $80, the head for so much, the carb separate, etc.... nutz.
I tried to get $125 as a complete roller minus engine, for the 1650, no bites. the hydro components would cost me more to buy if I wanted to.... so it gets further cannibalized. I got the 1650 that way (roller, no engine) originally.
It was a roller, but isn't at present, wheels and tires robbed for other machines since.

just came in from looking the job over again, comparing this and that, look at 1 machine and then the other, looking at space considerations within the tower. Gonna be tight with the 129 style shifter and PTO engagement, but it looks doable.
the 1650 tower is like swiss cheese, has a bunch of extra holes (it looks like) randomly drilled below the dash, suppose I could weld them up with my MIG....
the parts 129 the left side of the tower looks like someone hammered it out from the inside, all beat up.... the tower on the one I want to put together, looks like the best shape. scoping out "this" hole on the 129 tower to "that" hole on the 1650..... gonna search for some pics of the innards of the tower on a 169, and see how it all fits together.
one of these days, I will smarten up computer wise, and figure out how to get pix onto a forum. Any forum. I'm a whole lot better with mechanical things.

[dodge trucker]

well, got the guts ripped out of the 1650, have 1 piece left to snag from it then what's left can go away. Anyone building a Custom tractor? extended frame, articulating Cub or anything like that? How bout someone that wants to restore one, this would be a good frame to start on then transfer your parts across as you refinish them..... will have the remnants of the 2nd 129 soon as well...
I would like to keep the trans and hydro that is coming out of the original 129 though.

[dodge trucker]

OK I have searched thru 20 pages that came up in this department of the forum or well the 1st 8 or 9 of those 20, and found a few others have done what I am doing. Great.

next question; I know I could look and probably wouldn't have to look too hard to get PNs for axle seals for the 1650 transaxle in the OEM IH line.
but what fun would that be? Anyone got PNs for equivalent in CR or National or SKF or another common well known seal company?