Farmall Cub

Hello all,

Glad to be here! I'm the proud new owner of 162239 J, which from what I can tell so far is a 1953 Farmall Cub with a very new Woods L59 mower deck, an original sickle bar mower, two rear plows, a snow plow, tire chains, and some free rust. The good news is that it fires up immediately (12V battery, tho) and runs great, very quiet, and the mower deck is quiet as well... The hydraulics work well in both directions, and the PTO and tranny both stay engaged. I think it was worth the $700 I paid.

But I do see a small hole in the radiator (and missing grill and hood supports), some wetness below the hydraulic unit (no real drips thankfully), a slow leak in the carburetor, and a healthy drip of gear lube on the rear left axle. So I guess whatever can leak, is leaking. But what a cool tractor

My question is this - is there a place, or better yet, THE place to take this tractor to be inspected and given the once-over here in the Albany, NY area. I don't want to "restore" it to show quality, I want to use it as a good working tractor, but I don't want to rely on myself to give it the hairy eyeball test, being so new to the Farmall Cub... I looked up the IH dealers in the area and called around, and they are willing to look at it, but the dealer isn't always the best place to go... In fact, the dealer is rarely the best place to go with something this old I'd be guessing...

Any suggestions or shared wisdom would be GREATLY appreciated!

The cub is really a very simple machine to work on. If you have even the most basic mechanical skills, you can do just about everything to refurbish your cub. Get the manuals, take your time and if you have questions, we will try to be of help. You might also try doing a member search for someone in your area who can be of assistance if you need it.

Agreed - it's gloriously simple, you can tell just by looking at it - unfortunately I don't have the time I would like to break it all down and learn through head-scratching. I need someone who can give it a once-over and tell me what to zero in on.

I assume it would be best to change all the fluids right away, and replace the obvious leaking seals and the radiator, but that could be several weeks of effort with an hour here and an hour there, and I really would rather spend the extra money and get it back in workable condition sooner rather than later...

I agree with BigDog.

Take me for a prime example. I am a worker of wood and know diddley squat about tractors and about the same for engines.

However, with lots of reading, New Members and Visitors, Please READ, (didn't have this link when I started ), purchasing the Owners' Manual, TC-37F Parts Manual and the GSS-1411 Service Manual from Binder Books, asking TONS of questions of the really great folks on this here board (the very best forum devoted to Cubs on the internet ) , I have been able to do all the maintenance on Ellie-Mae for the last two years. Now, I am moving on to the next challenge with Jethro (an engine rebuild) and with Granny - a 47 that needs tons of TLC

You too can do this. Don't sell yourself short here. Why waste money taking it to a dealer who will look at it probably thinking how much money can I make here? what dealer don't ? or maybe how can I sell him a new one ?? Also, dealer hourly rates are over $75.00/hr here, so I can only imagine what it costs in the US. With the info included or accessible from this site and its many links all the help you need is free for the asking.

Also, if there is a question, and there will probably be many, we all here are just itchin to help out another new Cubber

allenlook

if you want, i'd be happy to take a look at your cub. we're only 2 hours or so apart, (in Texas we'd be neighbors!) so if you have a trailer, you could shoot down to my shop.

Wow, thanks to all of you for your offers of encouragement and assistance! I greatly appreciate it.

Artc, at 2 hours apart, it's not that much further away than the closest dealer who could look at the tractor.

I figure at this point, I'm going to ignore the wet parts except for the rear axle which is a healthy leak, and the radiator of course.

For better or worse, I've ordered one of those CDs off eBay with all the manuals on it, and through this forum I found the server (cleancomputes I think?) and got a bunch of info! Wow that's awesome! For instance - I figured out what that couple of hooks was that came with my sickle bar mower (the 22)

I also have purchased a grill, and am going to purchase the hood supports, radiator, gas cap, battery box, and other bits today hopefully.

After that I'm assuming it would be smart to change all the fluids out, and check to make sure there's no oil water mix in either direction, and then fire it up and try it out... Suggestions?

safety gas caps are free from navistar, look for the form on Rudi's clean computes site. the CD manuals most said left a lot to be desired, best long term to order hard copies from the Binder Books people, then i copied mine for a working (read dirty!) copy.
your radiator supports are probably ok, most don't need replacing, just straightening, and derust/paint.

and here i thought i might be able to pull off the ultimate Big Dog, get the cubs coming to me.....like a moth to the flame.....

enjoy tyour cub , Allen

Thanks again ArtC... Actually, my hood supports are missing entirely - that's why I need to order a new set...

The guy I purchased the tractor from said it was his "parts tractor". Imagine my surprise to find it runs perfectly, and only needs a few things added.

Glad you like the info on the server. Been playing with it for a while now. Still have tons of stuff to upload once the havest season has passed and the snow is coming down.

Battery box -- talk to David. We have been experimenting with Battery Boxes and Tool Boxes. Check out the presentation on the server under Implement and Part Sketches - Rudi's battery box.

We are also working on the dog legs. Still have some work to do on that.

You can get used replacement doglegs and your other parts from and in no particular order:

Chown Tractor Parts
TM Tractor Parts
JP Tractor Salvage

Hope this helps a bit.

hey there allenlook...be careful now..you are very close to becomming like many of the rest here. If you do catch the addiction, it is not that bad. The time I spend tinkering on my Cubs is great. The guys on this website are ready and willing to get the right anwer for you...so just do it... yourself... and join the club. I think you atready did when you said it.."what a cool tractor ".

There is one guy on this site though that does have a character flaw. He is engaged in what he calls Cub Retrievals. He has not been caught in the act yet, but his days are numbered. Be careful about giving the exact location of your tractor over the internet. I can't say more right now but artc knows who I mean and will fill you in.

Good luck

Mike

The info on the server's awesome! I've perused some of the manuals a bit to figure out some of the simple maintenance, and plan on getting the repro manuals shortly. And like you said, I'll make a shop copy - my old Porsche manuals always stayed in the workbench drawer while I used photocopies under the car.

I'm certainly capable of maintaining the tractor - but like I said above, time is of the essence... I simply don't have hours to commit to tearing down and rebuilding something that I can have replaced. Hey, maybe I finally got to the "more money than brains" stage, although I would have thought my wallet would feel a lot thicker by this time

So, who should I watch out for? Is there gonna be someone behind my barn just waiting for me to leave the farm?

I don't want to slander anyone, after all I'm still a newbie, but just using the "search" button and looking in the forum for "retrieval" sure does show one name in particular,...

Got the form, thanks Artc! You guys are great.

[quote="allenlook"]So, who should I watch out for?