Farmall Cub

The owner's manual suggests that the touch control piston be in the retracted position (control leaver toward the seat) when not in use to limit it's exposure to moisture or other elements. If I park my tractor with the piston retracted (mower down), the unit will automatically lift the mower when next I try to start the Cub. Is this normal behavior? I'm concerned because lifting the mower seems to work the starter more than it should, and makes it harder to start the tractor.

Slappy, if the control lever has not been moved, the mower should not move when you start the engine.

When I first noticed it, I thought that perhaps I had bumped the leaver, but I've watched it carefully the last few times and the leaver creeps forward (lifting the mower with it) without any persuation from me other than engaging the starter. The system seems to work fine otherwise. Any ideas?

Slappy,
Some Cubs came with an adjustable friction touch control lever. If you are lucky you can increase the friction of the lever. If not you may have to replace the friction washer on the lever, or it could be the spring is spent.
Hope this helps.

It could be as simple as not enough friction on the control lever or perhaps a sticking control valve spool. If you take a look at the touch control manual on Rudi's site, it has a troubleshooting chart.

When I had the front end apart to fix the steering, I went ahead and took the control assembly off and replaced the spring and put some new friction disks in. IH dosen't support the disks and so I had to use a disk from a Ford and cut it down. Maybe this is the problem - my Cub is rejecting the friction disk transplant!

My Lo-boy does the same thing if I let it sit for a while (several weeks) without starting it. After startup it works fine and since it usually doesn't sit for more than a few days I don't really worry about it. I've had the tractor almost five years and it hasn't gotten any worse.