Waking up the ol' Cub

[Willy]

Glen, one hole showing is how it's been set up for years. Guess I got lucky with that one.

Stan, I had to grin when I read "corn head grease". It's also used by some in the stock steering boxes for early flatfender Jeeps and was what I had in mind when I posted about going back to grease on the Cub.

[Willy]

Just kind of piddlng around with it for now. Mrs Willy was under the weather, so I stuck around close to the house. I did put my old body work hat on and "massage" the right fender and the depth control lever where they wouldn't rub in the lower part of the lever's travel. They still rub just a little on the lower front corner of the fender, but I found the bracket that the lever bolts to has a decided bend to the center of the tractor when bolted up to the final. I think I'm going to take it back off and apart and see if I have a big enough hammer to straighten it out a fraction of an inch.

I've also been working on a regular red tail light for it. I found an red LED big truck round clearance light on sale a while back for $3. It didn't have any kind of a mounting bracket and the only way I could have mounted it as is would have been to cut a big hole in the battery box. I wasn't exactly fond of that idea. I was in NAPA yesterday (on the grease hunt) and found an old school red clearance light with a bullet lens and mounting bracket for about $7. I bought it and took it apart originally to just paint the back and bracket Farmall Red. I got to looking at the innards and then got the LED light I bought a while back. Hmm... nice fit into the bullet lens. Long story short, I took the LED guts out of the $3 one and trimed the edges to better fit in the new one. Then I gutted the new one's innards out to make room for the LED set up. And painted the back, bracket and screw heads good ol' red in an attempt to give it a somewhat stock appearance. I've left it with the paint drying overnight and figure on putting it together, mounting it on the rear fender where it won't get hit with any moving parts and wire it up today. Along with seeing if I can beat that bracket into submission.

[Willy]

The ultra-rare Farmall Cub bullet lens LED tail light. It's so rare, it's not listed in the parts manuals.



It wouldn't take much for it to be bright.

[Waif]

Gettin fancy there!
Looks plenty bright in the picture.

[Willy]

Not much going on at the moment. I've got the makings of a blade angle adjust linkage started using 1/2" steel rod. I need to do some measuring as I'm thinking that with the blade going up and down with the lift and the lever moving back and forth, I'm going need the linkage to go back and forth too. Either that or I'll have to adjust both of them at the same time as I raise and lower the blade. (I've got my doubts I'll remember every time to do so) I'm thinking of a set up something like the rear cultivator pressure rods that uses a compression spring to keep the linkage rod from getting bent up.

And I'm also working on a step to get on and off with. My original idea of the step off of Mrs Willy's Grandaddy's (Cub's original owner) electric wheelchair isn't panning out. It's too big, heavy and sticks out too far. I hate it as I thought it would have been nice to have something off his last ride on the Cub. When I trial fitted it all up I quickly saw that it was going to wreck the c-channel I was using to mount it to the plow depth adjustment lever mounting bracket. Even after I'd welded some bracing to the c-channel.

I've got the steering box opened back up to drain out as much of the 90w gear oil as I can. Wasn't much left in there as most of what I put in had already went out the bottom of the steering box with that old wore out seal. I picked up a couple of quarts of 00 cotton spindle grease at TSC yesterday evening. Probably won't take all of one, but I do like to have extra oil and grease on hand just in case.

[Willy]

Got the steering box filled back up with the 00 grease. I enough in to cover the gears, buttoned it back up and cycled the steering back and forth a few times. Opened it back up and covered the gears up again.

I messed around with the blade adjustment rod until I figured out that the 1/2" rod I bought is really a 9/16 and my 1/2" die really doesn't want to start to cut threads on it. Looks like I'm going to have to weld some ends on it to connect it to the lever and then the blade on the other end. And another run to the hardware store.

So, I started back on the step and the first beads were some of the prettiest ones I've done in a long long time. Then I realized I got the angle off, so I'm going to have to cut the two pieces back apart and re-tack them. We had a cold front roll in pretty fast about that point, so I called it a day.

[Willy]

Not much done in the past couple of days. On the step, I've been cleaning up the areas that will be welded although I'm starting to think about building it a bit different from my last idea on it (revision 3). Trying to make it look like something that was done professionally done which will be stretch in my case.

I'm a bit concerned with the blade angle adjuster I'm working on not holding the blade in place enough to be workable. So, I'm rethinking that idea at the moment. I would prefer to not build it with built in slop.

I ordered a PTO adaptor from Cub size 10 spline to 1 3/8" 6 spline "for future reference" as I'd noticed that Hub City no longer lists them on their website and figured if I wanted on, I'd better jump on it while they were still available. It showed up in the mail while I was down in Jackson this morning.

And I've waffled back and forth on it several times, but the idea of making a 3 point hitch for the Cub is looking more doable for me. (I was looking at 3 point hitch parts in Tractor Supply this afternoon which might have been a mistake ).

And while I was in Tractor Supply, I managed to find a couple more of those Fram C235 oil filters for a Cub on clearance at 79 cents each. I bought them both.

[Willy]

Not really getting much done on the Cub. Just a bunch of really ugly welding on the foot step yesterday. But it's solid though, so I guess that's what counts. I dropped it on the shop floor and it rang like it's solid anyway with nothing flying apart (redneck weld testing). I've got the step all done except for some cleaning it up a bit and painting. And making a mounting bracket for it to attach to the 193 plow adjustment lever which is being converted to a blade angle adjustment lever (think I've got it figured out (again).

I'm going to take a page from the rear cultivator pressure rods and "spring load" the linkage for the blade adjustment in case I hit something solid. I did hit a couple of buried up pieces of concrete on the edge of the drive when blading the snow, but the front lift pressure springs put some give in it that allowed the blade to ride up over those blocks.

[Willy]

I've got the step, and the blade angle adjust all fabbed up. I did a test with the step yesterday morning and it was "wobbly", so I shortened the bracket a few inches, but the main thing was the height adjustment had all kinds of slop in it. I decided I didn't the height adjustment that much, so put the step back on the Cub, figured out how high I wanted it and tack welded the adjustment bits together. Took the step back, cut off the "sticky outy" bits and finish welded it all up. No more wobble.

I also got heavily into the blade angle adjustment lever and got a lot of fitting done yesterday afternoon. I got it working this morning, but like with the step, there was a lot of slop in it. Did some tweaking on it and got almost all of the slop out and it was working pretty much like I wanted although there's not any snow for testing right now. So, I painted it all up and when the paint's dry tomorrow, it's going together. I will post some pics as the paint does a fair job of hiding my ugly welds.

Lil Red's parked for a few days though while waiting on new front tires. One of the old dry rotted ones finally gave up the ghost and won't air back up. It'll be later this week before that situation can be rectified. So, she's sitting the shop now with my fancy jacking rig holding her front feet in the air.

[Willy]

Let's catch up on the latest with Lil Red

Got new front shoes on her this morning. And these actually hold air!



Fancy home made step



Blade angle adjustment linkage from lever



Blade angle in the opposite direction



Still have to paint that linkage rod, but it's working like a champ.

[Waif]

Fancy! Nice step and new shoes.
You're runnin out of room in the tool box for a pop bottle of water when you're out breakin in them new shoes.
No wonder you added a cup holder....

Quite the set up.

[Brodalick]

Willy, when you hooked up the drawbar to the hydraulics, did you remove the front bolt that holds the plate to the final drive? And did you do anything special on the rear bolts other than loosen them and let the bar swivel?

[Willy]

On the drawbar, I bolted the bracket to the final drives like normal using the stock 5/8 tapered head bolts. I left out the 1/2" NC bolts and nuts that hold the drawbar in place against the brackets. Without the 1/2" bolts holding the drawbar in place to the mounting brackets, it goes up and down on the pivots. I do keep a set of 1/2" pins with washers and clips to hold the drawbar in place against the brackets if I'm pulling the trailer or hauling something really heavy on the cargo platform.

I used a pair of home made L brackets that are bolted to the drawbar in the outermost holes to hook the lower ends of the cultivator pressure rods into and connect it to the rear rockshaft.

One thing I've noticed that I missed before I started, is that my drawbar has a definite twist in it. One side is lower than the other. It and the plow depth adjustment lever were together in the barn and both have some odd bends them.

[Willy]

Spring is in the air and it's time to put Lil Red to work. So, I hitched up the trailer and started hauling stuff around.

The 3 point hitch is working great, just needs some "refinements", but I've got several acres to mow before it rains tonight. I can work on the hitch tomorrow while it rains. I'm going to keep the blade attachment to the UMF as it works great in that position. And when I get started on a mower deck, I'll probably use the same attachment for it.

Lil Red still smokes a little at startup and when throttling up. I've decided to just live with it as long as she runs good. I did have the starter switch problem rear it's head again yesterday morning up by the pond. So, I pulled the starter and walked to the shop with it and cleaned the connections again. I went by Tractor Supply late yesterday afternoon and got a new switch, but I'm not overly impressed with how it looks. I'll keep the new one in the parts cabinet in case the the original gets to where I can't do anything with it.

The steering box still leaks, but now from around the steering shaft as I overfilled it with the 00 grease. It'll find it's it's happy spot sooner or later with use. I'll just keep wiping up what comes out of it until it does.

I'll have to say this though. I love this little tractor and I'm so happy I didn't go with my original idea I had of getting a used Kubota or similar. The few times I've had it on the road, everyone else seems to be all smiling and waving instead of getting aggravated with how slow it is. I guess there's just something about seeing an old Farmall still going and being used instead of standing out in a field rotting away.

[Waif]

Smoke means it is alive! And you will smell like your distinct Cub. (Important if you get around other tractors, just so they know. Kinda like dogs. )
Good heart in a Cub.
Congrats on enjoying seat time with yours.

Spring ....
Been tossing ice layers off flower beds to get them ready for cleaning out of leaves.
Cub just watches. Waiting for another ride to the main road ,or better yet a road trip to mow , or drag something...some day when spring sets in with earnest here.