I like it! Your hard work has paid off!


Dan I like the decal as well!

Ya, I figured that I might encounter some feedback from the odd purist, but haven't really so far. But lets remember just how many of these tractors are out there. In less than 6 months, I found 8-10 machines within hours of me that were for sale, plus a number of collectors with a dozen plus tractors. We're not taking anything away from the vast numbers of 'pure' machines when we make a few mods. Plus we didn't have a complete tractor to start with. It began as an incomplete $150 roller. The whole point for us was to make a bush machine for hauling firewood, skidding some small logs, doing some trail work and then snow plowing in the winter (not that we had one this year). That's what lead us to put a few extra HP into it. I like being creative and this project retains almost all of the originality of the original design, with a few minor bolt-on mods. She could be converted to a pure machine pretty easily. Cheers.

You did an excellent job on the O! I've thoroughly enjoyed your thread.

Im with you, nice job.
even Im very anal about my 2nd gen Trans Am's. if it didnt come on, or with it in the 70's or for that year. I dont want it on my birds.
I will add correct parts for that year if it didnt come on it.

Very nice Original! Wow.

I do have a couple of questions. What did that engine come out of?

Also, it looks like you have a different pulley on the belt drive in front of the engine and you took off the plastic flywheel guard. Was there a running change that year? :biggrin2:

VERY nice!

My son and I just bought an Original yesterday to work on together and this thread has me REALLY thinking about what we want to do. Did I say WOW!

thanks for taking the time to fill us in and, of course, we LOVE pics!

Also, just wanted to ask, is there a reason that you didn't spin the engine around and use a pulley on the shaft? Are you thinking of using that shaft to drive an attachment later?

Thanks for your kind words.

The motor is actually from a later model cub cadet, can't remember the model number...

Originally the motor had a shaft drive coupler coming off of the flywheel side but we converted it to a pulley as you can see. We left the PTO shaft free for future use, perhaps a hydraulic pump or a mower deck. Visually, the motor looks ten times better in this position as well.

I do have the plastic screen, but it covers the pulley and thus does not work. I plan on having a new screen laser cut from sheet metal to guard that area better.

This is a working restoration and I wanted the extra hp for towing and skidding small logs. As it is somewhat of a toy for us, the vtwin makes it extra cool and sounds sooooo sweet.

Cheers

I LIKE it!
Great job on the details of a nice super clean resto mod unit. This will inspire a lot of Cub owners to clean up these machines into great working, fun tractors again.
The pictures have been awesome!
It really looks too nice to be hauling wood! But if you do ,some pictures would be great.
Regards,
Chris

Wow, That is one nice garden tractor! I hope mine come up half that nice.
How about pics of the whole tractor, or some action shots? :beerchug:

Yeah, that would be awesome! I'm REALLY interested in this conversion and seeing the overall appearance will help me a lot. It looks great, would just love to see a few more of the overall appearance. Love the exhaust also.

If I might ask, how much did you have to change the wiring harness?

Did you beef up the clutch at all or just a heavier spring?

Do you notice any belt slipping?

Again, looks great! Thanks for sharing.

Hi there, thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!

We wired the tractor ourselves as it really isn't very hard to do. There are actually very few circuits once you remove the gen/starter and voltage regulator out of the picture. We used a standard 6-pin ignition. Connected to that is power from battery, power to starter, power to fuel solenoid, kill circuit, charging circuit, and then one last pin for accessories like headlights, low oil light, etc.

We had purchased a puller-spring for the clutch, but it ended up being way too stiff for my 11 year old son to operate. So we went back to the original spring which has been doing the job so far. Plus, our clutch was trued up on a 12" disc sander prior to assembly.

The belt will slip just a hint when leaving from a stand still in third. That is more because we have the belt tensioned really loose. I want there to be some give somewhere so he isn't popping the front wheels off the ground or smoking the clutch. As we get into more work in the push, I will slowly add more tension to the belt if slipping becomes a problem.

Back to the wiring, I strongly suggest you do your own when swapping out to a new motor, it gives you a lot more options to hide wires etc.

I'll try to get some more pics/video posted. Cheers.