Coming along, you are doing a heck of a job.
Keep those pictures coming.

MattC and Chad 126 your not alone I also have a 126 and a ford YT 16 the ford of mine Is unfortunatly in very poor condition and is currently in my parts/wrecking yard the 126 is waiting for its turn to be restored your 126 is coming along very nicely Chad keep up the good work.:beerchug:

Thanks for the compliments darkminion and Riley. Much appreciated.

I got the carb kit and sediment bowl gasket last night. FedEx delivered them both at around 8:40 so I did the carb rebuild as soon as I opened the packet. I will say I had a hell of a time unscrewing the brass fitting that goes up into the fuel intake port. It's the fitting that houses the brass needle for the fuel shut off in the bowl. Couldn't get a standard socket on it because of the design of the carb. Tried a metric socket and managed to barely fit it into the walls of the carb and backed it out, replaced it, and put the seals on. I've attached a pic of the valve Im referring to. This is NOT my carb. It is just a pic I found of one online for reference. Mine is MUCH cleaner. :biggrin2:

I guess it isn't so rare to own a 126 and YT16 after all! It's pretty cool that we have the same little tractors though. I read that they only made about 5000 of the 126, so I would have thought it was more rare, but I'm glad to hear that I have good taste :beerchug:

I have good luck getting those out using a bit driver socket. It’s just a touch thinner than a regular socket and fits in there pretty well.

I didn't think about that... wish I would have. I'll know next time though. Thanks for the tip

Tires came in today. Hope to mount them tonight. Plan on mounting then taping them off then painting. Maybe they will be painted by this weekend. That should give me time to paint the hubs and let the rear wheel bolts set in some vinegar so they can get painted. Forgive me for still having the halloween decorations up... Cub work > Decorations

I have a cheap 1/4” deep well socket that I use to get those “jet wells” out of the carb like what you have pictured. You just thin out the socket on the bench grinder and your good to go. So my problem is getting that jet well out of my 125. The previous owner had stripped it out so now it don’t turn out!! Keep up the good work on the 126!!

Impact wrench :biggrin2:

Got the tires on the rims after some choice words.

Can't get the dang things to seal to take air. I've contemplated using the ether and fire technique. Anyone against it? I usually try to stay away from explosive (literally) solutions, but everything I have watched on youtube and read about online appears to work great. Of course I will be safe and keep a distance. Thoughts?

:Poof:

Try putting a ratchet strap around the center of the tread. Tighten it up and it should push the sidewalls up against the rims so that you can start to inflate them.

Stand back very far and use face/eye/ear protection, if you decide to do the ether big bang method, but would highly recommend against doing that.

Thats a good idea. I've helped do that with chains and load binders on BIG tires that didn't want to seat against the rim.
Myself, I use inner tubes on anything that is not an automobile.

I wouldnt try that with ether but Ronsonal lighter fluid works very well.

I tried the ratchet strap technique, but I didn't put soap or anything on the rim. I imagine that would have helped. I'll give that a try tonight prior to doing the big bang method. haha.

Thank you sir. I'll look into that if the ratchet strap with soap doesn't work tonight. My wiring harness was delivered so I MAY have a running tractor prior to going to sleep tonight. *fingers crossed*

I'm regretting not using tubes at this point.... Wish I would have.

Alright. She's running... BUT, I have to start her up with a jump starter. She runs great when on the starter, but as soon as I take the jumpers off she dies. My battery is 100% crap. BUT shouldn't it continue to run on the generator? I'm assuming I've got a bad generator. Any other possibilities?

Tec Section Library- Tractors page 4 “S/G Charge Test “ is a great place to start!

:biggrin2:

Either starter/generator or voltage regulator.
If I had to hazard a guess, it’d be voltage regulator/wiring.

If your battery is that bad, it will dead short the charging system. Replace the battery and see if it charges after that. A bad battery can cook other good components.

Order some. Not too late. I run tubes in all mine. Not all front tires, but any rears that I've had apart.

Good Information in the tech section. Thanks for the heads up on that. Also, I believe you are right Gompers. I looked this morning and I believe my voltage regulator is fried. I checked the wiring harness going to it and the S/G and everything is good. Big shout out to Mikescubcadets.com. I bought a harness and a points wire and it looks professional. If you have not gotten a new harness for an old cub, do it. It looks amazing and the diagram makes it so easy that even I could hook it up. It was a bit of a pain to feed the harness through an already assembled tractor, but it wasn't impossible. Anyway, I am going to get a new regulator, a hot battery, and then we will see what is wrong next. I am assuming I will have to polarize the system with a new regulator. Correct?

Well tomorrow is payday, so why not :biggrin2: :beerchug:

Glad you chimed in on the thread. I asked this just now in a post above, but I am assuming that I will need to polarize the system with a new regulator. Correct? I read in the link above that I will need to jump a wire from the Batt input to the Gen input on the voltage regulator.

Will do. Thanks for the advice guys...

They say you should. I don’t think it’s necessary, though. It won’t hurt anything to do it as long as you don’t shove too many amps into it for too long and fry a coil wire in there.

Also there is a difference in the terminal configuration between the new Chinese ones and the original ones that are on there. The Chineseium ones seem to work fine, but make sure you have the right wires on the right terminals.

And you’ll need a new battery for it anyway, so make sure you do that too.

Glad you’ve got it running!

No, you do not need to polarize a starter/generator system. Only a generator system. And it's not the regulator that gets polarized in the process...it's the generator. :beerchug:

Thanks for the feedack.

It's funny you mention the Chinese VRs. I just got through looking at them and looked on OCC to see if anyone had advice. Apparently lot's of folks have discussed this. I do see that the 4 Terminal ones include a Load terminal. Apparently I need to NOT use this and insulate it. I've looked into the one I plan to buy and believe there should be no issue in wiring it up. We will see though. :biggrin2:

I know that I am rolling the dice on these Chinese options. apparently there are a high rate of failures.

Just about anything the Chinese makes has a high failure rate! I have the starter/generators rebuilt and buy American made voltage regulators.

Yeah you don't need the load terminal. I just put some heat shrink tubing on the one I did so it didn't contact anything, since it's hot. If you wanted to run your (non-LED) lights or electric lift off of it, that what it's there for. Otherwise, just ignore it.

Alright guys. I still have a couple of bugs to work out. The first is pretty simple. I just need to adjust my carb so it idles little lower. It's running a little rich on fuel, but I'll tinker with it over the next day or so and get it right. The second one is getting the best of me... I have adjusted the nut in the picture below at the end of the red arrow all up and down the threaded rod and can't seem to keep the shaft from spinning when I press the clutch. I have tightened it all the way day, loosened it all the way, and everywhere in between and when I press the clutch in, the SOB is still turning so I can't put it in gear. Any thoughts? I have read in my manual that I am supposed to have a gap of 0.05", but I can't determine where that gap needs to be. PLEASE HELP! I would like to put this girl in gear and take her for a spin.

Sounds like you’re plates are stuck. Common issue with one that been sitting for a while. This is to say the clutch is assembled correctly. Lock the pedal down and gently try to seperate the rear plate away from the disk. There may be some surface rust on the shaft or ID of the plate where it rides on the shaft. After you get it freed up, adjust it correctly per the manual

The disc was definately seized on my 126, it freed up with some brake cleaner but it was so thin it ended up breaking apart anyway so I pulled it out today, have the new one in place now but I still have to put all the bolts/pins back and then adjust the linkage, I'll let ya know how that goes tomorrow;)

Alvy. you were exactly right!


Looking forward to hearing how this went!

I freed mine up as well, but just as yours broke, mine did as well. I've got to order one now. I found one for $32 plus shipping. Is that about what you paid? I guess it will take about 3 weeks to get here due to it being the busy season for shipping.

Does it make sense to dismount the engine bolts, pull it forward, and disassemble the clutch from there? Is there enough clearance to pull it forward to remove the shaft out of the clutch linkage?

Yes moving the engine ahead slightly helped alot, I removed the heat shield off the front of the head and unhooked the pto linkage, that allowed the motor to move ahead about 1.5".

I didnt have to buy a clutch, I got two new ones with my parts tractor.

Good News. Shouldn't be too bad. Just hope those roll pins pop out of the clutch linkage without too much trouble. Thank you sir! I've got the new plate on order and it says it will deliver Friday. Hopefully I'll be putting her in gear sometime this weekend.:beerchug:

I changed the whole setup from clutch disc to the coupler on the drive shaft at the tranny, the whole assembly drops out as a unit once the engine is moved ahead but the pin in the coupler is hard to get at, with just changing the disc alone you may not have to take any pins out.

You have to take the whole unit out. The spring has to be compressed to take the disc out. Maybe you realize that..... but the way you worded it, it sounds like you think you can change the disc with the clutch/driveshaft still in the tractor. You will have to make some kind of a jig to hold the assembly so you can compress the spring.

There is a great write up in the tech tips section detailing a clutch rebuild. Unfortunately, the pics are not working. The site had some upgrades done not long ago, and some of the hosted pics still haven't been corrected. Not sure why.... :BangPC:

Download the manual for your machine. It goes through clutch rebuilding. You also should have both plates faced on a lathe.

Photobucket no longer allows third party hosting unless you pay for it. Pictures posted from a Photobucket account won't show up unless the poster updated his account by paying the fees.

As said previously, Photobucket now has a fee to use their service and the price is steep.