I searched every site I could to find the oem replacements, some had them listed but any that had listings for them were out of stock and had no idea if they were going to get more or not.

It is very wet here also, I live in the north central part of the state, the worst weather was basically south of the I 70 corridor. It is terrible what happened to Joplin, luckily there wasn't more killed there just based on what I have seen of the devastation there.

The tractor was up and running (more or less, it was driveable, but the engine was very tired, plus many, many little things were wrong with it that I will cover in this thread...bear with me, may take the biggest part of the summer to get it done!). When I got it, the Grote lights (well the one with the lens that functioned) were bright enough, but the shape of them did not fit the tractor very well, in my opinion. I think the 82 series lights look good, not sure what the oems would have looked like, never saw a pair of them.

Thanks for the compliments guys, I think the point of doing a build thread is posting the steps one goes through to restore their tractors, and showing modifications and repairs made along the way. This accomplishes a few things, it gives others inspiration to tackle projects on their own tractors, it allows you to boast about what you are accomplishing, getting answers to problems you run into along the way, and getting feedback on what you have done. The hardest thing to do is to remember to take pics of the steps you take along the way....everyone wants to see the pics!!!!!!!!!!!:biggrin2:

those lights came out sharp Jeff! I saw those on the Cub Classics site and was wondering if they could be made to work. Now I know what would need to be done. :beerchug:

I am working on getting my 1450 up and running to take over for the really trashed 1650 I'd bought and mowed with last year. Having said that I also bought a 1250 (total basket case) and 169 last summer as well! You could say I really got bitten with the cub bug!

Anyhow, once the 1450 is up and running for yard duty, I'm going to focus on the 1250 resto -which I've already started tinkering with in parallel. It will be my first. Threads like yours are a huge help (ala. steering wheel puller...) and will only be more invaluable when I get to the 169! I'm saving it for "down the road," and yet have acquired several NOS parts including fiberglass dash panel, tin, and front grill for it. It is in really rough shape as well - and has a replacement 341 in it :-( But - it is still a 169 :-) I look forward to day I'll get into it - but am looking to build up my experience first. I really, really want to do the 169 100%, with nothing spared!

My plan is to eventually get the 1250 running for yard duty. Move on to the 1650 and scavenge pretty much everything from the 1450 for the 1650 Resto (excluding engine) - since it is in really great shape! I'll be cleaning up the 1450 (err 1650 parts) as I rebuild the 1450. Then, I'll sell the 1250 & 1450 to fund the 169 resto - which I hope to do meticulously! That will leave me with the 2 16hp wide-frame "brothers."

Anyhow, your thread is very inspiring and helpful. I look forward to continuing to follow your project!

-Calvin

off topic:BlahBlah:, but...
Nominated for 'most ambitious plans involving CC restoration and repair' award for 2011.:beer2:

A few pics of my 149 Tail light
 

I still have what might be one of those "hens teeth" left on my 1972 model 149. Here's what I think was the factory tail light. If someone out there can confirm that, I may be hunting for old rare covers.

http://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/a...hp?albumid=327

Was raining on and off today so I went out to the shop and worked a little on the 149. I have had the parts in for a while now, so I decided to go ahead and get the steering column rebuilt. I did not take as many pics as I wanted to, because tearing it apart, cleaning it, and then reassemblying it was a dirty greasy job, I would have spent then entire afternoon washing my hands to get more pics of it. I see that I did neglect to get pics of the new parts, I got the steering upgrade kit from Mark Hellrung here is the link for it:

http://ihcubcadetparts.net46.net/1_2_Products.html

it is about half way down the page, it includes 3 washers, a bearing, and a nylon lock nut. These parts replace the double jamb nuts and washer on the side of the steering box, supposed to make steering effort less by adding the bearing, makes sense that it will. I also got a new seal for the steering box from CC Specialties, here is the link to it:

http://ccspecialties.org/steeringseal.jpg

First off I took it completely apart, cleaned up all the old grease, and dried all the parts. A parts washer would have been nice for this step, the old grease was a pain to get out of there, I used what I had, a bucket with some diesel fuel in it. Here is a pic of all the cleaned parts.

Attachment 12059Attachment 12060

I notice the worm gear follower had some wear on it, remember seeing a thread where someone said they trued theirs up in a drill press with a file. I don't have a drill press either, so I chucked it up my 1/2" drill and went at it with a file. After trying that for about 10 minutes, it was working, but would take at least an hour more to get the burrs removed. I then decided I would try the 4" grinder on it, while spinning it in the drill. This turned out to be a good idea, had it deburred and trued up in about 5 minutes. Here is some pics of the method I used as well as the after shot of the follower. (yes in the pics everything is stationary, I was the only person there, someone had to take the pics!)

Attachment 12061Attachment 12062

If you look at the overall shot of the cleaned up parts, you will notice that one of the palstic bearing retainers would not keep the bearings in place. I did not have a replacement, but figure the main reason it is there, besides holding the bearings in place, was to keep the bearings evenly spaced around the shaft. Well it would still work for that, so upon reassembly, I used grease to hold the bearings in place in it while I put it in place, it worked out fine, non issue. I used an old (but good) front wheel bearing at the top of the column. It fit loosely in the column, so I took a chisle and slightly bent the top of the column over in 4 evenly spaced spots, this allowed the bearing to fit tightly into the top of the column. Here is some pics of the column after it was completely reassembled, one more item to check of the need to do list!

Attachment 12063Attachment 12064
Attachment 12065

I forgot to mention, that I hit with a coat of semi-gloss black paint, I wiped down the entire column with some lacquer thinner, then shot it with a spray can. You will only see the very end of it once it is in the tractor. It is good enough to make it look clean and keep the rust at bay.

Thanks for the update, Jeff! :ThumbsUp:

looks like the column came out nice! :biggrin2:

Was able to work on the tractor yesterday and today. Yesterday, I was busy working on a friends go kart, but did do a little to the tractor as well. I got the rest of the parts (brake pedal and rock shaft assemblies) removed from the old frame, cleaned them up and switched them over to the new frame. Today, I concentrated on working on the rear end out of the 149. It had some sloppy hydro controls and needed the trunion repaired as well. I need to order some parts to get it completed, I need the bushing that goes over the shaft of the forward most hydro cam (did not one was there) and for peace of mind I need to get the springs and pins for the hydro. Well anyhow, here are some pics of what happened today.

Here is a pic of the with all the cams removed, and a wet rag wrapped around the shaft to prevent damaging the shaft seal (on a side note, as I welded the trunion up, I would stop from time to time and pour cold water over the weld and rag to keep things cool).

Attachment 12225Attachment 12226

Here is pic of the trunion area before I did anything, it actually was worn as bad as some I have seen here on the site. The most wear was on the back half of the slot, the whole was longer than it was supposed to be and was worn off at an angle.

Attachment 12228

Here is a pic of the slot after welding it up with the mig welder.

Attachment 12227

Here it is after grinding/ filing the welds done to make the surface smooth again.

Attachment 12229Attachment 12230

I think I remembered DX3 stating that the slot in the cam and the trunion were the same size, so I used it as a pattern to determine the shape I needed. I used a rattle can of black spray paint to transfer the shape of the cam hole onto the trunion.

Attachment 12231Attachment 12232
Attachment 12233Attachment 12234


I used the dremel with a small cut off wheel to cut the trunion area out, then fine tuned it with a file. I did use the dremel as well to add in removing the extra welds from the surface with a small grinding stone. I did not try to get to the final shape with it, only removed the enough to get it close, then used the file to dress it up.

Attachment 12235

Here is the finished shot of the trunion area, I smoothed it up after filing it with some 80 grit sand paper, hopefully it will work as good as it looks.

Attachment 12236

Here are a couple of shots of the finished trunion with the cam (the pattern piece) showing how the holes match one another now.

Attachment 12237Attachment 12238

All in all, it was a pretty easy process, thankfully others have posted about how they went about it, made it easier for me to get it done.

Attachment 12239Attachment 12240

I about forgot, here are some shims I purchased from McMaster Carr, they came in packages of 10. I was given the hint to purchase these from them by member MattG, saved a bundle buying them there. The cam plate from the 149 was very sloppy, I had parted a 125 out and it's cam plate was the same and much less wear where it attaches to the trunion, it also had very little wear on the pin that moves inside of the the front cam, so I used this to replace the original sloppy one. I guess the shaft itself had some wear on it, this cam also wobbled a bit from side to side, not as badly as the original did, so I placed the shims under the snap ring which holds the cam to the trunion. It took .040 worth to get the slop out of it! It still freely moves independly from the trunion, but no longer wobbles from side to side.

I think while the tractor is apart, I will go ahead and order a new seal that goes between the hydro and rearend, it was not leaking, but it is damp in that area, easier to change it now, then having to pull it apart later. I also need to get some new hytran and a filter and get that changed as well. Once I get in the needed parts, I can get this part of the rebuild finished....getting closer to paint!

Thanks for the update pics, Jeff! :beerchug: