New to site, need Battery Help
 

Hi everyone.

I'm new to the site; just picked up a '71 127 to maintain the property at my home. My Dad had a Cub when I was a kid and later a Lo Boy 154 so, when I bought my house a year or so ago I knew it would soon have a yellow and white tractor in the shed! I bought this Cub this summer with the main purpose of using the snowthrower to clear my 300' driveway and parking and turn around.
So, the issue (well at least the one of most concern right now) is the thing cranks over real slow and it's not enough to get it started now that it's cold out. The jackaxd who owned it before me, for whatever reason, decided to mount a tray on the right foot rest and put a car battery on there. I've since taken that off and bought a new correct battery from BJ's but the wiring is still a little cobbled and my battery box seems to be missing a few things that I see in photos of other similar cubs; the hold down bracket for one and also those metal pieces that look like latches although I don't know what they're for. Anyhow, I'm fairly sure the slow cranking is due to a poor ground since the wiring the guy had in there is pretty half-a**'d and the ground wire he had in there is all wore out and many strands of wire have broken, plus the Neg terminal gets real hot when I try to start it. The issue I'm having is that the existing ground is just a 6-8" length of battery cable bolted to the battery box thru a hole that i believe is actually for the rod for the hold down. It's sharing said post with two other wires w/ring terminals, one small yellow wire and one fairly stout white wire that comes out of a harness that runs right down the inside of the dash and all the way down the center of the tractor. I believe this to be the original Ground but I can't find a photo of an original battery in a similar cub ANYWHERE on the web to confirm. Is that white wire the ground? Does anyone have a photo of a battery in a Cub model like this showing the wiring and, as an added bonus, with the battery out so I can see where the wires are supposed to go? Any input or snapshots would save me some aggravation so thanks!

:Welcome2:

Here's a link to the wiring diagram from the tech section of the site. Your going to have trace each wire and see how cobbled it is.

http://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/showthread.php?t=35

I looked but could not find my pic of the battery box and ground on a 71 I sold a while back.:bash2: Got any pics of your setup?

Thanks Methos, that diagram resembles the one in the Service Manual but is much easier to read and decipher. It too shows a white Neg ground wire that goes from the battery terminal to chassis ground at the St/Gen. That tells me i'm on the right track so I'm gonna connect that wire. I can't hurt anything since it's already grounded to the battery box. It think that wouldn't reach the car battery so the previous owner extended it with the now useless and broken post connector.
That diagram also shows a light switch which is curious because I don't have one. Guess I will get to the bottom of that while I'm at it...

Another thing that could be prohibiting your 127 from cold starting is poor weight of oil (I am using 10W-30 and it works good for starts) as well as the fact that it is a hydrostatic. I had difficulties starting my 147 in the cold, so I
-use 10w-30 oil.
-cleaned all of my wiring grounds.
-use high octane 93 fuel.
-put in a cold starting battery with high cold cranking amps from Tractor Supply. (even this sometimes doesn't help it turn over well)
-put a battery maintenance trickle charger on it when it's not running.


I've also been told that a magnetic heater for the rear end is a good idea, but haven't had to get one yet. If it dips down into the teens like it's supposed to next week, I might have to get one.

Good luck with your starts.

Welcome to the site!

Now some pictures.This is a 106 same has the same harness as the 127...

http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...lePics3180.jpg

http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...lePics3179.jpg

http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...lePics3182.jpg

http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...lePics3181.jpg

http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/a...lePics3183.jpg

where in New York are you? you have any pics might helps us help you figure things out

Good point drglinski, I already have a Battery Tender on it while it sits and put some ethanol neutralizer/fuel stabilizer in with every tank but, seeing as I use it primarily in the cold, will start running lighter oil in the winter.
THANK YOU DARKMINION!! That's what I needed and that is the wire I thought. Now I can remove all of his crap and put it back the way it's supposed to be! Hopefully I can tackle the lights too, anyone know why I would have what appear to be factory lights but no switch? I will take some pics tonight when I go out fix the wiring, fire it up (hopefully), and clear the driveway (hopefully) so you guys can see what I'm looking at.
Oh, and I'm 30 minutes south of Buffalo desperado. Thanks again you guys!!

you got to be close i am in east concord

Glad I can help!! :ThumbsUp:

Now don't forget those pics you promised us !!

Hopefully the pictures Lew sent you will get your wiring figured out.
I hope it's not your ACR, I remember when I bought my 123 the PO had a car battery hooked up to get it to crank over better. (Let's hope it's just a ground issue:bigthink:
And welcome to OCC!

Well, I learned quite a bit about my Cub today. Wiring is all good, just had to reroute and reconnect the correct ground from the harness. And, I do have a light switch, it's on the side of the tractor behind the pto lever which seems pretty dumb but at least I have one and all the lights work. I'll probably move it to the hole where the power lift switch would be. Now the bad stuff I learned: The start/gen is still not charging so it wasn't just the loose belt. It still turns over slowly and now it's because the PTO isn't disengaging and I'm turning the snowthrower too. I could've sworn I looked at the driveshaft while cranking it over last night but maybe I didn't notice but I think it popped on while I was driving it down the ramp out of my shed because the tractor quit as soon as I pulled it out into the driveway and stopped. I pulled the lever all the way back and wedged a screwdriver to hold it but it still doesn't seem to be completely disengaged. It appears to work like a manual transmission clutch, do they wear out like a clutch? I'm going to search the site for relevant threads but any tips or links would help. I hope it can be adjusted because it looks like a pain in the a$$ to get to and I really just want to tear into some snow with this beast!
And yeah desperado, real close. I used to live in East Concord, now I'm right off 240 across from KB.
Thanks everyone, glad to be a member of the site. I'll try and get a couple photos up at work tomorrow.

It's probably missing the wear button on the PTO rock shaft assembly. It's an easy fix.

Steve, I checked the service manual and I hope it's as simple as that. I tightened the turnbuckle as much as possible to no avail, it seems worse actually. Before I tightened the turnbuckle and with the pto lever yanked ALL the way back I could rotate the auger on the QA about half a revolution freely and then the pto would catch again, on-off-on-off as I spun the auger. Now the auger just turns the motor over. Whatever it is, I need to get the thing running soon since it's now stranded in my driveway getting snowed on. Even if I don't clear the driveway I at least want to get it out of the elements because right now I'm doing the opposite of restoring it. Here are some photos of the lever, turnbuckle, corrected battery wiring, and the tractor itself although I now wish I would've thought to stick my phone in and get a shot of the PTO...

Ok, so it wasn't the wear button. One of the screws had the nut and jam nut back off and the screw for the PTO came out. I was amazed to find that my local Case/IH dealer had new ones in stock!! Hopefully I'll be blowing snow tonight and working on my non-charging S/G and tidying up more wiring this weekend! Here's a shot of what I found when I took off the grill and poked my head in there with a flashlight:

Yup, I was going to advise that it sounded like the throw out levers on the PTO weren't operating properly because they weren't set right. Glad you got it figured out.

I went out and pulled off the PTO to bring it in and rebuild today and would you believe I found all of the old parts that had fallen off in the snow! And, I already bought new replacements! Oh well, it was only $16. By the way, I was impressed once again that my local Case/IH dealer actually had the stuff I needed on hand. All you NY guys, I found Lamb and Webster to be extremely helpful and have what I needed to fix my Cub right away. If you haven't tried them for any Cub stuff, give them a try.
Also, When taking the pto off, I found that the actual threaded hole for one of the pulley's set screws was cracked off inside. So, I only have 2 set screws. I'm gonna put it back together like that because I really need to snowblow my driveway at least once and I figure I can get away with two set screws for that long. Do you guys think it's dire that I get a new pulley with 3 set screws?

I have seen the set screw casting hole broken off. You might try a longer setscrew so it will be supported above the broken part. Just a thought!

I agree with the oil,I also use 10w-30 in the winter. But for an issue with cold starts it is possible the coil or points are failing. Ive seen that happen on a couple Cubs before. Also is your starter/generator charging? You might also check the voltage regulator also...