New guy from Western New York
 

Hey guys, I have been wanting to become a member of this site for some time now and finally pulled the trigger. I have a cub cadet 782 international with the KT17 series 1, 44a mower deck, number 2 tiller, and a 54 inch land/snow blade. I will post pictures tomorrow, I look forward to having access to all this valuable information!:beerchug:

:Welcome2: 782's are cool tractors. :beerchug:

Where in NY are you? I used to spend way to much time at Watkins Glen driving in circles.

I live two hours from Watkins Glen, beautiful area, and 45 minutes south of Buffalo.

welcome to the club you got to be close to me if your south of buffalo I am in East Concord

Yes Jumper, they are.

I am in Delevan, only a half hour or less from East Concord.

782 is a great machine.. you will enjoy working on it and using it..
Congrats... I remember when they went Red dad took me to the IH dealer to see one.. I wanted one that day... dad said maybe after the 1450 quit.. that was in 1979... the 1450 is still running well but I did finally get a 782 a few years ago!

jaynjeep, mine was my grandfathers, my fathers, and now mine which is why I enjoy using it so much.

Reed, That is great... where else today could you find an American built machine that has lasted three generations and is ready for three more??.. It's a piece of American manufacturing history that is gone.. Everything built today is china throw away.
Take care of that 782 and it will take care of you for many more years... enjoy.. send us some pics!

I'm also a new member here today from Buffalo (amherst) area.

PS, looking for a 341 snowblower attachment if anyone has any idea where to find such a thing!

Thanks Jay, I totally agree. I am having a hard time uploading pics that I took using my iPhone.:BangPC:

I took some pictures but am having a hard time uploading them from my iPhone currently.

Cub pics
 

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Reed...WOW!! that's a nice looking cadet and implements you have... I am jealous.. Im guessing that its all original? never had a refurb or repaint? somebody obviously cared a great deal about it!

Jay, it is all original. I got the tiller/gear box this spring and it is basically mint! It really worked well in my garden. The plow is new and I have not used that for snow yet but I am hoping with the wheel weights/chains that it will do a nice job. Unfortunately the KT17 motor runs great but does use a bit of oil. :beerchug:

Reed,

I have a 782 that a friend bought new (not nearly as nice as yours)... It uses oil and burns a lot of gasoline but runs well... he complained to the IH dealer since it was new about the oil consumption but they never were able to do anything about it...

I worked in the small engine repair business in the 1980's and I saw a lot of issues with the KT 17 series one engine... especially in the John Deeres for some reason (I don't think they cooled as well as the IH setup). The Kohler rep admitted that they had oiling issues which they addressed with the addition of pressure fed oiling to the rods in the series II and the Magnums.
What we figured out with the series I engines.... keep um FULL of oil and don't run them on the side of a slope very often or for very long... they run forever on flat ground with plenty of oil...
My KT 17 has never been opened up.. I feel it's because my friend was meticulous about the oil level. I don't use it enough now to warrant a rebuild.. a little oil here and there doesn't bother me... if I ever run across a spare series II or magnum engine I will grab it..

Keep it topped of with oil, run and enjoy it!

Its really nice that you have such nice implements with it... that really completes the package!

OH yeah... I got off on the KT 17 subject and forgot to mention...
You may want to consider loading the tires 3/4ths full with RV antifreeze solution and only about ten pounds of air.. it will make a huge difference in how much snow you can push... I think even more than weights. :beerchug:

Jay, I have began using Rotella 15-40 oil in my engine and check it before every mow. It takes about 2 hours to mow my lawn, I do have a few slopes on my lawn unfortunately. If something ever did happen I know smallenginewarehouse.com sells Briggs replacements that basically bolt in for $1,600. I would rather avoid that for as long as possible simply because of the cost so I always keep it full. I also add in a little Lucas heavy duty oil stabilizer every now and then. In my opinion the engine runs great and I make sure to only use ethanol free gas. Interesting point about the RV antifreeze, I have heard of "ballast fluid" but never knew how to fill the tires with it or really what it was. I may wait to plow some with it to find out the job it does with just the weights and chains. Either way if it works as well as the tiller did I am in good shape. :beer2:

Jay, one thing I forgot to mention is the problem I have had since mounting the rear gear box with the hy-tran dripping out the back, how annoying! I am also scared it would run low and ruin something with the transmission so I took the upper bolts where the gear box mounts off and let the fluid run out until it stopped, looked like a few quarts, then used silicone in the bolt holes once they were good and dried and put the bolts back in. I let it all dry for 24 hours before I refilled the hy-tran fluid. Hopefully it stopped the drips completely but I wont know until after I mow with it. It never leaked prior to putting the gear box on which is what made it even more annoying. I had never dealt with putting one on before so I didn't assume a small leak would occur.

Reed

The 15 w 40 should work well and the lucas certainly won't hurt anything... the main issue with the KT series I was the rods were only splash lubed... so if it got low on oil they didn't get much oil... well most of them burned oil... and most people don't check the oil... so you know what happened.. that's why you hear so many stories about holes in the block of an early Kohler twin. Slopes won't hurt it if it's full of oil and you aren't running it all day on one side.

As far as the ballast fluid... we just use water in ours... but we seldom have freezing temperatures here in south GA... We have an adapter that screws on the water hose and you just shoot the water right in the valve stem. Up north you would need to use some type of anti freezing agent... Old timers used calcium chloride solution... because it was very heavy and it didn't freeze... but it is terribly corrosive.. There are several modern ballast fluids out now that are not corrosive (I know beet juice is one and the fluid that they use to winterize RVs is another) but im not real sure how they get them inside the tire. Maybe one of the northern forum members could chime in and help with that.

I use ballasted or loaded tires even just mowing.. I find they don't spin at all when changing directions or making tight turns and the ride is better than air alone.

Maybe the sealer on the bolts will take care of the leaks... if not you may have to pull the cover and re seal the whole thing as you put it all together.

I think you have a lot of years left in that old KT if you take care of it!