125 Project
 

Finally got myself a Cub Cadet and I think I bought the worst example of one in TN. It supposedly "ran when parked" 8 years ago. I picked it up from a closed small engine shop covered in weeds for $100. Yeah,I probably overpaid,but around here I never see any for less than $250. I've had to clean and adjust the points, unstick, lap, and adjust the valves,replace the head gasket, change all fluids, replace the carburetor, and replace the battery. Then I unstuck all the hydrostatic linkage and found out that one of the relief valves is completely stuck open. So,it runs but doesn't currently drive as a result of the valve.

Welcome to OCC. 100$ is a decent price for that. Glad you got it running. Sad part is you will have to split the tractor to access the bypass valves. Once you get those repaired you will have a stout little machine. Good luck with your project.:beerchug:

Wow.... Glad you are into the rescue of this old tractor. Looks like you got the know how to get this girl running and I'm sure you be able to drive her around soon. Good luck and keep posting!

Thanks for the welcome! After having to drag it around on four flat tires with a come-a-long "stout" is probably one of the nicer words I can use. I really like how this thing is put together,not a lot of small engine specific engineering, lots of car type design. Yeah,I know what I'm in for on the valves. That doesn't mean I'm looking forward to it though.

Glad you could save it! I'm looking forward to following along on this one!

Nice find! Do you plan on restoring it, or leaving it like it is?

I'm not really planning on a full restoration, time, money, and practicality kinda prevent that. It's going to see use as a small tractor towing, pulling, plowing,etc. So I don't want to put a ton of time into painting everything, not to mention its bad enough to need replacement body parts in some areas if I was doing a full on restoration. I could, I have the skills, but I don't want to. I'm going to get it mechanically reliable and cosmetically clean it up. Maybe throw something on the rust to keep it from getting worse,a good bath is in order, new tires, make a grill,that sort of thing. You can expect to see more progress very soon, I'm on a bit of a time crunch with this thing. I work at a small engine shop and this is getting tinkered with after hours. The only condition of leaving it there while I work on it is that it needs to be gone by the time the season starts. Which here in Tennessee has started in March before.

Perhaps this will save you a little time. There is a bent panel back where the fenders meet up with the frame, close to the seat. That is your inspection cover for the hydro relief valves. Open it up and use some PB Blaster on the valves if they are stuck in the up position. After they soak a little while, you can try getting a narrow stick (like a paint stir stick that you might need to trip down) in there to actuate the relief valves, the re-apply PB Blaster and work them. Hopefully, this will save you from splitting the tractor. It worked on my 125 when I got it from a swampy, mosquito infested grave, not too much different than the one you pictured.

The 125 is rumored to be the best IH cub cadet produced and quite possibly true for the NF's. It makes me glad every time I see another one saved and brought back to power. You're really going to enjoy that machine once you get it up to speed!!! Welcome to the forum and keep us posted on your progress.

Cub Cadet 123

That will be a nice 125. I’ve had good luck with unsticking the valves with PB blaster as well. You can find the correct grills for them also once you get to that point. Wonder what the piece of metal was for that is bolted to the lower grill housing

One valve is free, but the other is stuck down. I've got the valve out and I'm doing everything in my power to unstick the valve, I might just have to pony up and get it rebuilt. I think it's a homemade plow pivot since there's an eye bolt below it. There's also a bunch of random hooks on the hood. I plan to actually keep the front hitch because it's been so useful.

It's ALIVE! I took it for a test drive today after getting the valves freed up. The governor is a bit drunk and the hydrostatic linkage needs adjusting (good sized neutral area and full forward is putting around about walking speed.) But any test drive you don't have to walk back from is a good one in my book.

You did well, nothing like a non runner running like a marathon runner....

https://youtu.be/eLtULzWxJyM

There's a short clip of it running for anyone interested.
I'm not sure I'd say marathon runner, but for a reanimated corpse it's doing pretty good!

Ain't no expert but I would say you did good.:beerchug:

Good to hear you got it running and driving.

Can anyone point me towards the adjustment I need to look at for the hydrostatic? Most mention of hydrostatic adjustment regards it creeping in neutral while I'm having the opposite effect. Reverse is about what and where I expect, but I have to push the lever a ways forward before I move forward and all the way forward feels very slow.

Did you clean out the rear and put new fluid and a new filter yet?

Of course, that was one of the first things I did.

switch the release valves and see if the opposite occurs.

https://youtu.be/gmSyprrsX8A

This is just a short video of me running around at full forward, not revved up alot because of the governor issue.

Now here's something interesting I've noticed, it seems like it's slowly getting better the more I drive it. When I first got it to move under it's own power it barely creeped back up on to the lift table, where as in the video it's just a little on the slow side of normal. It also speeds up going down hill and slows going up.

Alright, I finally have a proper update. The governor has been adjusted,the carb has been tuned,and after an impromptu starter/generator repair I got the hydro linkage fixed. The tie rod between the hydro lever and trunnion was at the end of it's adjustment,not allowing he trunnion to move all the way forward,I just adjusted the rod properly and now it runs and drives right. These things are fast! It's not winning any races,but it's quick enough to get you in trouble. I also gave it a bath, did some minor painting to keep it from rusting through and I made a grill. Until we actually get sunshine long enough to take a better one,this will have to be an after picture.

I have returned after much work. Hopefully it's done for the most part,aside from the obvious dress up stuff,I've had to get the starter fixed,fought with the points before finally replacing them, taken the entire engine out just to get the bottom half of the dipstick out of the oil pan, and just general cursing and such. I also came up with a unofficial name, Murphy, as in Murphy's Law. I swear,every time I touched it, it broke. So far it's been dependable for about a week straight,which is a record.

Hey, it's sat abandoned to for how long so it should get a pass on things breaking for a while! lol it'll get right eventually and then you'll love it. How do you like those deestone ag's on the back. I've been thinking about getting a set myself.

Great job! I did something similar with a 129 this past fall. Mine hadn't moved in at least 10 years, stuck engine, blown head gasket, etc. Plowed all winter with it. Once you get on top of the repairs they are very dependable machines.

Good luck!

According to the previous owner it sat in that bush for 8 years. I get that,but man this was bad, If something small and stupid could go wrong it would. So far so good this time around. I've bragged on it and shown it to a few friends and it still works, the only more conclusive test of reliability would be to try to sell it, something I'm not going to do. I don't believe they're Deestones, some other brand, but they're great! This thing has the traction to do some serious pulling and they ride about as smooth as turfs and really don't tear up grass as bad as I expected unless you get them to spin. I've had projects like this before and it always goes one of two ways; either the fever breaks and it becomes incredibly reliable, or it wants to stay dead no matter what you do. I'm hoping it's fever broke and it's back in action,but I'm still wary of it because I've thought that before.