A ratty one owner 782d followed us home
 

My wife and I made a trip up near Flint Michigan to do some cub hunting. This ratty 782d followed us home. The hood and side panels are in the back of my SUV. Her late husband bought it new and her grand daughter listed it for sale after she got a new ZTR to mow with. Even have 3 of the plain hubcaps, missing one front. Runs nice but a real bear to start as none of the mods have been done. So got some mechanical updates to do before a cosmetic refresh. First up will be the extra ground strap, gear reduction starter and glow plug system upgrade with 3 new plugs. Grill and headlight panel are a bit of a mess, wish I knew who was doing the custom grill with the rectangular sealed beams that looks like the Ag tractors the 82 series was styled after. We loaded her under her own power with a big battery from a larger compact tractor to get it started.

https://i.ibb.co/vxJcw8y/Cubontrailer.jpg

Nice score.

:IH Trusted Hand:

And huge hidden bonus, it has dealer installed power steering!! He loaded it while I kept my trailer in tilt bed mode.

Adjusting the valves first will help on the hard starting, so will the other stuff you mention.

The valves have nothing to do with hard starting on the Kubota diesel powered cubs. It has to do with an undersize direct drive starter and a limitation on how big of a battery one can fit in the proper space. Been on ongoing battle since not long after Cub Cadet offered these for sale. The newer gear reduction starter fixes the starter issue. Redoing the glow system so that the high amperage does NOT go thru the key switch, then the glow indicator on the dash before it gets to the plugs is the other major change. Feeding the glow plugs a full 12v instead of 6-7 volts after going thru the stock set up, allows them to get hot fast, saving battery power to crank the diesel. This is especially important in cold weather.

Yeah I did all that on my 1512, adjusting the valves made it start faster with less cranking.

I agree. My 1572 starts great. When Diesel Doctor had it in his shop, he said the valves needed adjusting very badly. I run a factory starter with no trouble. The 1772 has a gear reduction that is made in China and it already needs replacing. I have a factory starter ready to install as soon as I make time to do it.

Here is the thread on my 1572.

https://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/...hlight=Rebirth

The gear reduction starter lasted a little over a year.

I've hauled much worse home and probably spent a lot more than you did.:biggrin2: That is a great find.

Please post some pics of that power steering set-up. I have heard about those units buy have never seen one.

Unlike CubDieselfan, my $79 China starter has been going strong for 10+ years. Unfortunately I exploded the transmission because I had wheel weights on the rear so it has been sitting for over a year.

Keep us posted on the progress and we require lots of pics here on OCC.

I could see the valves being an issue if they are staying partially open, which would cause loss of compression, or late opening, which would cause loss of power due to not opening far or long enough. But when the starter struggles to get the engine thru compression stroke, I do not see this as a valve issue, but a lack of balls from the starter/battery set up. Maybe in a warm climate one could get away with running the stock direct drive starter, but here in north central Indiana, we see -20 to -40 wind chills thru the winter with below zero air temps. If I have to move snow, I need her to start. The starter in it now if flakey, with electrical contact issues anyways. A new starter will be installed and it will not be a direct drive starter. I will run the overhead, ie adjust the valves, anyways and see if that helps its cranking. I know the 882 I owned years ago was very low hours and still would not start in the winter time with out a jumper pack to boost battery voltage and CCA. I am sure the China starters are inferior to a Kubota OEM starter. The power steering is hard to see as the cylinder is between the frame rails. I can just see it looking down below the drive shaft. I started driving it and was like, wow this turns super easy. so I got off and started looking at things and bingo, power steering cylinder.

That said, she does look a bit better, got the hood reinstalled, grill and light panel looking better, still need a new mesh light panel. Headlight switch has dirty contacts in side but all the lights do work when the switch decides to make contact. A temporary top pipe on the muffler, I will put a nice Kubota turnout style pipe on it soon. The stubby chrome one just does not look right in the upright position. I wish all the paint was as nice as these side panels are. I have a feeling they were left off the tractor most of the time.
https://i.ibb.co/R73VFPG/20230514-205100.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/jZxsJSy/20230514-205051.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/StrHpVj/20230514-205020.jpg

Nice score. I've never seen a ID tag like yours,

You are correct about the winter starting. No need to start mine in the winter. No snow to blow. :biggrin2:

I wish I had no snow to blow or push! Granted, both my Range Rover and my wife's Wrangler could care less if I do anything with the snow on the driveway, its still play time on the tractor when we do get something. Its usually just brutally cold, so I hibernate when I am home. The off topic tractor the 782d is replacing didn't get started from shortly after Thanksgiving till mid March when we got a warm day and I did some yard clean up duty. Its up for sale as I type this, it was a bit to big. An 82 series is just the right size, just took a bit to find a diesel I was willing to pay what they were asking.
Here is a better pic of the odd CCC serial number tag.
https://i.ibb.co/194Vb12/20230514-205027.jpg

You might want to lay that Muffler horizontal to get the diesel particulate, as well as the noise away from your body.
Then you won't need hearing aides like most of us old farts.:biggrin2:

They look much better with a stack! I wear hearing protection when I run my tractors for any length of time like mowing or plow days. I also work in a noisy factory. I am on the autism spectrum, with very sensitive ears, so I keep my ear muffs with me nearly all the time.

That's an odd tag. Never seen one like that.

I agree, but its age and patina match the tractor. Didnt most of the red tractors have "International" serial number plates vs the CCC one? Maybe this was one of the last 782d's built and they had ran out of the "International" serial plates, so it got this weird thing. Hard to know, original owner has passed on.

The only red tractors to get an International ID tag are the ones built by International until May, 1981. After that, CCC made the red tractors until 1985, and thus those had the larger Cub Cadet tags affixed with pop rivets.

ALL 1282, and 782D's were CCC built.

I knew all the diesels were CCC built, wasnt sure when and how the tags switched as I dont have my book handy that goes into the change over from IH to CCC/MTD. Been a few years since I read it.

Sequential ID number 700000 and above are CCC units. The change to aluminum rears and some other small changes occurred at 719999.

Got the gear reduction starter installed, not an easy job, much harder due to having power steering under the frame that blocks easy access to lift the motor by the oil pan. But I managed the install, starts easily, just like the off topic 330/332 tractors I have worked on. I do have a bad key switch, probably burnt from the old starter, so I have to trigger the starter with a jumper wire till I pick up a new key switch. Maybe I will find one at the Portland swap meet tomorrow. I will also be hunting a new or good used seat, power angle snow blade and pair of bar tires on rims.

Got a bit more done on the 782d. She was always slow to start getting exhaust smoke when starting. I found that the fuel cut off arm was sluggish to return to full fuel from the cutoff position. I think the tractor sat for years with the fuel in the cutoff position and compressed the return spring. I added a booster spring to pull the lever back to full fuel. and sprayed some PB Blaster into the original coil spring to see if it frees up a bit and gains any strength. Starts much faster now. Hope to start repainting a few parts in the coming days. Mower deck also runs very quiet, which I was supprised with the rust on the pulleys from lack of use. Even the inside of the deck was clean, like pressure washed clean with just surface rust and no grass at all. Just wish it was a 44 instead of the 50"

The original return spring isn't very robust. Mine was completely missing, and one of the previous owners used a very crude spring to make it work. I had a heck of a time locating one NOS. Only one vendor had it, and I was glad to find it!

https://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/...1&d=1676510000

https://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/...1&d=1676510107

https://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/...1&d=1676510184

Messicks shows the spring is available in 5-10 days. I wonder if it says that but it's not available anymore?

My fuel cut off was frozen in place and I had to tear into the injection pump to clean the pump elements up. They are pretty easy to tear apart and clean but maybe yours will free up a little bit with use.
https://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/...highlight=782d

That's a good looking 782D. I've pulled worse things home and spent too much on them several times.

Messick's was out of them when I inquired. I bought mine through Weingartz's. They only had one.

Thanks, she was well worth the $1K I paid for her plus the gas to go fetch, about 4 hours each way. She has just under 2K hours on the working meter, seems to run flawlessly once started. no leaks, the power assist steering was a huge bonus. I only wish the rest of the tractor looked as good as its side panels do. I do not think he ever ran with them on, there is NO wear from the spring that keeps them together at the front(spring is missing as well). I am using a bungie cord for now to keep them in place till I source a replacement spring. Runs 1/2 to just a hair over half on the temp cutting grass which is about what my last diesel cub ran with side panels on and cutting on a sunny day.

Is your engine rough at idle? Mine is a bit rough and was wondering if this is normal for a little 3 banger, or that it needs injector cleaning/rebuilding.

As for a side panel spring, I just bought a couple of nice used springs from board sponsor https://cubcadetusedparts.com/.

No, mine is really smooth, but then if you do idle these down below the spec rpm, they will shake being an odd cylinder engine. Being iso mounted vs a true tractor(farm tractor/compact tractor) frame, the shake is worse. Another forum wants a running and driving video, which I will try to take tomorrow or this weekend. I will post it here as well, with her in idle position. I think many guys try to idle these to slow, a triple cylinder sounds like its turning faster than a single or twin cylinder gas due to the third cylinder.

Quickie video I took today. idle rpm at the end of the video and a few times thru the short video. excuse the temporary wiring and electrical tape cover on the hot terminal of the battery. Just temporary till proper cover and new key switch arrives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UObDErJqt7A&t=3s

Great stuff!

It sounds pretty much like mine does....it smooths out when the revs increase. NIce to see another red smoker!