IH-126393-C1 Speed-Up Pulley Identification
 

Howdy! New guy here, with new guy questions!

Bought a '71 build 149 last fall which came with a 44C deck that I want to use, and my homework led me to think I needed to swap the pulley out to use it on the older mower. I decided, why not take advantage of the situation and 'upgrade' at the same time.

So I dug up what I think was the appropriate part number (IH-126393-C1), didn't come up with anything used, so bit the bullet and bought a NOS pulley from IHCCW; they had it listed as a 3/8" Speed-Up Pulley. This was back in December..at that point I was just knee deep in getting it to run right and fixing things I found along the way. It arrived, I cracked the box open to make sure nothing was damaged, and up on the shelf it went. No bag or box that would ID it, no stamping or anything on the pulley.

Last night, after finally getting to the point where I am ready to move on from catching up on basic maintenance, I start looking closely at the pulley - and I am not sure I got the right one. Comparing them side by side, the top drive groove is actually wider than what is already on the 44C - the existing one on the deck measures about 3/4" overall width (outside 'lip' to outside 'lip'; not in the groove since it's hard to reference a radius/taper), while this new one is about 7/8". The OD is 4-1/4. The lower pulley is 3/4" or so in that same dimension, and around 4-1/2" OD.

So my questions are:

A) Can anyone confirm with the dimensions above that I do not have a 3/8" Speed-Up pulley, IH-126393-C1? I fired off an email to IHCCW but given my initial experience with them it may take a few days to hear back.

B) Does it sound like the pulley that is already on the deck will work on my 149? I'm no v-belt expert but my best guess based on the dimensions is it takes a 1/2" belt, but I am a little unclear on the interchange of 3/8" and 1/2" PTO belts on the older models.

Thanks for any help/insight!

First, the 44C was NOT designed for the 1x8/9 Series. It was designed for the 82 Series, that had the 5/8" drive belt system.

The correct mower deck for the 1x8/9 series was the 44 mower deck. It came from the factory with the IH-59703-C2, to be used with the 3/8" Belt.

Then the Quietline Series arrived. They utilized an Electric PTO instead of the Mechanical PTO as seen on prior models. IH changed the size of the center pulley for the "44A" decks to accommodate the Elec PTO. That pulley was IH-126393-C1.

People have found that putting the IH-126393-C1 Pulley on the older version of the 44 deck, gave them faster "tip speed". Thus, the IH-126393-C1 has a smaller diameter than the IH-59703-C2 Pulley. People have labeled this as a "speed up" pulley, although IH Cub Cadet never did so.

OK -I was aware the 44C is a later model deck, but I was also under the impression with the correct mule drive (pulleys skewed to one side) and the pulley in question would make the 44C fit/function on the pre-quietline/MPTO tractors. Is this not the case and I need to look for the older style deck and mule drive?

I don't know what Mule Drive you have. The proper Mule Drive Pulley's (for the 149) need to fit a 3/8" belt and skew to the right.

I explained the proper fit, prior. I don't what you were told and by whom. You can decide what ever which way you want to go.

Sorry, I thought I had mentioned that it does have the offset/skewed mule drive. I have not measured the pulleys on it though. The bulk of what I 'know' is from googling a couple different forums, I did not keep track of what came from where, seemed at the time straightforward enough.

As far as your first post - I got that the original deck for the 149 is different/older, and that the pulley swap works on those older decks; I re-read several times and forgive me for being dense, but what I didn't get from that was if the 44C with the aforementioned pulley will "adapt" it to the 149 or if I just have a pile of parts here that wont work with each other.

I realize this all can be confusing for a person new to Cub Cadet. Here is a Deck Matrix I hope better clarifies it. The base line of these deck are pretty much the same except for Pulley's and Gauge Wheels. With some ingenuity, one can convert from one series to another.

That's great - thank you. So I guess the last piece of the puzzle is what pulley do I have on my bench. I am thinking since the grooves are different widths, I must have a C-series pulley, if the below is correct:

- 44/50 decks use two 3/8" belts for in/output
- 44/50A decks use two 1/2" belts for in/output
- 44/50C decks use 5/8" belt for input, and 1/2" belt for output

The center pulley will have a 5/8" V groove for the top pulley and a 1/2" V groove pulley for the spindle belt. The 44/44A will have 3/8 x 1/2 respectively.

OK, sounds like they sent me the wrong part then. All NOS sales final and 30 day return policy...well, hopefully they'll show some mercy since it was their error. Anyway thanks again for your help!

I think it would be more helpful and less confusing if the chart shown in post #6 had a fifth column on the right with the part numbers, such as IH-59703-C2 for the 1x8/9 row, IH12393-C1 for the Quietline row, and whatever the part number is for the 82 row.