Frankentractor Lives!
 

I got my 1000 overhaul done today! Way back in 1978, when my wife and I moved into our new home, we bought a new Cub Cadet 1000, along with wheel weights, chains, a 38" mower deck, and a grader blade. We used it mainly for grass mowing, with a little bid of gravel and snow pushing as the need arose. After many years the mower deck basically wore out. Around that time my brother-in-law had a 1200 with a newly-overhauled engine that he wanted to get rid of because it needed some work (due to two teenage sons who basically beat it to death), and he didn't want to fool any more, so he gave it to me. I fixed the most pressing things, and we continued mowing with it up until this year when that mower deck started to go bad. In the meantime I used the 1000 with the grader blade until the engine blew.

At this point we bought a new XT-2 with a Kawasaki engine and a 48" fabricated deck.

But now I had two 1978 Cub Cadet tractors, one with a good chassis but a blown engine and the other with a good strong engine but a chassis that was falling apart.

What was one to do? Frankentractor! I stripped 'em both down and built one good tractor out of the best parts from both.

One issue that I consider the Achilles Heel of these Quiet Line tractors was the iso-mounted engine and the flex clutch driver disk. Due to the constant squirming around that engine did on those iso-mounts, the center of the clutch driver disk would fatigue and fail. I replaced several of these over the years, and it was a real pain-in-the-butt to do. I resolved that during this project I would use solid mounts and an old-style clutch driver disk from a 108.

Here's a picture of the Quiet Line clutch driver on the left with the old-style driver disk on the right. You can see where the flex disk has the center machined out of it and a piece of spring steel riveted on, whereas the old style has the disk made of a solid piece of steel.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psyd6uct4f.jpg

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Hopefully this will be a solid assembly that will last.

I didn't take a pic of the solid motor mounts, but they are a direct replacement for the rubber iso mounts. I bought them from Jeff Derstine, who I located from this site. Work great - Thanks, Jeff.

I bought the 108 clutch driver disk from Chris Westfall of Cub Classics.

Since I had the engine out, I decided to drop the front axle. I had noticed a little bit of play at the pivot point, and I had previously bought a new pivot pin. Dropping the axle showed that everything looked to be in good shape, so I reassembled it with the new pin, which, as it turned out, seemed to have a slightly tighter fit than did the old original pin.

Also while I had it torn down I took care in getting the clutch adjustment and brake adjustment perfect. I also drained the transmission fluid and replaced it new Hy-Tran.

Now I'll show a sequence of pics starting with the 1000 chassis all power-washed and pretty much ready to drop in the 12hp lump.

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Here's the 12hp engine dropped in and coupled to the driveshaft.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...pswh59kds8.jpg

The hardest part of this job was getting the 12hp to slide in - because of the longer crank throw, the 12hp Kohler has a dished-out oil pan (my old 12hp Kohler is pretty much the same engine but with a shorter stroke and a flat pan.) - while, at the same time, getting the end of the drive shaft to slip into the bushing in the center of the clutch driver disk and getting the clutch friction disk to engage the dowels. My better half was called into play to get things lined up while I muscled the engine around.

The next thing was go get the engine line up on its mounts to get the bolts started. I found that I had to loosen the engine mounting channels on their new solid mounts so I could slip things around to get everything lined up, then finally tighten everything back up.

So here she is with all of the plumbing and hook-ups done, and the bodywork going back on:

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psprt3prc0.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psxvxndwvg.jpg

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This morning I rewarded the tractor with a new battery. These old cast iron Kohlers need a LOT of cranking power to get 'em started, because the starter has to get the engine turning fast enough to deactivate the automatic compression release. I picked up an Exide 420 cranking amps unit from Tractor Supply for only about $45.00. That thing really gets that Kohler spinning. It starts almost instantly.

Vibration with the solid mounts is there, but it's not so bad. It might be kind of tiring if I were sitting on it mowing for an hour or so, but for using it for what it is now intended - using the grader blade a little and pulling a wagon around the yard and garden, I think it's going to work out just fine.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...pszive9eha.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psymaryc6w.jpg

not to many one owner tractors out there, nice to see you got it going again. center mount grader blade ?

Looks like a real beast (in great shape!). Keep the teenagers away from it and it should last you for many more decades worth of duty. You did well to keep IH iron from meeting the scrap yard. You already know they don't make them like they used to.

Cub Cadet 123

Nope, afraid not. It's a front-mount.

I have a fairly long, maybe 200 ft, gravel driveway. When we get a hard rain (like last week) I sometimes get erosion, so sometime this week Frankentractor will get its first real workout.

It also does fairly good with snow, up to about 8" or so deep.

I'd like to get one of those lift helper springs, but I'm not exactly what parts I need. That grader blade is getting heavier and heavier as I get older and older.

And I have most of another tractor for spare parts.

nice work,not too many one owner cubs out there. closest i came was 2 owners before me. one of these days i will finish the 1250 custom i have. 1250 front with 1863 rear fenders,running boards ,front axle,wheels and tires. :Cub7: