New Cub Cadet 123 Owner
 

Just bought my first garden tractor to mow the yard, I have previously always been focused on large ag tractors, we have a few 100 horse JD's we use to farm with. Being I am moving off the farm I decided it was time to buy my own. I bought it at an auction and reinstalled the deck drive belt and put a new battery in it and mowed a little lawn. I have some questions, it tends to freewheel down hill would this be something in the linkage or does the hydro need to be replaced or rebuilt? What should I be looking to spend to fix this? Also the motor seems to bog down a little more than I think it should when I engage the deck and it takes a few seconds for the mower to recover is this ok or normal? I have spun all the pulleys for the mule drive and deck and they seem to turn freely.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

On the down hill free wheeling, you most likely have weak or broken trunion damper springs. You may also find having to fiddle with the control lever to maintain a constant speed. It is not an expensive fix. There may be other worn parts there also. Look at this link to get a perspective of the setup...
http://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/s...ead.php?t=4635

On the bogging upon mower engagement, it is not uncommon for it to bog a little bit but you shouldn't have to nurse it either. You didn't mention your deck size but obviously the bigger it is the more it would bog. You should be up to wide open throttle when running the deck.

:Welcome2:Congratulations on purchasing your first cub cadet!! You chose one of the best to be your cub, since the 123 was the very first one to have the hydrostatic transmission and be made of almost all metal parts!!! It should handle the 48 inch deck quite well for you (or smaller). Since you mentioned that you just put a new mule drive belt on and it is bogging down when you first start it up, you should check the tension of your belt. As a rough rule of thumb, inspect your mule drive pulleys on the undercarriage, located directly under the front pto of your motor. Does the belt form right angles on both pulleys?

You can reference our technical section of this website for further information to help you. Try looking in here for starters....

http://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5

(Thanks Roland for fixing the above link today!!!)

and then later here.....

http://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/s...ead.php?t=4683

Happy Cubbin,

Cub Cadet 123

Welcome to OCC! My vote is for trunion spring or worn trunion.

We love pictures around here too!

:TTWWP: :biggrin2:

(and women) :-)

Thanks for all the help so far guys. I went to fire up my cub today and I got it running and let it idle for s few minutes moved it 10 feet and it started to die tried to crank it back up and all I get is selonoid click. This is a brand new battery I put in the day I bought it because the new one that was in it was bad. Some of the wires are just hanging by the voltage regulator? I am guessing the generator side of the starter generator is bad. How much will that run to fix and the wires off of the voltage regulator concerns me.

Sounds like a wiring harness issue to me. Make sure all the connections are cleaned and tight. If you've got bare wires and it's an original harness, it's time to think about replacing it.

Trace all your wires. Read the service manual, and study the wiring diagram. Then clean ground, make sure it's a clean, metal on metal contact.
If the wires are missing any of the coating, fix, or replace. Check all of the connections thoroughly. And, if there are more wires that look worse than better, get in contact with Mike Lamar. He's a member here, and builds quality replacement harnesses.:beerchug:
DON'T start throwing parts at it, without at least making certain the wiring is good.

If the starter part of the SG works then the gen part should work as well.

If you've got wires dangling by the VR, you need to fix that. Fortunately the wiring of a cub is pretty straightforward. There's some great wiring diagrams available in the forum (Thanks Roland!) and the VR terminals are generally marked, so hooking things up isn't too hard.

While it's hard to say why it won't crank with a fresh battery, I'd start with wiring up the harness the way it's designed to be, then troubleshoot the rest.

Here's one clue. Loosen the bolts that hold the SG. Clean the mounting surfaces between the SG and the rest of the tractor. Ground needs to flow thru there, so if the interfaces are rusty / dirty it's not going to work well. A file or some coarse sandpaper will dress the surfaces.