38C on a 1450- success
 

Not to kill this with details, I recently bought a 38C from a forum member for my 1450. I asked around and did some reading beforehand, and really did not find any reason not to do this. It was not as straight forward as I thought, but not difficult either.

So I had a 50A deck with carriage and mule drive assembly from a QL series (3/8" pulleys, yellow), and a 38C with carriage and mulley drive assembly from an 86 series(5/8" pulleys, white), and a 78 1450, sitting in the garage. After some tinkering, head scratching, beers :beer2:, and general wrenching here's what it took:
White carriage with the yellow mule drive assembly, 50A main pulley on the 38C, a new 2" shorter spindle belt (3/8x70"), and the PTO belt I had for the 50A.

Deck spun up nicely, I mowed a few small spots, and it seemed to work ok. I am waiting for the lawn to get a bit longer before putting it through the full paces.

One concern/question I had at the end of this was blade speed. You can see that post here: http://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/s...ead.php?t=5176 As you can see I did the math, and though those aren't true RPM numbers, the percent gain or lost is probably close enough to give some idea.

All in all I am happy. Now what to do with a 50A that has a drive pulley (5/8) from a 38C, the right carriage but a 86 series mule drive (5/8)? I am sure someone will want it.... :Huh:

Glad to hear that your 1450/38C project succeeded. I've got a similiar problem, and maybe it needs the same solution as yours, but here goes. I recently bought a 1450 that came with a 44A mower deck that had rust holes and a split wooden front roller. Yesterday I came upon a 44C deck that is in much better shape, but is missing the belt cover. From the CC Parts Lookup it seems the 44A cover can be used on the 44C. So that works out okay.

But what I don't know is if the mule drive and carriage for use with the 1450 and 44A deck will fit the 44C deck? On Thursday I can bring the mule drive and carriage to the 44C deck owner (who is an hour away) and check the fit, but I'm hoping someone already knows the answer.

I thought the only thing I might have to do is the move one of the front deck hanger eliptical bolts so it lines up with the carriage, but now I wonder if the pulley size isn't compatible as-is.

Wild Bill - this sounds like a good plan and easy to do. After I wrote my note I found your June 26th post under 'deck questions'. Thanks for spelling out the differences between the A and C decks as I don't think I've ever seen it before.

Ya, i think 44A to 44C would be much more straight forward than 50A to 38C......

Good luck!

Glad you got it worked out Mike!