129 Deck Height lever goes rogue
 

Hello Gang,

I am always grateful for your wisdom. If my question is no good without very specific photo, I will try to add one. But I think I can explain:

I use a 44a deck. My height lever travels very freely and is greased and all that. Th spring within the tube feels strong, although I have never seen it. I must cut our grass at the highest "notch" due to rocks and stuff. I think there are about five height notches to choose from. Sometimes I get really wild and change the height a little: I press down on the button, and gently lower the lever forward to the next notch. But as you may know, there is an 'L' shaped hook at the lower tip of the lever. This 'L' must find a notch location, or the whole things sorta falls.

So often my 'L' hook spins a little within its long tubular shaft, and then it will not find any notch at all. The handle and deck fall to their lowest setting. So if I'm doing all this on the fly, things get a little crazy. I have to stop everything and try to wiggle things back into place.

Is my notch release button decending too far and can I change that? Or is my thumb rotating that shaft when it should never rotate? I don't see any damage or significant wear at the engagement area. And if you suggest that I VERY GENTLY push the thumb button- I cant do that. When you're shaking around, trying to get work done, there is no time for that kind of attention.

Thanks for reading all this! Has anyone else experienced this, and did you find a solution?

-Christopher

That L shaped rod is not suppose to rotate. The L is suppose to stay in the notch and it shouldn't push past the notch even if the button is fully pressed. The push button threads onto the rod with the spring in between. Are you sure push button pin isn't backing out on the threads? Secondly, is this spring in the lift handle the proper spring and not broken? If the spring is compromised, it could allow the L shape rod to be pressed down too far.

Are you sure you are not pressing the float button?

Those don't work on any of the cubs I have ever owned. I keep pressing them but darned if I ever see my ice cream cooled root beer ever appear anywhere around.

No, that is a good point. Perhaps the float button is stuck in place. With the tractor off, change positions of the deck height and check the L-shaped rod catch on the bottom to make sure it is keeping in the groove of the armstrong lift and that it is engaging into the teeth on the bracket. Inspect the teeth of the bracket, too. Make sure that they are not bent. If something was hit hard (ie. stump or rock) or if the cub had a blade on the front and something was hit hard, then the teeth can become bent and will not allow the L-shaped rod catch in the grooves. If the L-shaped rod becomes turned and does not center on the L-shaped bracket, that may also cause it to fail to catch the teeth on the bracket, as well. It may be helpful to have someone press the button and adjust the height of the deck as you inspect what is going on front the bottom side.

Cub Cadet 123

These idea are great.

No, I don't think I am pushing the 'float' button. That is the button facing me. I am pushing the top button, and it travels too far. So if that button is THREADED to the "L" shaped rod, then yes- maybe it has been loosening up and therefore lengthening the whole assembly. I will check this out- hopefully tomorrow. I even thought of putting some kind of set screw into the thumb cylinder. But I think that once I open up the tube, more will be revealed.

I will try to examine the spring. The "action" feels quite fine.

And 123- I have an uncle in Australia. For YEARS, he has been baffled by melted ice cream appearing in his barn with no explanation. He also has an old Cub Cadet... Perhaps his lift lever could put ice cream in your barn!

Actually the rod and button will both turn when that happens as you describe, so you will have to make the repair to the L hook if it is worn or bent.
Adjusting the wheels to the lowest level helps keeps the other deck lift parts from wear, unless you have none, then the cam knob and stop helps keep the deck form going any lower BTW.

I have this same problem with my 129. When I lift my deck or any of my other implements too high the L-shaped rod will rotate toward the front of the tractor and will not go back into one of the slots on the bracket unless I get off the tractor and manually rotate the rod back around. Similar to the original poster everything feels fine but I have not taken it apart and investigated it further.

As Billy-O explained up above, there is a notch (groove) at the bottom of the lift arm tube that the "L" rod rides up and down in. Even with the release button fully depressed the "L" should not extend far enough that it comes completely out of that groove. I can only think of three reasons that it would not remain in the groove:

1. The "L" has become un-"L"ed (less of an angle than originally was), which seems unlikely.
2. The tip of the "L" has worn away or broken off. Possible, but the arm would never lock in any position.
3. Most likely, the release button which threads onto the top of the "L" rod has un-screwed somewhat thereby lengthening the rod enough that it extends out of the groove. That being said, the opposite is usually the case in that you want to get the button out but it is rusted onto the rod and you snap it off trying to un-screw it.

I solved that problem ("armstrong lift" on my 129 by swapping in a ported pump and all the hydro lift goodies from a direlict 1650 that came my way.....

Ironman, I am not sure if I ever read this reply. Covid happened, everything got crazy, and then the ground froze and I have not been out on the tractor lately.

Your comments are very clear, and soon I will determine which one is right. I bet that the assembly has lengthened due to an unthreading of the button to it's "L" hook. Again, I thank you all so much for the wisdom gathered here.