Only Cub Cadets - Picture of the Week for October 11, 2010

Thank you all for the great compliments on my 149 (and the lawn)!!! And thank you as well Terry for selecting my 149 photo for picture of the week.

I was actually purchasing a John Deere when I found the PO also had this 149 for sale as well. The PO said he mowed his lawn with it every week and everything worked as it should. Yeah, I know, I know better. Well, as it goes when I got it home I raised and lowered the mower deck a couple times only to have the pin in the rockshaft lift arm linkage brake. It was painfully obvious the PO should have known about the pin since it was hanging halfway out of the hole, bent, and painted over. At that point I knew then it was time to give this tractor a thorough going through from top to bottom. As somewhat expected I've had to replace and reverse engineer quite a few items on this tractor. All four original tires where supposed to hold air but didn't so once I looked closer I realized new tires in all four corners were in order. The ignition switch was in the wrong location and the wrong one, the hydraulic lift handle and linkage was in pretty bad shape and needed replaced, parts were on upside down and backwards and the list goes on.

As you may or may not be able to tell in the picture the tractor is actually painted "New Caterpillar Yellow" which I've had to repaint in several places along with some parts. When I first looked at the tractor the color sorta took me by surprise but the more I looked the more I liked the New Caterpillar Yellow color. Well, I've owned this particular tractor for about two years now I guess and even though it's not in my primary lineup of tractors I use around here it's been a pleasure having it around. Thus far a labor of love fixing and replacing parts on this tractor nevertheless enjoyable.

No other attachments came with the tractor purchase other than a 42 inch mower deck (no SN tag) that's in very good condition. I plan on incorporate a spot sprayer mounted on the rear some day and when I get a deck height issue worked out I'll possibly use it more for mower duty, but for now it doesn't work too hard around here.

I did post larger pictures of my 149 in another thread here on OCC if you're at all interested?

This is what one front rim looked like when I went to replaced the tires. What a mess!!! I never have used the product Slime or any sort of tire and or rim sealer and never will. Below is a perfect example why. This is not the first time I've run across this issue on tractors I've purchased used and I'm sure won't be the last.
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With the engine out for some repair work and after I cleaned, sandblasted, primed and painted all the rims and mounted new tires.
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This is the 42 mower deck. I posted on this earlier and called it a 44 but it's a 42. The deck is in remarkable shape for its age.
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