[greener14519]

Hi all, I've been lurking on this forum for a while, learning more about Cubs lately. I have an RZT-50 that I bought new a few years back, but I hardly consider that a true Cub.
Recently, I donated a John Deere Sabre to my local gun club, and in return, I got the old 147 that nobody wanted to deal with. All I knew was that it used to run, but that now it leaked hydro oil every time you started it up.
I've had it sitting in my garage all winter, but this past weekend decided to fire it up. A minor tightening of the S/G belt and she fired on the second turn. Purrs like a kitten.
And then, a huge and growing puddle of oil on the floor. A little investigation revealed that the rear driveshaft coupling had split open at one of the bolt holes and had whipped a gash into the hydro filter. Since nobody seemed to stock a coupling, I grabbed my trusty Sawz-All and cut a new coupling from an old tire I had laying around. (I doubt it will last long, but it worked for its purpose).
A new filter (thank you to those on this forum who educated me not to cross it to an automotive oil filter), six quarts of Hy-Tran and we're off to the races! My neighbor liked it so much, I went on Craig's List and found him a 1450 in the next town over. Looks like we'll be competing for who has the coolest Cub. He's got the edge right now because his has hydraulics.
Not shown in the picture is the 42" deck I got with it.
My struggle right now is: do I just run it because it's awesome, or do I tear it down and repaint it? (I bought the paint yesterday, so I think I may have unconsciously made my decision already).
Here's the only picture that I took before I started tearing it apart. I bought Ag tires this weekend, but am having trouble breaking the beads on the old tires. Haven't decided if I'm going to try the old trick of jacking a car and lowering it onto the tire bead, or if I just wait and run to my local garage tomorrow and change the tires with their machine.
I also find myself staring longingly at pictures and videos on the web of smaller Cubs with the homemade bucket and backhoe kits. Any of you have any experience with them? I see the PF Engineering drawings for sale on line. Still undecided. I'm going to replace the blades and belts on the deck, just so I have a backup when I burn another crappy hydro on my Zero-Turn. (By the way, I learned a neat trick to get more life from a burned out, non-serviceable hydro if anyone is interested).
Thanks for reading, and thank you to anyone who has taken the time to post helpful information on this site. I appreciate you all!
Greener