Cub 149 Resto-mod

[westofb]

Was waiting on paint to dry on the entertainment center, so I drug out the power washer and did a little cleaning. Here are the pics of the cleaned new to me frame:

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I got this frame because I need some serviceable QA forks/ fingers and the rear studs for the mule attachments on my original frame had one side broken completely off, both captured nuts where broke free of the frame, and both sides of the frame were bent where these bolts attach. I have seen other threads, in fact someone asked me in this thread, were the frames were cracked around the motor mounts, the new frame and even the old one getting sent to the scrap yard had no evidence of cracks in those areas. Here are some pics of the tractor (well what remains of it) after power washing the rear end/ hydro pump, inside of the dash tower, the hydrallic ram for the lift mechanism, and the steering column:

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Motor mount bolt holes on the new frame.
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It will get some more cleaning once I tear it apart, it is not perfectly clean as it is now, but much better than it started it out! I can actually see all the attaching bolts now! The stud that the front of the hydrallic lift ram attaches to is has broken the weld loose, that will be addressed once I get it apart, luckily the remaining weld on the end of the stud was larger than the hole it slids through, I can't image what kind of carnage that would have caused had the end of the ram fell down inside the frame.

[westofb]

Weather has been nice and was able to finally catch the sand blaster guy at his place of business. I ran my wheels over to him and had him blast them for me. He is in the neighboring town about 25 miles away and told me if I could come back in about an hour, they would be done. So that is what I did, went a picked up some items at Lowes, then went to Orscheln's Farm and Home store and bought some paint for the wheels. I then went and got my wheels, headed home and shot some paint on them. I went with Vansickle IH off white on the wheels (the tractor itself will be getting shot with automotive base coat/ clear coat paint....decided on the tractor paint for the wheels and eventually the implements since it is more durable and much cheaper if they need touched up from time to time). I am not sure I like the color, kind of looks a little yellow looking to me, maybe it will grow on me..if not, it is not that hard to re-shoot them in another shade of white. Attached are pics of how the wheels turned out, I was in such a hurry to get them painted, I forgot to get before pics and what they looked like after the sand blasting.
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Oh yeah, I am pretty sure I will be using the narrow front wheels, but decided to go ahead and refinsh the orginal wide wheels as well...just in case I change my mind. I figured even if I did not use them, they would sale better having new paint on them!

Here are some pics of the inside of one of the rear wheels (both had the same markings), the 1-72 I guess is the date code, the size info (not sure what the letters refer to), and oddly enough they were apparently made by Firestone.

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[thetucks]

those wheels look awsome. I used the same paint as you and thought it looked a little yellowish brown also. but as soon as I got it on the tractor with the yellow next to it, it seems to just look white now. I like it. Im not too fond of the actual white white some are using. but its all about preference. If the quality of work you put into the wheels showes anything on how your going to do the rest of the tractor, It will be very very nice. good job.

[Methos]

Jeff those rims look awesome! What tires are you going to put on them?

[ACecil]

Originally Posted by Methos

Jeff those rims look awesome! What tires are you going to put on them?

Ditto!

[westofb]

Originally Posted by thetucks

those wheels look awsome. I used the same paint as you and thought it looked a little yellowish brown also. but as soon as I got it on the tractor with the yellow next to it, it seems to just look white now. I like it. Im not too fond of the actual white white some are using. but its all about preference. If the quality of work you put into the wheels showes anything on how your going to do the rest of the tractor, It will be very very nice. good job.

If I was going to keep the tractor white and yellow, I think the color of the wheels would be a non issue (well except trying to match the other white parts, but it isn't going to have anything else white!), but this tractor is going to be IH RED!

Originally Posted by Methos

Jeff those rims look awesome! What tires are you going to put on them?

Originally Posted by ACecil

Ditto!

Thanks for the compliments, for tires I intend to put ags in the back (probably tru powers, but may try an off brand, still undecided) and for the front it will be getting a set of tri-ribs.

Was looking at the wheels again today, they still look yellowish (paint sample looks kind of beige, but these turned out more yellow than beige, in my eyes anyway), was looking at Vansickle paint samples, think I am going to have to go with another white...Not many to choose from, I believe they have a Case off white as well as bright white. The case color looks to be tinted a little different than the IH Off White, and the bright white...well, the name says it all....IT IS VERY WHITE! I may just wait until I get some red shot on some of the tins and look at the wheels next to the red to see what it looks like then.

[westofb]

No updates to post, except for the color of the wheels. I had my friend look at my wheels to see what he thought, he thinks they look great with no yellow cast at all to them, he thinks they look very light beige as they should. I was considering going over them with Vansickle clear coat, but they did come out extremely shiney and slick and think I will leave well enough alone, before I wind up screwing them up!

I guess I will leave them as they are, I did find something close to IH Red to put up next to them and they looked okay.

Now that I think about it, I have had trouble in the past passing a color blindness test, had to go to a different set of they dotted circles to pass, they told me I was slightly red/green color blind...So I guess it is my eyes are jacked up, not the paint...LOL!!!!!!

[westofb]

Today I was able to get out to the shop and do some work on the 149...I am still waiting on the machine shop to finish the engine, so I decided to tear down the tractor some more. Here are some pics for you!
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Here is pics of the current frame and the new frame where the QA retaining spring? holds the QA arm closed, one has a hole through the front plate, the other has no hole, so were is the retaining spring thingy supposed to be hooked to, the pto shaft? or is the first pic correct, it works good that way, but the replacement frame has no hole for it to go there!
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Here are some pretty good pics of the hydro cams, they are very sloppy, each set of pics I tried to show the amount of play in the different cams. Also, when moving the cam levers, from what I have read, the back or inner one is supposed to respond slower than the front or outer one, when I move mine, they move together. I can hold each one and move the other independently, there is little to no wear in the trunion area....could my problem (besides the huge amount of slop) be that the springs themselves are weak? Maybe, without hydrallic pressure being exerted by the tractor itself, this may cause the cam levers to want to move together, instead of the inner moving at a slower rate? I think I will order a new inner and outer spring and spring pin disk do hickeys (they are attached to the ends of the springs) since I am this far into it and they don't cost much. I ordered some shims to try to get the slop out of the hydro cams, do I shim them on the back side, or do I shim them on the front side near the retaining c clips?


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My original hydro control shaft had been modified by the PO so I bought one off a member to replace it. These pics show the shafts sitting next to each other, the replacement it slightly longer and is lacking the machined surface for the e clip that is mounted on the original just below the splined end.
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[ACecil]

Nice pics! Thanks for the update!

[AMCJavelin74]

I was thinking the red and white scheme for my 128 as well- inspired by the ag tractors (what parts are red, what parts are white, etc...) . I think CC did the yellow and white to save time and production costs, as the gov liked the yellow and white (rather than traditional IH colors) and the gov was a big customer, so I think CC was like 'to yellow!' and it's been that way ever since, with a few red CCs produced in the early 80s.