My 1450 project officially started today

[_DX3_]

Originally Posted by westofb

At the top of the page where the sponsors are, click on the one for IH cub parts (bottom one). He sells a steering upgrade that replaces to 2 jamb nuts on the side of the steering box with a washer/ bearing/ nylon locking nut, they go for about $12.00 and supposed to improve steering effort quite a bit. I have one ordered myself, just haven't tried one personally.

I got my steering upgrade from Mark also. Makes a huge difference in steering, or at least in my case it did. He is also about $10 cheaper than anyone else I have seen selling the kits. Look thru his products, he has a lot of stuff you might can use later on when $$$ becomes more available. I can highly recommend his drive shafts too.

[CC1450]

cool thanks so much guys! Definitely have that steering upgrade on the to-do list, and the price is right!

Glad to see vendors supporting these old tractors, that is awesome.

[AndyCap]

Great thread. I have a 1450 myself. It is time to restore this old work horse, and you have further inspired me. I haven't been able to read the whole thread yet, but I plan to.

I love this machine, but she has been really frustrating me lately due to lack of reliability. What do I expect? She was built in 1973, and is all original. I use her year round for mowing, snow blowing, pulling, etc.

So, time to dress her back up, and treat he right.

Some questions for folks here.

1) She has the silent mounted engine. I have seen aftermarket brackets to further secure this motor. I already bought replacement motor mount rubber bushings. Is it worth it to go with an after market brace?

2) I need to rewire this beast. The #1 issue I have been battling over the past 5 years is electrical. So, who would you all recommend as a vendor for a wiring harness?

3) I believe the magneto is still throwing a charge. I am an absolute greenhorn in the area of electronics. So, how would I go about testing to make sure the magneto is still working properly?

4) I am going to be pulling the motor. It works fine, but I am thinking it may make sense to rebuild it while I have it out. At least do rings and such. Should I go stock sizes, or is there some kind of after market build kit to use?

5) Is there some kind of afterr market bucket that would mount on this tractor? A bucket for moving gravel and loam and such. I do have hydraulics for lifting.

Those are my questions for now. I will thank you all in advance for the volumes of knowledge you will share. I will be sure to take pictures and document the rebuild as it goes. Oh, and sorry for hijacking the thread.

[CC1450]

Hey Andycap! Glad you are enjoying the thread so far. Sounds like your 1450 has treated you well, it's time to return the favor.

Not to be "that guy" but if you look on page 3 of this thread, you will see one of the other members set aside some time to share some really good resources for these tractors, and many of your questions will be answered with the info in that single post.

First and foremost with your electrical issues, check and clean your grounds starting at the battery and moving forward from there. I had myself convinced mine was wired all wrong or had been tampered with, but once I supplied a solid ground to the engine it came right to life and everything worked. I read to check the grounds on these quiet lines while searching for some other unrelated info, and that was most certainly solid advice.

As far as your rebuild question, I am not yet very familiar with these engines but standard engine rebuild practice is a slight bore/hone and replacement piston and rings of the appropriate size. You want to clean the cylinder up and eliminate blow by with fresh rings and piston. If it were me I would have a shop bore it and tell me what size piston and rings to order, then assemble myself.

As far as a bucket goes I have seen a loader retrofit kit for these tractors. I imagine it is not cheap nor is it something I have any interest in. If I wanted a loader I would buy a real one.

The sun is out for the first time in days here today. I am finally going to install my rebuilt carb and see how the '78 runs here in a bit. Just have to finish out the work day, patiently.

[CC1450]

Went out there earlier and got to putting the rebuilt carb off the '76 onto the '78. The carb rebuild was money well spent! It made all the difference in the world in how the '78 runs. It only ever so slightly smokes here and there now, it's not puffing out clouds of unburned fuel anymore. The best part is you can idle it down all the way now and it will just sit there and run and run and run!

After I got it running I took a walk around the yard and picked up some limbs thinking I would just hold off and mow next friday when I get paid and can pick up a battery. Then, my inner redneck started whispering thoughts in my brain and I recalled the pic I saw on here with a car battery hooked to a cub....

I decided to look around and either build or find a wood box that I could use temporarily to house a car battery so I can play with my cub while I wait to get paid. I found an old wooden box I got with a lot of audio equipment I picked up years ago. This box used to be a headphone splitter and storage system so students could listen to audio at the school library. The lids were removable as halves and had 4 1/4" phone jacks on each half. Some of the old timers may remember using a similar setup at school.

Come to find out, the box fits a giant BMW battery I had like a second skin. I told myself the only way this was going to fly was if there were no permanent mods to the cub. Piece of cake.

19mm bolt through the bottom of the wooden box and through the hitch hole.


washer and nut on the bottom.


Used two rubber straps to further secure it to the frame, nice and tight. I dug out a couple old battery chassis ground cables from my parts stash and bolted them to the battery terminals of the cub to lengthen the wires down to where I need them, then hooked it up.


Talk about an easy starting tractor now, I have never seen this thing crank over like this before. I think this battery is rated at like 700CCA or something I can't remember. It's a huge cell though. So, now we are ready to chop some turf! Oh yeah, the volt meter shows it is charging now too. I guess a good battery that holds a charge helps there too.

I love driving this thing now that it is running good and everything works. The steering seems to have broken loose a bit but is still a two hand ordeal. I cannot wait to order that bearing kit we were talking about. So I cut grass, more grass and more grass yet! She cuts pretty good all things considered too. I have yet to sharpen the blades.

So I got to the back yard at the edge of my property which backs up to a farmer's field. I should have seen this coming due to the weight of the 1450 and the amount of rain we had gotten but my excitement to be out there got the best of me. I drove into some sloppy terrain and buried my tractor up to the axles before I could think to do anything.

My, these tractors are heavy! I gave it a push and a little feeling in my back told me I had better never do that again haha.

My original thought was to call my buddy and have him bring his jeep over with a nylon strap. Then I pictured the ruts in the yard he would leave and decided to fight my own battles. Took me about 40 minutes to dig it out. I was trying to put wood under the tires to get it moving but that was not working. I ended up putting a small square of 3/4" plywood under the rear to rest my tool on and using a railroad prybar to leverage the thing forward a couple feet at a time. Wasn't pretty but I got it out on my own. I also got her really, really dirty as well as myself and two pairs of boots.

Note to self, let the back yard dry out before going back there again on the cub.

After I got it out I mowed the front yard.
The only single issue I noticed was right as I was wrapping up for the night. I stopped the tractor, shut the PTO off and the deck did not want to lift with the lever. A couple more wiggles and it jumped right up. I will have to look into that, maybe that valve is sticking again.

At one point I was sitting there still, and then idled the tractor up. Without thinking I pushed the drive lever forward a bit further than normal and it nearly threw me off the back with both front wheels pulled off the ground.

This 1450 is no slouch that is for sure.

I'll tell you what, for pulling this thing out of a junk pit just over a week ago, I have myself one fine machine to mow with this summer. I can't wait to get a few more things done to it and bring it full circle. I've never been much of a drinker but I picked up a 32oz beer to reward myself. The tractor is not 100% just yet, but now I know it is capable of being there.

I was also very impressed with the efficiency. I have only put one full gallon in this thing since I have had it. A half gallon for testing, then topped it up before mowing today. Looks like there is about a 1/4 tank to go yet too. I want to make sure not to run it out of gas, at least as little as possible if it does happen. The bottom of these tanks look crusty.

Tomorrow night I will mow a bit more and wash the '78, weather permitting. I still need to remove that suicide knob too.

[westofb]

You could have posted some pics of it being buried in the back yard, as well as a pic or two of what you and the tractor looked like after getting it out....we could have laughed at them together....LOL!!!!!!!!!!

Glad you got to mow with it, sounds like you had fun...and frustration too....getting stuck is no fun at all, a couple years ago I had a zero turn snapper that got buried in my backyard. Luckily I had a 30' tow strap and could keep my truck on soild ground to pull it out. Zero turns are completely helpless in soft ground, you only have to stick one tire and your done!

[CC1450]

haha I thought about getting a pic but it was one of those "I just need to get this thing unstuck before it really gets buried" things. I think if I had lifted the deck I would have made it, once the deck dug in I was done.

I noticed in reverse only the left tire was peeling out when I was stuck, but going forward both would kick in when I got into the drive lever. I imagine that is normal action but it did make me think.

[CC1450]

still need to fine tune the carb also, I set the needles at three turns each from fully seated and just ran it like that today. MUCH improvement but I think I am still getting an occasional miss. Nothing I can't live with though. I am very happy with how my tractor runs now. I was worried there for a bit.

I had watched this vid prior to rebuilding my carb. I'm sure most of you already know what is shared in the video but I thought it was cool to see it done before going in myself. This was my first carb rebuild with new parts, I have pulled some bike carbs apart in the past and cleaned them, with mixed results.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrcfGCgzJrk

[CC1450]

I'm glad I got to cut yesterday, it is raining steadily here all day again today. At least we had one nice day this week though.

[AndyCap]

Great story! I love the ingenuity too. Thanks for sharing the card rebuild link. I rebuilt mine this past winter, but it is still a god reference. It would have made my job just a bit easier.