1968 CC 125 Renovation

[daugen]

Well, I tried.
And i sure did not succeed.
One of the HF pullers fit fine, got under the lip pretty well, and I oh so carefully tightened down.
Banged on it, more penetrating oil, more banging, more tightening, more banging.
Crack
Game over, sigh
Worse, it still won't come off! Now I'm going to take a torch to the sucker and heat it up; don't care if I melt some plastic.
will replace the whole wheel once I get it off with a generic one from TSC.

Next warm day I do the front and then go around and touch up areas. The lights were not oem stock, but added later and the whole setup is
a little klugey but I'll get it painted and I'm sure not going to run the lights on this thing. I wonder when someone will invent a roll of little pieces of curved blue tape,
so you could tape circles properly...need to go back with a screwdriver and make my headlight edges a little neater, but it's always been an issue trying to blue tape a circle.

 

[daugen]

making good progress, starting to finally put the pieces back together.
Still no joy on the steering wheel; have a friend coming to visit this weekend and we are going to put
a torch on it together. Regardless we are going to reassemble the CC and see how it starts.

Did not do a fanatic's job on the painting, did not sand down every imperfection, particularly on the motor gen. I was looking for a
"looks nice at five feet" job, not a "looks nice at one foot" show finish.

wiring still in good shape after 48 years. I reconditioned the battery cable ends, put new bolts in, and they are ready to go. One side I could replace easily; the positive cable went down into a hole where it was almost impossible to get a wrench, so instead of replacing that heavy cable, I worked on it and think it will do just fine. Just soft lead that has had a lot of wear and tear over the years, but cleaned up nicely. No rust in the connection, so good to go.

I'm hoping that this time next week it will be running. Not done, but running. The dash is still a wreck, but the controls work; I can make it look nice as soon as I get the steering wheel off.

 

[daugen]

About 95% there. With a new carb installed, and then having to change out the choke lever on the carb since it was "the other one" supplied, this 48 year old started right up, and idled smoothly. Didn't touch the carb adjustment, other than to set the idle up a little. Didn't replace the points, yet.
And until I can finally get that steering wheel off and replaced, I couldn't do anything about making the dash look nicer. Well except for another layer of gaffer tape to hide the holes. Putting the dash decal on was seriously challenging to get around existing real estate, and partially due to being now over four years old, it didn't stick very well.
And frankly looks pretty bad... But I have a spare set of decals so when I get to it, I can make it like new. For now, this will pull my water cart with a 55 gallon plastic barrel on it.

Lot of play in the steering; no wonder considering all the banging that's been done to that poor steering column. With those skinny tires, super easy to steer.
Hydrostatic oil still needs to be changed and I saw a slow leak under the rear trans housing. I tightened up the housing bolts and will see if that works. If not I'll get a new gasket and take the whole thing off and reinstall. One way to get an oil change...

I was surprised how much oomph this thing had. At half throttle I pushed the hydro lever forward and the old girl lunged forward with enthusiasm. Went faster than I wanted to also. This will be a barn queen that will putter around. At some point I'm going to take off the deck lift; not used for anything and the shaft is rusty. All extra parts being kept and stored carefully. Maybe the next guy will want to mow with this thing, who knows, but all the parts are here.

 

[Xfaxman]

:thumbsup:

 

[jim44]

Got it looking good. Be careful when you try out reverse. If it's like the 127 I had, it will run backwards about twice as fast as it does forwards. Makes a real exciting ride.

 

[daugen]

I was actually surprised by how fast this thing went. It's so lightweight compared to my Gravely or John Deere; granted they are almost SCUT sized garden tractors.

Now down at the Kubota/Cub Cadet dealer who will do their best to get that steering wheel off without ruining the steering column. Once that is off, I can then fix the dash and for sure get a new more comfortable steering wheel This one is utterly wrecked, so no going back, but the rim is very thin. That might be an area I modernize a bit though going to try to find something basic that doesn't yell brand new and not original when installed. When I did my Gravely, I made sure it was perfect. Didn't go to that length here; frankly the last guy, or the guy before, had made a mess of the paint and hood already.

Part of this is stewardship. When I leave it to the next person, I want it to be in better shape than when I got it.
Restoration brings great satisfaction to me. This silly little garden tractor has the chance now to last a very, very long time. And will someday be an antique on display at the Grange Fair. Actually, at 48 years old, it could be now. I was 18 years old when this tractor was built.
While I was a freshman at college in Providence RI, probably half a dozen different guys worked on this tractor out in the MidWest, using totally manual production techniques. I bet the MTD line looks a lot different today. At least they still build them here...
So to those guys who first built this 125 in 1968, during the middle of the Vietnam War,
this cleaned up girl revs her motor for you.

Geez the memory of me popping the clutch in third gear on an old CC something and doing a pleasant little powerslide (now called drifting) on the wet grass in the shaded side of the lawn near the blueberries, back behind the big pine trees where no one could see me....what we did as kids on farms. In the 50's. Not much else going on...this was pre everything, except tv was just coming in. But I did like that stick shift. First thing I learned how to shift on. Then a JD B with a hand clutch. And now I have a Gravely with an identical hand clutch. Simply good old tech. I'm really hoping the hydrostatic trans is equally old school robust. Not sure anyone around here would know how to fix it. But it works fine though small movements bring large results. I cleaned and lubed the external linkage really well, so it goes in and out of gear easily. Just a bit jerky as one lunges forward. I need to learn how to "feather" that handle.

 

[daugen]

after a several month stay at the local Kubota dealer, who had someone willing to work on it, they changed out my steering wheel and put a new (used but in one piece) fiberglass dash on. Now I take the wheel off, paint the dash white, put the decal on and reinstall the steering wheel.

Got the lights hooked up, they are nicely bright. Adjusted the carb, it was running lean ,think I got it improved.

the dash decal says Lighter where the lighter used to be. Now swapped out for a Light switch. Think I'll whiteout the last two letters.
Need an escutcheon plate or bezel, whatever it's called, to hold the toggle switch on.

 

[daugen]

One thing I have to do on this old girl is extend the shift lever. It simply is not long enough and one's hands are always hitting the steering wheel.
It needs to be about four inches longer and maybe have a ball on the end of it. Maybe just extend it without the ball so it looks to the uninitiated like perhaps it was that way originally. The longer it is the slower the action which is greatly needed. Reminds me of a rental Durango recently where about 10 percent throttle gave back 50% power, accelerator way too touchy, though I know it's how they make a V6 feel more powerful. On this CC, I'd like the action to be spread out over several inches, not
half that. But it may be what it is and that's the way it always will be until someone plays with the linkage and changes the ratio somehow.

The Kohler 12hp motor was allegedly rebuilt for the prior owner. It runs clean and fine, has a throaty sound. But boy what a shaker at low speed.
Whole tractor wiggles around, like a Harley... Smooths out at higher revs, as expected, and I understand there are aftermarket balancer kits
that can take part of the shake out. Doesn't bother me, though for sure it will loosen bolts doing that over time.

Seat is original, beat up, uncomfortable and covered in an "approved" CC seat cushion cover. Basically formless and unattractive.
I have a seriously bad back and would die with the original seat. Both my other garden tractors have orthopedic seats in them, either as a factory option or
aftermarket. Really don't want to overwhelm this little tractor with something high tech looking. If any of you have any suggestions for a more comfortable seat with lower back support, preferably with fold up arms, that would blend in with this old style garden tractor, I'd appreciate looking at them. I wonder if a better seat from a larger Cub would fit. This garden tractor is pretty small compared to my other two, anything that would fit would need to be "compact".
It just doesn't look right with that big fluffy seat on it.

Actually I really ought to look at one or two gens newer Cadets and see when they first started to make comfortable seats. In the beginning they were perches.
But then so were tractor seats and the seats on the big reel mowers.
I guess I can frame this best saying how much comfort can I get without making the tractor look silly.
Having IH or CC on the seat would be good.
I guess I'll be looking at seats tonight.

 

[daugen]

this is the one I ordered. Will look the best but no arms. I'm not on this tractor long enough
that it made it worth looking very unauthentic with an aftermarket seat, that was also a hundred bucks with arms.
Amazon.com: K & M Cub Cadet Tractor Seat - Black, Model# 7519: Home Improvement
this is somewhat highback vs low to mid back that I have now.
ordered it direct from Northern Tools so I can keep getting their catalogs. Same price through Amazon.

 

[daugen]

got a lot done today. Still need to fiddle with carb, backfiring when turned off.
Installed the light switch, cleaned up the wiring and with poor success installed the dash graphics while the wheel
was off. What a mess I made of that. I can clean it up a little with a razor blade but even trying to be careful I really
get an F on decals. The new seat feels great, higher with more back support than what was on there, and still
true to oem CC look.