Grandpas old 149

timny1984 said:

Well my grandfather passed away recently and I was able to borrow one of his lawn tractors for my house. It's a cub cadet 149 with 42in (maybe?) deck and a snow blower. He only used it for snow blowing so the deck is in really nice condition. It has sat for at least 1.5 years, checked for oil, looked "good", put a battery on it, and with a little starter fluid it started right up! Drive just fine to get it on the trailer, and the lift works too.

After i got it home i took the blower off and put the mower deck on. But before i go cutting with it (only did 2 passes just to see how she cut i know what you're thinking :Stop OK so i parked it and I'm waiting to get the fluids changed before actually cutting.

So this leads me to the questions. Do i take it somewhere and pay $65/hr+ parts for someone to change the fluids and give it a once over? or should i just give it a go myself. Also what things should i do/look for before the 1st cut?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Tim

Click to expand...

:howdy: BY fluids do you mean a oil change and hydro fluid? Oil change I would do myself. On the hydro, it all depends if you fell comfortable doing it, hydro filter and 7 qts of IHC hy-tran also gasket for the cover plate. comes out to about 80$. Plus a can of brake clean to flush the trans. I would say having a dealer do it, you are going to be in the 150$ range, just for the hydro change.:smilie_fl

I took a half day at work, i'm just going to do the work myself. $80 compared to $150+ makes the most sense to me. And 7-10 day wait for the job to be done is way to long for me to wait. I found this walk through on the site

"The 149 was the first wide frame version for the IH Cub Cadet series. Not unlike its sister the 147.
1) remove the hydro filter (just like a car oil filter) located under the tunnel cover infront of your seat (there are 4 bots that hold it on the tunnel cover)
2) Remove the the rear 8 bolt pattern and scrape off the gasket (sometimes you get lucky and it just peals off) the gasket is same one for all the other older IH cub cadets and readily available. Go to your favorite online seller or local cub cadet dealer the gasket should cost between 6-10 dollars (depends on their profit).
3) after the gasket is off and the plate and rear end is all cleaned out with your favorite (I use either (spray) brake cleaner or carb cleaner to clean out all the old residual oil. If you have the patience and time after you empty the old hytran or whatever the other owner put in (I forget think its like 6 pts) of fluid out of the rear end, jack up the front end and let it drain overnight. (this isnt necessary just a nicety) use a rag and long screw driver to make sure you get all the metal pieces and old sludge that just wont drain out.
4) Reinstall your new gasket with cover plate and tighen down - remember the 3 bottom bolts are longer than the side and top ones to accompany a hitch assy if you so desire in the future to put one on. You wont really mess this up because if you dont install the right bolts into the right holes they wont bottom out on the rear plate.
5) Reinstall your new cub cadet hydro filter (just like a car filter a little past hand tight)
6) open up the rear hole (bolt) on the rear plate (it takes a 3/8" socket entension end will fit real nice) and open it up.
7)Place your cub on flat ground and pump in or pour in the cub cadet hytran until it reaches the bottom of the opening.
8)Run the cub check for leaks and after it cools off (not really necessary) place it back on flat gound and open up the rear bolt see if the hytran is still at the bottom of the bolt hole if not top off reinstall the rear cover bolt and your done."

I have faith I can do it all myself. One guy at my work said in his 40 years owning his 129 he never changed the hydro fluid, just changes the filter....

i don't know about that so i'll just go for the complete change and that way i'll know where i stand. here goes nothing. Thanks for your help

Tim

:howdy: You are Welcome. I do not know where you found that article, but it has some wrong info. Such as filter location and fluid amount. Instead of pulling tunnel cover, drop the deck and remove the filter from the bottom and then re-install filter. Use the IHC cub cadet hydra filter not some automotive oil filter. Elevate the front of the tractor. Do not remove all the cover bolts, if you do you will have one heck of a mess. Loosen all the cover bolts and tilt the bottom out to drain the fluid and then remove the cover. Clean the cover and trans mounting surface to remove all traces of the gasket. Flush out the trans with brake clean, this removes all the gunk that the hdyra tran fluid collects. Lower the tractor, re-intsall cover and gasket and tighten the bolts, pull the fill plug, fill with IHC hydra-tran fluid, when to starts seeping out of the fill plug, install plug and drive the tractor and re check fluid level. One more thing, your dealer should have the hydra-tran fluid in bulk, clean out a couple of one gallon plastic milk jugs and buy the fluid in bulk, cheaper that way. I have heard about just changing the filter, but have never found anything to verify it. Good luck on your project. :smilie_fl

Those are decent instructions, except the couple of times they wrote "just like an automotive oil filter." If someone just glances over this they may wind up buying some oil filter off the shelf at Auto Zone.

Needs to be hydro filter with the proper innards. Here are several options:

Cub Cadet: 923-3014

NAPA Gold: FIL-1410

Wix: 51410.


If your G-Pa used hytran (something tells me he did) then you might find a bunch of gel like blobs in the bottom. That is the hytran doing its job, isolating moisture, etc. Simply clean everything out, swab the bottom of the case to check for metal shavings and close her up.

Couple of things:

Quite a bit of fluid will remain in each of those axle tubes (trumpet shaped cases that contain the axle drive shafts). So, a little old fluid is going to mix back in with the new you are putting in.

Check the ends of said tubes. That's where your axle seals are, and if you have an obvious leaker, now is really the time to take care of it. It's a pretty easy job, but the rear cover must be off to get at the clips.


So great you are carrying on your G-Pa's Cub legacy. You'll be able to pass this machine down to the next generation, since it will outlast anything being passed off as garden tractors at your local Lowe's Depot.

:fing32: