782 restoration homework

[mpatterson]

I figured since the weather is starting to cool off and the nasty white stuff will be upon us soon, I should start doing some homework. Have had frost here the past two nights, poor garden has taken a beating to say the least.

If all goes well, this is going to be one of my winter projects and hopefully finished for spring planting in the garden. I was fortunate to pick up an IH built 782 about 4 or 5 months ago with a series II engine in it. Came with a rough 42" deck, 2 sets of wheel weights and quite a few scratches and some dents in the sheet metal. The tires on the rear look original and are in pretty decent shape, some normal cracking which I chock up to being a regular thing. Front tires are either very much original OR someone has figured out how to do break stands with them, cause they are bald as a baby's @$$! Also had 4 decent hub caps that cleaned up fairly good with some Mother's Chrome & Mag polish. I just couldn't wait until winter to see how they cleaned up.

Question I have....

I am looking for input/opinons on what ALL should be done if I was to do a front to back restoration of this tractor properly. YES, I am going to paint it the correct IH red since there is just way too many scratches on it not to do it properly. Don't worry - the Correct Police can not say anything, my 982 is still original

I brought home a parts tractor the other day to go along with this 782 - it too is also an IH built tractor. So I now have the correct grill emblem as well as a new hood bird.

So what are the normal things that "should" or "need" to be replaced? Things like rag joints, gaskets, bearings, seals, etc. I am thinking if I have the tractor stripped, it should be done. But what things can you get away with NOT replacing since it will not make a difference or it isn't worth the money? Last thing I want to do is have everything stripped down and fixed up and then have a stupid $1.25 gasket or seal crap out on me!

What is the best way to strip down the frame, sheet metal, rims, etc ..... sand blaster, wire wheel, emery clothe...?

How is the best way to clean the plastic dash without removing the markings on it - just pain soap and a scrub brush?

Where is the best place to buy tie rod ends - local Cub dealer or a sight sponsor?

I eventually plan on putting on some Firestone 23 degree ags. My understaning Miller Tire has now put the 24" into production again thanks to their own personal effort in keeping these on the market. Is this true? If so, has anyone purchased any from them? You like them? Are they worth the $$$ ?

Any input you have to share would be great. Thank you in advance.

 

[mpatterson]

 

[dross]

Sounds like you kind of on the right track for everything. Site sponsors are always helpfull, soap and water is good. Take the rust off, how you do it is up to you. Remeasure your deck, the chances of you having a 42" are pretty slim. If this is an IH built garden tractor post it up in the main forum, you'll get more responses.

 

[proessler]

Mike ,I bought a pair of Firestone 23 Flotation (Ags) rears last year from Miller's. They are awesome & I think really give my 882 a true Tractor look with VRed's on the front!

 

[mschutz]

Paul R, That's the combo I want to put on my 782D. Any pictures?

 

[mpatterson]

Come on Paul....your keeping us in suspence!

 

[proessler]

Mike I sent you ,the round about way, to answer your suspense question. Check your Email.

 

[digger]

<font color="0000ff">Please refrain from "you've got mail" posts - if the recipient is looking here, they probably KNOW they have e-mail. And if they have already read their e-mail, the post is superfluous.</font>

 

[proessler]

Charlie, thanks for the reminder...

PWR

 

[mpatterson]

Homework has been put on hold breifly. Doing homework on a 100 and counting pennies and quarters to round up enough to buy it!

 

[mpatterson]

So the 782 finally landed home here on the 27th of December. Here to stay if I have my way. It looks good sitting next to the 982. Will look even better once I get it cleaned up and running good. Have a fair bit of work to do to it, but I don't think anything that is impossible though.

I was fortunate to snag a parts tractor to for this one. Only missing the hood, side panels, seat, rear wheels, steering linkage, and the hydro unit. So I have a few extra parts on it that I need and can come in handy.
Started by removing the grill, hood, junk seat, fuel tank, and the engine today from the keeper tractor. There has been a major oil leak previously or someone overfilled with oil many times. I guess I don't have to worry about the front end of the tractor frame rusting anytime soon - well undercoated with oil!

I'd have to say, the way they mounted the engine in this model is down right stupid! There was only 3 of the four bolts installed on this one, none of them were tight. I could move the engine almost 3/4" either way I wanted. The front bolts are wedged in between the craddle for the front axle and the base plate of the frame where the engine bolts to. The nuts are on the top side and have no idea how I am going to get them back in and onto the end of a bolt with my fat fingers! The spacers between the engine and the frame normal on these? I thought they were only on queitline models? These are steel spacers about 1/2" or so thick. Will have to get pictures of them (and check parts lookup too). I filled over half of a 4lb ice cream container with dirt and oil build up from under the engine. Too bad its so cold out here, could REALLY use a wash down with the pressure washer!
So the tin work and the air filter cover says its a Series II engine, but there is no oil filter on it. Have heard on one of these sites that some of the earlier Series II didn't have filters - this correct?

Have a: KT17S
Spec: 24302
Serial: 2231010856

I had ordered some parts for it before, plug wires, karb kit, manifold gaskets, air filter, gas cap, fuel filter. Still going to need a new key switch, pre-filter for the air filter, hydro filter (unless the extra one I have for my 982 will fit on it, have to check the numbers out yet).

Just curious how big of a job it is to replace the front seal on these engines? How many of you guys use that electronic spray for your connectors? Or do you leave them dry or grease them with electrical connector grease? Just didn't know if that stuff worked or just made a mess?

Priced out new tires for the front end since both are JUCNK will not hold air and well, so badly cracked not even worth putting tubes in them. Miller Tire has a sister company here in Western Ontario that I can purchase stuff through. New Tri-Ribs for it, $78.00 ea + tire tax, tubes for them, $16.38 ea, tubes for the rear tires, $20.00, chains for the rear tires, $70.00 a pair. So I think I am going to go ahead with them when the times comes. Not worth the effort to get them into Canada for that little difference in price. I can even pick these up with one of the trucks at work, they are about 1/2 hour away from one of our customers. Priced out Firestone 23' Ag tires with them too, $140 ea + our fabulous tire tax of $5.88. Great guy to talk to, very knowledgeable too. Knew exactly what I was doing and wanting to do. I figure I am going to put tubes in the front tires on this tractor and try loading them with washer fluid. Since the plan is to use this tractor for either snow duty or plowing the garden, I figure the more weight I can get on it the better I am. Easier to do it now when I am assembling them instead of dismounting them later.
Was lucky to get some hub caps on this tractor too, they were a little rough, but it will be a worker tractor too, cleaned up ok.

Will add more pictures as I get them.

 

[jstertz]

Mike P-- if you haven't recently, revisit my Cubbie thread here in this section. I cover a lot of these questions that you are asking. The most difficult thing about replacing the seals (front or rear) is just getting at them. Once you get the PTO and/or flywheel off, changing the seal is relatively easy to do! I'd be willing to bet that is where most of your oil is coming from. Many of the series II motors did not have oil filters on them but the had the extra oil passages needed to protect the mechanical parts of the engine and also high pressure oil pump. The series I just didn't have enough oil pressure or enough oil passages. You could retro fit an oil filter to your engine if you located the correct adapter block, oil lines, and oil filter block from a magnum series motor. However, I know that if you can't do that, just keep up with the scheduled oil change intervals and you can run it for years. Another thing to do to your motor while its apart is pinning the governor shaft. Go down through the CCC/MTD section of the forum and click on anything that talks about the KT series motors. We've covered a lot of this before and there is great info. I'll be watching this thread closely and if I can be any advisory help, I'd be glad to!!!

 

[sblunier]

The spec number 24302 indicates that is is a full pressure series II engine, a late model 782. This is a very good thing!!! Some of them had diamond shaped plates where an oil filter could be installed, right side lower front side of block, under cylinder, below oil pressure sending unit.

 

[sblunier]

0000 steel wool and PB Blaster penetrating oil works great on surface rusted hub caps, cleans them right up!!!!

 

[mpatterson]

Joshua,
Thanks, I will read the entire thread on it. I had read a bit of it before, just never finished.

Steve,
Thanks for looking up my #'s, figured it was an older version partly because the frame is old looking and still has the screen on the bottom side to keep trash out from around the back of engine and the steering column. Hadn't seen those screens before. I honestly can't say the engine has been "out" of tractor before, but with the amount of crap I cleaned out from under it, I would doubt it has? But you never know what PO do to tractors! I know the rear tires have to be original with the tread pattern and the way they look. I used "Mothers Chrome Polish" to clean up the hub caps so far, but will try the steel wool, maybe it will finish them off just nicely for the spots that didn't clean up too good.

 

[mpatterson]

With the wood box filled up and most of the "Honey Do List" caught up for now, I opted for working in the garage yesterday on the 782. It was nice to be out there working again, chilly at first, but the propane heater warmed it up nicely for working in short order.

Since the last time I worked on it, I got the grill and sheet metal off it as well as the engine on the bench ready to work on. Yep, its dirty and lots of oil spray, leakage, or something on the front of it. Hopefully an easy fix? Started scraping down the dirt and crap on the inside of the frame and in the engine area, no rust here, just build up of oil and dirt! Have blasted the steering knuckles on the axle preparing them for removal later in order to fix the steering linkage I bent trying to get the tractor on the trailer the day I moved it. DAMN, these things are HEAVY! I sure am glad I had already removed the four weights before. Although, when the tough get going, get a Chevy to pull it ONTO the trailer!

So I figured it would be best to split this tractor and see what all needs to be fixed, if anything. This was the first time I split a Cub and was hoping it would go okay. For the most part it did. Sometimes a little awkward getting hands into areas to remove pins for the hydro, but I got it appart. I have no idea how I am going to get that nice long spring on the left side of the hydro back on when reassembly takes place. Damn! My hand doesn't fit in that narrow spot? I used the suggestion in one of the service manuals about using an adjustable on the rear hitch to balance the rear axle when removing, works pretty good. My biggest problem was the crap built up and the little bit of rust on the frame rails make it a tough to "slide" the rear end out of the frame. I got it out though with a little encouragement!

 

[mpatterson]

 

[mpatterson]

All cleaned up now. I am guessing the painted numbers on the top of the casting are marks from production? Kinda neat to see them painted on there.
Figured I'd dump the tranny oil from the rear while I had it out, who knows what you will find in there! Surprisingly enough, the oil was very clean (compared to what my 982 was) and flowed out nicely! The PO had obviously changed it and the filter not long ago - but will still be putting new stuff back in as well as a new filter.

Also found these when I went to remove the rear plate. Hmmmm... I guess I will be getting the CORRECT bolts before I button things back together! One of the bolt holes on the side of the rear cover had a piece of the casting broke away when I removed the bolt. Couldn't figure out why there was hytran coming out of the bolt hole when I got the bolt half way out. Hopefully, I can seal it up enough with the gasket when I reassemble? The last time it was installed they used some kind of gasket glue and then the gasket, what a prick to get off the housing! Would rather not use that again. When I did the rear on the 982, I didn't use anything other than the paper gasket, knock on wood its been good so far!

Also when I removed the drive shaft from the hydro unit, I notice some slop to it, now I know why!

No wonder the shaft could move around so much. It even marked the top of the filter where is had some slop, hopefully the seal is going to be okay on the input side of the pump? It doesn't seem to be leaking so far.

 

[mhomrighausen]

Mike P. Nice pictures. If you're refering to the brake spring that is apiece of cake. Get some mechanic's wire and make a loop. Hook the front end of the spring to the tractor. Take the looped wire and hook it to the rear part of the spring (hook area). Have the mechanic's wire threaded through the area between teh frame and the transmission. Wrap the end of the wire around something like a screwdriver to give you a good platform to hold onto while pulling the spring tight. Once you have the spring stretched long enough have a tool or small thin piece of wood long enough to help position the spring into where it is supposed to hook into. I always add this.... SAFETY PRECAUTION>>> WEAR SAFETY GLASSES OR GOGGLES!!!

I've used Oven Cleaner in an open area to remove stubborn grease. Wash with water and you've a nice clean surface. DO NOT PAINT THE ALUMINUM on the hydro. That helps the hydro to stay cool.

 

[bbranstetter]

Mike,

Just a note from personal experience. If you decide to add an external oil filter be careful to observe the correct direction of oil flow. I bought an oil filter kit that came off of another Kohler engine and just bolted it on my kt17. Found out after doing a full rebuild, that the lines were backwards and was forcing the check valve closed in the oil filter. Man did I feel stupid!!!

Also, when replacing the oil seals please consider ordering a oil pressure rebuild kit. It only taked a few more minutes to remove the cover plate and it very simple to do over all.

Here is what got my problems started. Seal feel out and pumped out all the oil while the wife was out plowing with it. Every thing else that went wrong after that was self induced.

Before you put the new seal in be sure to use some thing like 'Indian Head' gasket sealer or some type of automotive mastic. Who ever had this motor apart before didn't do this and likely overfilled the engine oil helping to dislodge the seal. I have several other pictures of the motor apart if you need and pictures.

Good luck on your project!!!