JEREMIAH - To add to what ART & Rodney both said, the '61 to early '63 vintage CC's were still good lawn & garden tractors compared to the competition, but the joint where the steel frt frame bolted to the rugged cast iron rearend tended to crack & break in hard usage, there was a BELT between the engine and drive train, there was no PTO clutch until late in the production run when the PTO clutch for the CC 70/100's were adapted to this vintage tractor, all powered implements had to have a type of clutch in their drive train. Very few of the rearend parts interchainged with later CC's, and the rear band type brake only operated on one rear wheel, which in some conditions would retard the turning of both rear wheels, and in slick conditions would not. Until outboard disc brakes were put on at the ends of both rear axles even the later internal wet disc brake was prone to only stopping one wheel with the least traction, which could make for some excitement when going down slick hills.... BT-DT. Also, that vintage CC was the only CC to ever use an oil bath air cleaner, IMHO, not the best at filtering dirt from the intake air going into the engine.
I like that vintage CC, but since ALL my CC's are workers, I prefer the later vintage tractors, 70/100 and newer, except the Quiet-Lines, where once again many of the design features differ, like the rubber-mounted engine, elec. PTO clutch, etc.
I will say the design of the '61 to early '63 vintage CC's lend themselves to a variety of different options the later tractors didn't have like the M&W 9-speed gearbox. Nothing like that was ever made for the later tractors.
