Restoration knowlage needed

[zrobinson]

Hey u guys
I am restoring my first garden tractor with my yr old son. (memories in the making) If u have any helpful tips, or pitfall warnings that a 1st time restorer should know about please let me know. Any help at all will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks}

 

[wshytle]

Zachery-

I'm only a few years into cub restoration but the first thing I would suggest is get your digital camera and document every bolt and part all along the way. I have found this invaluable in getting things back right.

Good luck and have a blast with your furure gearhead.

 

[dtanner]

zachery robinson , Wayne Shytle

Zackerry
I have to agree with Wayne , Take pictures and put them on your confusher (computer)and visit them when you put the tractor back together.Buy a box of zip lock sandwich bags and add all the bolts for the area you are working on. List the contents on a piece of paper and put bolts nuts washers in the bag.Real easy to put a Cub back to usable working tractor if you have all the bolting in its place.My last rebuild was two years and still have not put the decals on.I did not give a thought to if I can, I knew I could ( 129 loader).I put the some what finished results on a CD for my son.An owners manual and a service manual will help you keep the ownership cost low per year.Parts look up here will help to get parts for your Cub . I think If you go through a Cub and bring the maintains up to date you can give that tractor to your Son later in life .Well thats the plan

 

[zrobinson]

wayne,
I have taken pics of diffrent stages of the rebuild. I didnt think to take pics of each bolt but i will from now on.
Thanks!
DONALD,
I did have a friend tell me about the zip-lock bag method and i have got all the bolts, nuts, and washers labeled, however most of them are rusted beyond repair. At least i have a visual refrence to replace them. I am finding it hard to find a parts catalog for my 102.
thanks!
Both, great advice and i will take it to heart.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Zachery, the Cub Cadet Parts Lookup, see the link at the top of the page, is an online parts catalog.

 

[wshytle]

Zachery-

That is a good idea with the plastic bags that Don mentioned. I do it myself all of the time. In case you don't have it already this service manual may help too.

http://ccmanuals.info/pdf/1x2-3%20Service%20Manual.pdf

If it doesn't work let me know and I'll email it to you.

 

[dtanner]

zachery robinson
I will allways rebuild to speck something I take apart and then look for the bag I must of put the hardware in(nuts, bolts, spacers, washers). You must use you own way of remenbering this. I have found this does work for me.

 

[dtanner]

the before picture.

I soon hope to have an after picture !

 

[zrobinson]

thanks alot!
It makes it 100 times easier when you can talk to guys like yall who know what our doing.
joining this site is the best thing i've ever done! (well except remembering my wife's birthday)
you guys rock!

oh! i am going to try to upload some pics for yall.

 

[wshytle]

Don (and Zachery)-

I have several boxes just like the one you posted. One of the things I like least is you have to go through each bag and clean, prime, and paint. I take a piece of cardboard and cut a small "X" then put bolts to where just the head will get primed/painted. I'm sure there are many ways in which this is done by us all. I try and save any and all bolts, nuts, and washers but I'll replace the heavily rusted with new. It gets real fun when you're trying to do two or three tractors at once.

Then there's electrolysis, power washing, sandblasting, sanding, and then put it all together without scratching new paint.

I guess it's what we do.....

 

[zrobinson]

wayne
my father suggested to replace all my bolts and nuts with stainless. It seems like a good idea, what do you guys think?

 

[jchamberlin]

Zachery

Personally I don't think its a good idea. Stainless steel does not have the tensile strength of the carbon steel alloys found in Grade 5 and Grade 8 bolts.

Our company builds stainless steel gloveboxes for the nuclear industry, as much as our customers want to use stainless steel bolts, their own tests have determined that they are not strong enough. Instead, we use grade 5 and grade 8 yellow zinc coated or black oxide coated bolts.

Where we can't use carbon steel, like for instance, weld studs, we have to indivicually test the strength of each stud to make sure it will be strong enough to do the job.

So it might be OK to replace a Grade 2 bolt with stainless steel, especially in places where it may be prone to corrosion, but I would not replace grade 5 bolts with stainless steel. But it is your tractor, so you can do what you want. You asked for opinions, and I'm offering mine for your consideration.

 

[lhinds]

Zachary; On using stainless bolts there is a problem installing or removing them if they are turning hard. The bolt will get hot and weld itself to the nut.B T D T. They are not easy to drill and remove. Took me two hours to remove one from my 169.
Just my 0.2c

 

[mgonitzke]

Zachery-

I, too, would not use stainless steel bolts for the reasons everyone else has given. If you really want to make it correct, you can re-zinc plate your IH bolts. I did this for a 100 I went through a couple years ago. I documented the restoration process on the website that's in my signature line.

 

[wshytle]

Zachery-

I'm in agreement with the guys about not using the stainless fasteners. I think stainless is for boats at the coast. It would be a good idea to look into Matts website. He has a lot of good information and has been there.

 

[dfrisk]

JEREHMIAH C. - There's stainless steels that have more tensile strength than Grd #8 bolts & still have good elasticity. I worked at a food & chemical processing equipment plant for a few years. 17-4 PH heat-treared to H1150M SS was something we made HUGE studs out of, 2" dia and 8 to 12 inches long, coarse thread of course since it was food equipment. 200,000 PSI tensile was typical. We turned them on CNC turning centers while hard. You won't find ANYTHING made with material like that at ANY hardware store!

The stuff you find at your local hardware store is cheap 18-8 SS, some of it doesn't even resist rust all that well. You check the back pages of McMaster-Carr and they offer some 304 & 316 SS, but compare the price to a straight carbon steel grade #5. I actually find that grd #5 & 8 bolts hold up MUCH better in corrosive applications than grd #2&3, even cheap 18-8 SS. I rarely ever buy Grd #2 hardware anymore except like carriage bolts & lag screws. Grd #5 & 8 are made from alloy steel as opposed to carbon steel.

Biggest problem with SS threaded fasteners is GALLING. Have to use some sort of lubricant between highly loaded sliding surfaces, paste thread lube, anti-sieze, etc.

The decriptions of each item in McMaster lists the tensile strengths. Easy to compare the different grades, the spec's also change with size.

 

[zrobinson]

Ok, so im going to use the carbon steel alloy as u guys mentioned. my next question is how do i know where to put a grade #2, and where do i put a grade #5 bolt? Is there a chart or somthing i could look at, as i said earlier i am new at this.
And thanks for that info cause i had no idae.

 

[jchamberlin]

Dennis,

You're right about the lubricant issue, I remember hearing stories from the customer engineers. I think that the galling was an issue for bolts of any material going into the blind holes machined into the equipment's stainless steel structure.

I agree with you on the grade 5 or 8 over grade 2. What convinced me was learning the incredibly loose tolerances allowed for the grade 2 stuff: you had no idea what you were getting! At least with grade 5 or grade 8 you can make some reasonable assumptions about the strength of the hardware and how much torque it could take.

Anyway, good write-up, very informative.

 

[mgonitzke]

Zachery-

Basically everything is grade 5 except the engine head bolts, which are grade 8. I think the parts lookup has the bolt grades in it. When I went through the 100 I mentioned in a previous post, I think I only put about 4 grade 2 bolts in it, and those were for the voltage regulator. I have seen very few IH bolts that were not grade 5.

 

[ryarbrough]

Having fought with several cars during restoration I discovered a method that is like several of those mentioned here combined. I would use a piece of cardboard with a PICTURE of the device DRAWN on the cardboard and then put the bolts into holes that are the same as the ones drawn on the cardboard. I tried the little baggies and sometimes there were two or three different lengths in one device and just pulling them out of a bag didn't do too much without a lot of trial and error fitting.