NEWBIE ON FORUM

jjtwister

Member
Hi all:

Just joined the forum and just purchased a 1949 Farmall Cub.
Looking for some advice on getting it up and running.
First, I paid $1,500 for the tractor, sickle bar, front plow, cultivator and rear wheel chains. It has been in a barn for 5 years and would like some input on what to do first. Since I am NOT a mechanic I plan to clean it up real good before I bring it to the local tractor mechanic. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks!!
 
jjtwister,
Welcome.


Learn how to fix things yourself, save your money for other things. If you can fix a riding mower, you should be able to get it running. Get your hands dirty. GET IT RUNNING, Don't paint it or worry about what it looks like. Good bet you are going to have rust inside tank, carb, and moisture in engine, tranny, rear end, so get it running first, and then change all fluids.


MY advice, don't put a lot of money in tractor thinking it worth too much more than you paid for it. Many times new Goodyear tires, tubes, and rims for old tractors exceed the value of the tractor.
 
Get a shop manual and parts book for that tractor. Even if you don't do much work on it yourself, you will start to understand the processes a mechanic will be going through to do repairs. As far as maintenance and repair, start with the simple stuff like oil changes and such and work your way up to more complicated repairs as you gain experience. Ask a lot of questions on here and on the IH category below.

As stated below, major repairs or a set of tires will cost you more than the tractor will bring on the market. But that is true of about any tractor of any vintage. Oh, yeah, one more thing, no matter how much you THINK it is going to cost you to fix something, add another 10% to your estimate, then hope for the best. Lol!

Sounds like you picked up a nice tractor with a bunch of very useful implements. Nice.

And Welcome to the forum.
 
Donald:

I have a lot to learn. thanks for the advice. Will post pics before and after when I get it down to my garage.

jjtwister
 
When I advanced from deliveries and steam cleaning, they let me work on the cubs. I was on my way
to being a mechanic. Cubs are simple machines and easy to learn on. Get a good battery, clean the
tank, check the water and oil, put in some clean fuel, and let us know what happened next. Have
fun!
 
While you are waiting on your manual, plan on going completely through the fuel system as gas turns to varnish, you know, like a paint coating for
wood....gets hard and clogs things up.

Then drain and refill all the fluids, engine, transmission, differential, oh and obviously fresh 87 octane gas. The engine takes regular automotive
30 w oil, so today's 10w-30 is a good to go. The rest will take gear oil like GL-5 85w-90 or thereabouts.

The ignition probably will need new points, or at least clean the contacts on what you have as they can grow a film that prevents a good contact
meaning poor spark voltage. I don't know if it has a magneto rather than a coil and points like older cars used to have or not. I can't help you with
a magneto as I never worked on one.

After you get all the fluids changed and checked the ignition....oh and ensure the radiator has coolant (like your car-truck), with the plugs out stick
a WD-40 nozzle in the plug holes and give a good squirt. Then turn the engine over manually a few times and then with a fresh, fully charged
battery, spin it over for 30 seconds or so to get the oil distributed about the engine. Last put the plugs back in and hooked up you should be
ready to go.

Rubber doesn't have to be in all that great of shape. Cracks are common. Main thing is holding air. Plenty of sites to buy parts including this
site.....that's how they pay the bills and as I just realized have an enormous catalog from which to shop. Lots of expertise on here and the
knowledge base is probably in the 100,000's of hours of hands on experience.

That's the way I would do it. Others have their way.

Good Farming!
 
Remember that tractor came with a 6 volt battery, not a 12 volt like today. So make sure what it is set for before you try to put a battery in. Orignally it probably was positive ground but could have been converter over to negetive ground like your car is and may also have been converted to 12 volts so verrify. Hooking up wrong can do a lot of dammage. Also not a mechanic and never worked on one. This is all normal things for any tractor.
 
If you haven't already the first thing I would do is make sure the engine turns freely then make sure there is no water in oil or rear diff. You can unscrew the plugs a little and the water will be at the bottom and will drain off. If that all che is out check the the tank for crud. Drain it if it has old gas in it. Next you will need to see if it has spark. If it has spark and fuel it should run. May need some carb work and points. Before you get a battery check the voltage and rather it's positive or negative ground. Alot of these old tractors have been converted. With all the info you're getting might be overwhelming . Just take it one step at a time. It's really pretty simple.
 
Lot of helpful advice on this forum and check farmall cub dot com. Some of the guys here are
there also. The cub is a pretty simple machine to work on even if your mechanical skills are
limited. With advice from web sites and youtube as well as the cub manuals you can learn how
to repair your cub. also another source is CaseIH site it has parts manual online, but you should
have a copy of a parts manual as well as owners/operator manual and service/repair manual.
Most of all be safe when operating the cub, read the warnings in the operator's manual. For a
small tractor the cub can do a lot of work and very efficiently. Hope its up and running soon
good luck and don't be afraid to ask questions.
Chuck
 
(quoted from post at 06:16:22 07/29/16) Remember that tractor came with a 6 volt battery, not a 12 volt like today. So make sure what it is set for before you try to put a battery in. Orignally it probably was positive ground but could have been converter over to negetive ground like your car is and may also have been converted to 12 volts so verrify. Hooking up wrong can do a lot of dammage. Also not a mechanic and never worked on one. This is all normal things for any tractor.
Thanks Leroy good advice
 
While red tractors are not my favorites I will admit the cub is a rugged little tractor and will
run well for a long time with a little care. Keep in mind the weight of the engine is off center
and the tractor can be quite narrow if the rear wheels are set narrow. Watch out on hill sides.
If you don't need it set narrow it would be a good idea to widen it out some. Another thing about
cubs, they have final drive gear boxes on the end of each axle like some other tractors and while
sometimes the transmission oil gets changed, many times the final drives are overlooked. To
change them you need to remove the pans on the bottom of each one, clean the pan, replace it and
fill to plug level with gear oil, same as trans. oil. Sometimes I pre fill the pans leaving a
little at the top for the volume of the gear and put the pan on with oil in it already. If you
fill to the plug level or just a bit under it will be fine. Screwing a stud, bolt with no head
will do, into two holes to guide the pan into place helps to line things up and not mess up the
gasket. Remove the guide studs after the other bolts are finger tight and put the bolts in those
holes. And there is gear oil in the steering box too. Cubs usually have drain, level, and fill
plugs on gearboxes, but I don't think the final drives do. You add oil until it runs out the
level plug. As others have said manuals are money will spent, operators and repair manuals will
tell you how to maintain the tractor although I doubt if anyone performs some of the maintenance
items as often as the manuals would have you doing it. The parts book will show you how things
fit together and in which order as well as giving you the part nos. for any parts you need. Parts
manuals can be valuable just to show the part and how it fits in with the others even if you
never use them to order parts. Good luck with your tractor and stay tuned in here.
 
(quoted from post at 07:44:41 07/29/16) Lot of helpful advice on this forum and check farmall cub dot com. Some of the guys here are
there also. The cub is a pretty simple machine to work on even if your mechanical skills are
limited. With advice from web sites and youtube as well as the cub manuals you can learn how
to repair your cub. also another source is CaseIH site it has parts manual online, but you should
have a copy of a parts manual as well as owners/operator manual and service/repair manual.
Most of all be safe when operating the cub, read the warnings in the operator's manual. For a
small tractor the cub can do a lot of work and very efficiently. Hope its up and running soon
good luck and don't be afraid to ask questions.
Chuck
Chuck: Thanks for the websites much appreciated
 
Welcome to the funny farm...opps I mean YT. Cubs are nice little tractor. With those extra goodies you got, you should have no problem finding something for it to do. Those old tractors don't usually take much to get going if loose, as the others have said (to get going) its basically check fluids, fuel(tank, lines carb....), and a battery(unless has a mag then you don't even need that).
 
(quoted from post at 12:53:31 07/29/16) Welcome to the funny farm...opps I mean YT. Cubs are nice little tractor. With those extra goodies you got, you should have no problem finding something for it to do. Those old tractors don't usually take much to get going if loose, as the others have said (to get going) its basically check fluids, fuel(tank, lines carb....), and a battery(unless has a mag then you don't even need that).
Thanks Cory I'm getting good advice from everyone.
 
(quoted from post at 07:44:41 07/29/16) Lot of helpful advice on this forum and check farmall cub dot com. Some of the guys here are
there also. The cub is a pretty simple machine to work on even if your mechanical skills are
limited. With advice from web sites and youtube as well as the cub manuals you can learn how
to repair your cub. also another source is CaseIH site it has parts manual online, but you should
have a copy of a parts manual as well as owners/operator manual and service/repair manual.
Most of all be safe when operating the cub, read the warnings in the operator's manual. For a
small tractor the cub can do a lot of work and very efficiently. Hope its up and running soon
good luck and don't be afraid to ask questions.
Chuck

Thanks Chuck
 

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