Quick trip

Ran up to Tracy Brown's place
yesterday, picked up a nice Ford 641
and a 154 cub lo-boy. 45 minutes to
clean the ford carb and we drove it off
the trailer. Needs a radiator, looks
like the water pump failed at some
point and tore the radiator up. But, it
came with a brand new one still in a
box! Missing the key too, lucky we know
how to hot wire one! Lo-boy is in the
shop, it spins over a bit slower than
I'm used to, starter/ generator thing
is interesting! Wiring is a disaster,
and carb is a gummy mess. Give us a
couple days! Wife already said it's
gonna be her lawn tractor!

That lo boy is a nice tractor

As easy as the hoe and loader come off, should get a mower for the Massey. Burn 1/2 the fuel and have hydrostatic. The hardest part about removing the mower from my Kubota is the driveshaft. But then, I'm a fair bit older than you.

Yall did good Kevin.

Many Fords used the same keys try the keys off your other Fords. lookin good. joe

I have a 154 loboy and mow my lawn with it. They are nice, but have two weak points.

1. they have a clutch brake that is usually worn out so the shaft won't stop turning when you engage the clutch. The clutch is not up against the flywheel, it is back at the front of the transmission. Hamiltonbobscubs.com has a lot of used and aftermarket parts for the 154, 184, and 185 loboys. They have the clutch brake parts.

2. The PTO clutch for the mower is problematic at best. I've had to rebuild mine several times. Again, hamilton bob has PTO clutch parts as well.
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Nice looking load, have fun.
Dave

Im still waiting for the CUB you were gonna bring me,,,had to use the two pt equipment yesterday,,cant wait much longer....

Does yours have 3-point??

You should get a cab and snow thrower for it too!

All mine have key switches from O'Reilly's...... None worked.

No 3 point.... And if I ever need a snow thrower in Alabama it's a really bad day!!

Hmmm, gotta figure out a road trip!

GP,
I don't think Larry needs a cub to spread organic fertilizer...

And, check the frame for cracks above the rear axle on both sides. Usually found on units with 3pts, but won't hurt to look. A crack there allows the frame to flex which destroys the PTO shaft. It will break inside the PTO clutch unit. DAMHIKT. But I can tell you that is an expensive fix.

Everybody has their own needs and taste, but for me my 154 was too slow in first and too fast in second for a mower, at least with the 60 deck. Not enough power to mow heavy stuff in second. It may improve things to set up the engine as a 184. I think the only change was governed speed. Maybe carb too, I forget. 3hp more at a slightly higher setting.

Of course, I formed that opinion back when speed was more important to me, 40 years ago.

(quoted from post at 11:22:55 03/11/22) No 3 point.... And if I ever need a snow thrower in Alabama it's a really bad day!!

Click to expand...

I can't imagine how slow going it must be to blow snow with that monster sized thrower being powered with 14hp.

If you have any heavy grass that lo boy will disappoint you. Now that new Massey you have put a mower deck on it ! You will be even more impressed.

In the mid 1980's I bought a real nice 154 Cub Lo-Boy that had a factory loader on it. I bought it from a guy who was gonna clear the stumps from some small planted pines on land he had inherited. Boy did he get surprised. It didn't even have enough power to bend the bucket. All he did was tear up the drive line clutch. It was fairly new when I bought it from him and needed the clutch repaired again for the fourth time. I bought it cheap,($1,000)but the price of clutch parts was not cheap by no means almost $100.00 for the clutch driven plate that mounted on the input shaft of the transmission.

It has a very strange arrangement for the clutch being as it is at the front of the transmission on the input shaft. I got tired of trying to keep the clutch working because it had to be adjusted every time you used it much or you could not change gears with the engine running. I determined that the drive shaft coming from the engine back to the clutch disk was about 1/2 out of line to the input shaft of the trsansmission. This kept destroying the alignment so I cut the drive shaft apart about 2/3 of the way back and had a machine shop cut keyways ino the shaft then I installed 2 pillow block bearings with supports under them and a universal joint in the shaft so I could line up the input shaft correctly going into the disk and then the pressure plate fingers could be adjusted correctly plus the clutch brake could be set as specified. It is supposed to have about only about.020 clearance for it to work properly. It needs the clutch brake working correctly to stop the input shaft so you can get it into gear. Aftercdoing this it worked good for a couple of years. Another thing that I was surprised to find out was the live PTO shaft is driven by belts from the flywheel and is a reverse turning 1,800 rpm 15/16 diameter very fine splined shaft. Try finding that size pto shaft end. This is activated by a lever by the seat that has to snap in gear when it is pulled it up. It has to be kept adjusted well or it will slip and burn up the clutch plates. Implements that require a pto have to be designed for that special odd ball setup to work with this tractor. I found a NOS flail mower for it at a dealer in another town. This was a model CLB 60 Mott flail mower and it worked good as long as it did not get in high thick grass. The engine is a standard Cub and is almost bullet proof with out the water pump just the thermo-syphon cooling system. Another thing that caused concern at times was the starter/generator set up. It required a good tight fan belt or it would slip when trying to crank the engine over. Maximum out put for this set up is only 15 amps so it will not support a lot of extra electrical load such as more lights. I finally got tired of messing with it and sold it to a tractor jockey. It is a good set up for a large lawn mower or something like that.

One other thing to be careful about on the Low Boy is that the nose/grille is fiberglass and breaks easily I found out the hard way.

we called them starterators

I had a 184 that I used at my farm for a few years. I put a clutch in it, painted it and a few other repairs. I sold it and bought a zero turn because I kept planting trees in the yard and the wife didn't like steering around them. I also bought a rollover top from the man I bought the mower from but I just cleaned it up and sold it.

Forgot the picture of the ROPS.

I had a Low Boy with that snowblower with it.Tractor had a full cab,mower,and 3 point hitch.The snowblower was virtually new.It came from a prep school,and they said the blower was used for minutes until they realized it was useless for their job.I've done a lot of clutch,and drive shaft work on them.Also the steering box mounts tend to break off on them.Somebody,maybe Hamilton Bob sells a set of gussets to weld in to support the box better.I have a 73 Wheelhorse,and a 71 Cub Cadet.Both are hydros and either one mows circles around the 154.As the dealer here said,they took a nice little tractor that did good at what it was meant for,and made it into a piece of trash that does a lousy job at what it was meant for.They are easy to fix though,and the starterator works well as long as you keep a top condition battery in it.You will fry it using weak batteries.