Hyperstatic bypass release rod

[lagoldog]

I purchased a Cub Cadet 1045 yesterday afternoon at Home Depot. The pre-delivery information was all most nonexistant. They loaded up the tractor & I drove it home. My son & I unloaded the tractor without incident and proceeded to mow our lawn. I noticed some sparks under the deck, but I wasn't too concerned. I figured maybe a piece of metal was burning off. The tractor was easy to use & did a nice job. We cleaned the equiptment & put her up for the night.

When I went in the house, I read the owners manual and noticed that you "would do serious damage" to the transmission if you manually pushed the tractor without pulling the bypass release rod. We had pushed the tractor off the truck, maybe 10 or 15 feet. Did I tear up the tranny?

Should I be concerned about the sparks or possible damage to the transmission?

Thanks

 

[john_bud]

Let me get this right, You began to operate a new piece of equipment without even looking at the Op manual, "saw sparks" from under it when it was operating, you continued to operate it while it was shooting sparks, you apparently haven't looked under it even yet and now you want to know if you did damage???

Sorry for the tone of the note, but really....

To answer the Q. I don't think you damaged the tractor by pushing it that far. On the sparks, you probably have damaged something in the mower deck. READ the manual, take off the deck and inspect it for the damage top and bottom.

By the by, shooting sparks is a great way to start grass fires and/or burn up the new equipment.

 

[daTeacha]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I purchased a Cub Cadet 1045 yesterday afternoon at Home Depot. The pre-delivery information was all most nonexistant. )</font>

Yet another reason to purchase from a dealer and not a big box store. Apologies, but I just hate those places where you can't get service and their impact on local businesses. Lows, Home Despot, and Wallyworld are not good for local economies.

 

[lagoldog]

I failed to mention that we immediately stopped mowing when we noticed the sparks. My yard is half done. I had borrowed a truck from Home Depot & returned it. My teenage son jumped the gun & started mowing while we were returning the truck. He discontinued when he noticed the sparks. We started the trackor up again and saw sparks and shut it down. We consulted the manual, cleaned the unit and we did drive it to put it up.

I was looking for help. I'm sorry that I bothered you. The posting rules say to be courteous and respectful of others. I guess you failed to read the instructions too!

 

[john_bud]

lagoldog,

Oh, I'm not bothered at all. And I sincerely hope you are not either. I re-read your original note and it paints a picture different than your last post.

You originally wrote:

"My son & I unloaded the tractor without incident and proceeded to mow our lawn. I noticed some sparks under the deck, but I wasn't too concerned. I figured maybe a piece of metal was burning off. The tractor was easy to use & did a nice job. We cleaned the equipment & put her up for the night."

If you can't read your own words and agree I could mistakenly see wanton carelessness on the part of the poster, then I do apologize. My mistake must have been from seeing your words stating that you were not concerned about seeing sparks emanating from a brand new piece of equipment.

Did you inspect the mower deck for damage yet? Have you found the source of the sparks? If not on the deck, it could be spindle to bracket or spindle to frame contact, best to look for rub marks there too.

Oh Teacha, I bought my Cub Cadet 2185 from an ag dealer that sold cub from mowers thru tractors and all implements. They didn't provide any instruction on operating, mainentance or what that rod thingy in the back was for either. In fact, I doubt that the person I dealt with knew as much about the mower as I did from reading the sales docs. So you see, you can get crummy service from outside the big box stores, too.

jb

 

[RonR]

Hope you get your unit checked out and fixed, and you learn to enjoy & appreciate it.

Please don't let your initial post leave a bad taste in your mouth. There is a lot of good info and good people that hang out here.

Please hang out here and enjoy the ride.

Ron

 

[daTeacha]

John Bud -- yeah, I know poor service is not something the Big Box stores have a monopoly on, but it seems more prevalent there. You won't get much service when they don't even have a service department.

The dealers who are trying to earn repeat business usually go out of their way to make sure you are comfortable with operating the equipment. These are the locally owned and operated, often family run stores that I prefer. Yeah, you could save a few bucks buying from Lowes or somewhere, but I wouldn't go there unless I was buying something that I planned to use for a few years and then replace, as so many do as we move further and further down the road to a total throw-away society.

There are so many stories about the big box places having an inferior line of merchandise that there has to be some truth to it. Whether you're talking appliances or tractors, you don't find top of the line equipment at those places. Our local appliance dealers with service departments look at a serial number and know right away if a unit was sold through Lowes. If so, they expect lighter wiring, cheaper connections, etc. from the similar but slightly different model sold in the appliance store. Personally, I tend to avoid purchasing things there.

 

[lagoldog]

Home Depot gave me 10% off when I purchased the tractor. And they swapped the tractor out when I reported a problem. I don't believe you can ask for more than that.

They have been good to me & I wanted to report that.

 

[MossRoad]

That is good to hear! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[KiotiJohn]

I wondered if the blades had some sort of tie on them that caused the original sparking you noticed.

Is this the tractor that you returned?

It's nice to know they took care of you.

I was at HD the other day, and there were a couple of guys outside with an employee testing out weed whackers to find one that would run properly as the one they bought didn't.
The employee tried out 3 units before he was able to find one that would throttle up to full speed without choking out.

I won't mention the name of the equipment, but I did tell the owner that he should buy another brand as this one is famous for being crap.

The point being, the employee really went to bat for the customer.
John