Oil & Fuel International/ Cub diesel

[Fordlords]

I just find it funny that Cub Cadet (MTD) was the company that gave Kubota it's first foothold in the LGT market, and now Kubota is one of the highest rated LGT/CUT tractor manufacturers in the USA.

It would take some good fabrication skills to retrofit a diesel in place of a gas engine used on any Cub Cadet. The Kubota diesel used in the '82 series Cubs had it's own mounting plate and radiator support that was bolted to the frame of the tractor. These engines are similar to engines used in truck trailer refrigeration units, but for them or any other small diesel to work in the tractor you need to run the drive shaft off one end, and the PTO clutch off the other. So, anything other than one of the Kubota or Yanmar engines set up for this purpose would require not only mounting fabrication, but PTO and driveline fabs too, along with being able to adjust everything to work properly. Then of course you need a suitable radiator and exhaust system also. Probably MUCH easier to just find a good diesel Cub on the used market

Most of the Cub diesel models that came out after the '82D series also included power steering and hydraulic outlets, two nice features on a heavier garden tractor.

Another little known advantage to the Kubota diesel is rebuildability. These engines have replaceable cylinder liners, which allows for the bottom end to be rebuilt without reboring the cylinders. Just plop in new liners and replace the rings and bearings, get a valve job on the head, and it's good as new again.



-Fordlords-

 

[JTKub]

...under hood pix of 782D: http://www.tractorbynet.com/photos/data/500/23830782D.jpg

-Fordlords-

That's a beauty of tractor right there. [drool]

Joel

 

[MajMac392]

Fordlords, I didn't realize that Kubota was connected to Cub until your post. Actually I thought you were confused but obviously it was me. Your Cub was before my time (BMT) of thinking about a tractor, (still in the Army and newly married!), so I was thinking back to my series of tractors, the 7200 series, which are Mitsubishi. I think I have seen older IH than mine , identical to my series style, only painted Red and Black. I figured they were the front runner to my Yellow and White paint scheme with the same Mitsu. drivetrain. Excellent tractor. I can't say enough about my model series. As you probably know Mahindra picked up some of the Cub/Mitsubishi line so they live on under a different nameplate.

 

[Fordlords]

There was a confusing time period in the early 1980's with Cub Cadet color schemes. There were many identical models made between 1980 and 1981 that were painted either red and white or yellow and white. The red and white ones were sold through International Harvester tractor dealers, the yellow and white ones through Cub Cadet lawn and garden dealers. This applied not only to the '82 series LGT's but to the compact tractors as well. After a small transition period when MTD (Called then Cub Cadet Corporation or CCC) bought out Cub Cadet from International Harvester in 1981, all Cub Cadets became only yellow and white again. So it's not unusual to find a same model Cub Cadet from that period in either color scheme.

The way to tell an early MTD Cub Cadet from a previous International Harvester one is by the nameplate. Internatonal ones say International Harvester Corp and MTD ones say Cub Cadet Corp.

Mahindra has and I believe still to this day builds some tractor models utilizing old International Harvester designs that they purchased the rights to. I'm not sure when the first Cub Cadet/Mitsu compact tractor came out, but probably in the early 80's during IH's decline. International Harvester got creamed with a bunch of problems in the early 1980's, not the least of which were problems with premature rotting on Scout trucks. They sold Cub Cadet to MTD right when they discovered that Kohler KT17 engines installed in 682 and 782 tractors were going to have a lot of warranty issues that would likely push that division in to bankruptcy.

-Fordlords-