How hard are plows to come by, i was looking at 154 (no 3pt hitch), and wanted
to find a blade,Looking in NJ.

Some obvious things to look for are PTO
operation. Try mowing with it in second gear and make sure
it cuts some reasonably tall grass (not a foot, but
more than a couple inches so it provides load). Check
the clutch operation in all gears (starting in third
can be dicey even with a good engine). Listen for
strange noises from the transmission and final drive
gears, especially in first and reverse. My 154 is very
quiet, but the 185 has quite a bit of noise and I think
something is wrong on the left side. Look for oil pan leaks
and any blow-by out the oil filler/breather. Does the
brake hold when locked? Could be just an adjustment.
Look for water leaks around the radiator and the
condition of the radiator. You should definitely take off
the hood and look around in general. If you can,
remove the rear pully for the mower and the access panel
to the PTO and inspect the PTO clutch. Make sure the
mower stops when the PTO is disengaged. If it doesn't
you may have a cracked PTO output shaft (I had this
problem). The solution is a $300 output shaft, although
some people have tried to weld them. This is not easy,
since any expansion due to the crack affects the PTO's
ability to disengage.<br>How does the steering feel? Is
there a lot of slop? Some of this can be adjusted. Look
at the front axle yoke for excessive wear or damage.
It should be kept greased. <br>Hope this
helps.<br>Barry

Look at the "Links" page and try some of the places listed. Someone here may
also respond with one. That's how I found mine. You might try local Case/IH and
Cub dealers, also. <br>Good Luck!<br>Barry

First I would like to say hi to everybody . Got
another 154 from a neighbor that didnt want it anymore
the price was right "free" so I couldnt pass it up at
first I thought I would part it out but after fixing a
few problems(spark plug out off its hole ,no air
cleaner hose and a broken shaft mount) I decided to make
it into a leaf vacuum mower and a spare plow . Now
here is the problem it runs fine but the governor
doesnt seem to work right anybody got any trouble
shooting tips so I can narrow it down some

I have a Woods L59 belly mower on my 154, and it
was time to replace the original belt. After snaking
it off the rear PTO pulley and guide pulleys, I
found that there is a welded-on guard next to the
center pulley that prevents removal of the belt unless
the center pulley is pulled off the shaft. This guard
is a half-moon shape, with the long axis welded to
the deck, and a slight bend at the top of the
half-moon toward the pulley side.<br><br>Is this a 'field
modification' to this deck? I consulted my Woods parts and
instruction manual, and it doesn't show this feature.
<br><br>With the guide in place, I also can't reinstall my
belt per 'factory' guidelines, as the belt must first
go to the right-most pulley, not to the left-most
pulley on the initial pass to clear the welded guide.
When I do try it this way, I seem to have too many
twists in the belt, and it won't line up back on the
main PTO pulley and guide pulleys on the rear hitch.
<br><br>The guide appears to prevent the belt from jumping
the pulley, or is just a general safety item for the
center pulley.<br><br>Anyone have a similar Woods deck,
or ideas on how to reinstall the belt? Spent a very
frustrating afternoon trying to puzzle this out, with little
luck.

You should have two different appearing guides
welded close to the center sheave.<br> They are actually
rests which inhibit belt whip and can prevent wrongly
installing the belt. <br> The belt does not need to go under
the half moon, since the h/m is on the open(unused)
side of the pulley.<br> If you have instruction
F-5443(rev 3/80)it is correct,read it carefully and it will
make sense. <br> Good luck.....Mike

Anyone have a spare steering column for a 185?
One of the previous owners of mine broke the threads
off the top of the shaft and welded the steering
wheel to the stub. Had to grind it off to get to the
under-dash throttle control. The outside case for the
throttle control cable had disconnected from the bracket
on the throttle control. This limited the range of
movement at the other end. What I thought was a governor
problem was probably related to this. <br>Now all I have
to do is figure out what was supposed to hold the
throttle cable jacket in place. Any ideas? I'll go the the
Case/IH place to look at the parts book this weekend if
no one can help.<br>Barry<br>Barry

Joe,<br><br>Wengers, in Myerstown, PA, has a 154
snowplow, and a 154 snowblower. Look under 'Cub implements'
for the 154 plow, and under 'Snow Equipment' for the
blower. I believe the plow was $550 and the blower $1450.
Both appeared clean and complete.<br><br>Web is
<a href=http://www.wengers.com target=new>http://www.wengers.com</a><br><br>Good
hunting!

The low-boy we are trying out is a 185 and it
seems to be pretty good but there are a couple of
things I would like some help on. It has independant
brakes and the left one seems pretty good but the right
one never catches, I don't think it can be adjusted
out (pedal goes all the way down but doesn't create
any drag and the linkage seems alright). Also it
seems to steer hard from center to a half turn either
way, after that it steers easier. I greased all the
steering components and it helped some, do these just
steer like that or is the steering box bad? This unit
was purchased with 54 blade that I have the manual
for but not the blade, if anybody needs the manual I
would be interested in selling it or trading it for a
manual for a 3160 deck. Thanks for any help, Cliff.

Barry :<br>Would it be possible to but threads into the shaft and install a bolt
and washer ?

Anteater:<br>It sounds like the worm screw is ajusted to tight , turn it back
out a little .

Hi Barry, there are two fork like pieces of metal
that are squeezed together to hold the end of the
cable jacket. Sounds like these may be broken off. I
just replace the cable on my 184 because the end that
hooks to the governer level broke off. CIH gets about
$40 for a new cable. If you were closer I would mail
you my old cable, maybe you could use it to repair
yours. I'm in northern Illinois. Good luck, Ray

I had to beat up the top of the shaft, but that
may be an alternative. I'm presuming that you meant
to tap the inside of the shaft enough to install a
bolt. I need to get a ggod look at it to see if there's
enough material. Probably is.<br>Thanks,<br>Barry

OK, the fork-like piece is still there, and I
have my doubts about whether it will hold the cable. I
might try to restrain it with a small ty-wrap just to
make sure. I already used some pliers to try to crimp
the ends together a little more, but I don't trust it
to hold. I had such a<br>problem getting into the
dash, that I don't relish the thought of having to do
it again real soon. That's probably a misplaced fear
since the main problem was grinding down the weld
which, of course, is now gone. <br>Also found that most
of the wires inside the dash were hanging loose
(that's not being used<br>as a '60s term either). More
fun under the covers. Now all I need to to is to get
the PTO from<br>the 185 rebuilt and put on my 154 so
I can mow (afer I remount the leaky oil pan) - Man,
I<br>LOVE this stuff (sarcasm intended). <br>regards, and
happy Lo-Boying....Barry

I replaced my cable with a typical lawn mower
throttle adjustment cable. I measured the cable housing to
lenght, pulled the cable back far enough to have plenty
of slack and cut it to the proper lenght. Sure beats
paying $40.00. Worke like a champ. I stole the lawn
mower cable from an old murry I was about to take the
the scrap heap. I have a 154 though and I'm not privy
to any differences with the 184.<br><br>$.02
fix<br><br>SRR

Sounds like a good way to go. After I replaced my
cable, I saw some at farm and fleet for under six
dollars. I thought to mysely "why couldn't I make that
work". Maybe next time if there is one.<br>Happy
tractoring, Ray

If your steering wheel doesn't have to much slack
already, then adjust the steering gear box to obtain more
slack,{ free play in the steering wheel ). This should
loosen up your hard steering. When the half moon shaped
steering gear wears , it wears most in the center. When
people adjust out free play ( this brings the half-moon
ring gear closer to the pinion gear} There is
clearance in the center { point of wear } but not when the
steering wheel is turned to either side , causing it to
bind. So to adjust the steering - turn the wheel to the
side ( to the tightest spot ) and adjust in a small
amount of slack this will cause more slack at the center
of the gear, but it will also unbind your steering
through out the remainder of it's travel. Sorry about the
long post, I'm new to this !

Does anyone know where to get decals for a 185.

Your local Case IH would be the best bet.It saves you from hunting high low.

Barry,You've probably fixed it by now,but here's
my 2 cents.<br> If the spline is ok you can run a
1/2" bit down the shaft, then saw the head off of a
1/2"x4" grade 5 bolt, slide that down until about 3/4" of
thread is exposed, drill a 1/4" hole a through the shaft
and bolt about 2 1/2" from the end and drive a roll
pin in the hole and file it flush so it takes on the
conour of the shaft.A split pin works best since the
hollow shaft is a breather for the s/box. <br> I have a
spare repaired shaft if you need one.<br> Don't thread
the inside,there is not enough stock,it will weaken
the spline area and you could end up looking like
Stan Laurel as you head for the bushes. <br> I got so
fed up with those throttle cable problems that I
converted my 154 & 184 to a rod/clevis arrangement like the
big tractors and that has worked well,I think you can
see the lever in my pictures.<br> Hope I've
helped.............Mike

Yeah, Mike, too late. What I did is exactly what
you said not to do. I took a 27/64 drill down the
shaft, didn't get much material, then theaded it with
1/2 course tap. put the wheel back on and seems to be
OK. With the 1/2 inch, I'm not sure it cut very deep,
so I tightened it very gently, and not too tightly.
Not a lot of up and down stress there, and since the
splines do all the work, I think it will be all right. On
the throttle cable, I ty-wrapped the end connected to
the throttle lever to make sure it wouldn't come off.
That's after I straightened the bracket. I now have a
much greater range of throttle control. I'll need to
go back and check out all the settings (idle,
governor, etc.). <br>As as side benefit, I was able to
reconnect all the wires to the multi-function switch and
the fuse. Now I have lights! Had to replace about 5
of the spade connectors on the wires (female).
<br>Things are looking up!

Barry, In thinking about it I think your fix will
be fine since the bolt will provide added lateral
strength, we seem to use that wheel to hoist our selves up
alot don't we ?<br> You still might want to drill a
small hole in the side of the shaft to restore the
grease relief port, then put plenty of grease in the box
to force the metal chips from the repair up the
shaft where the can't do any harm.........Mike

Mike,<br>Before I did the repair I forced a rag
down the shaft to keep the grindings and chips from
getting into the steering box. Pretty solidly wedged in
there. I left it there since it's a long way from the
steering box itself, figured it wouldn't do any harm. On
the other hand, the rag will probably decay over the
years so I might just go back in there and pull it out.
So you're saying that the shaft open on the top
constituted the grease relief port? Or... was there a
separate hole in the side of the shaft somewhere? <br>For
the "..hoisting ourselves up a lot..." comment,
you're absolutely correct! It's a wonder the machine can
take that abuse!<br>Thanks,<br>Barry

New member. Great club! Loaded with useful
information. I own a '72 154 with a three-point hitch, back
blade and front blade. It has a 60" mower. We mow a
little over 3 acres with it and clear the snow from our
375' driveway. I was wondering about the creeper drive
that was mentioned in some of the posts. Is this the
"whining" I hear when I am in first gear. What exactly is
the creeper gear? Thanks for any info! And thank you
to Barry for starting a site like this. Hope to get
some pictures in the near future.

A creeper is actually a reduction drive that
essentiall changes the tractor from 3 forward speeds plus
reverse to 6 forward speeds plus 2 reverse. For example,
first gear normally moves you forward slowly; engage
the creeper and it cuts that slow speed in half. It
allows for higher torque at lower speeds. Of course, you
need to get the power to the ground, and if you don't
have chains or lug tires, you might not see much
benefit. <br>Are you sure the whining is coming from the
creeper (directly under the driveshaft cover between your
legs)? Or could it be coming from one of the final
drives (left or right side). Does it go away in higher
gears? The creeper does need lubrication (IH Hy-Tran),
as does the transmission/rear drive components
(through the fill port in the rear plate on the
differential). <br>Welcome to the club!<br>Barry

I like cruising through the members profiles on
occasion just to see who's joining. We have a lot of
different interests out there! I have a request. If you
don't have any data in you profile, please consider
adding a little more than your Yahoo ID and sex. How
about the state you live in? How about some pictures?
Take a look at my profile. You don't need to go
hog-wild and tell everyone everything, but a little more
would sure be nice. <br>Just a request from a
tractor-geek that's having fun with all of you on the
net...<br>Best regards...<br>Barry

We need the side skirts that block the discharge chutes on the IH 3160 deck that
is on our '74 154 LoBoy. .can you help?<br><br>email me if you can.

Side skirts?...My 3160 deck is supposed to have
side skirts?... i had no idea...really. I just let the
grass go every which way, mostly to the right if I
remember correctly (my wife or daughter do all the
mowing...they think it's fun). Anyone have a parts drawing of
the 3160 deck that they can post? Did you check a Cub
Cadet or Case/IH dealer? they still have or can order a
lot of parts. I just got the front shield that spans
the front of the deck and the two rear shields from
them. <br>Barry

Barry,The box is designed to force the grease to
travel through the entire gear train before it can exit
via the hole at the base of the shaft(in the box)and
up the hollow shaft which is normally open under the
s/wheel cap. <br> Otherwise the grease will exit out the
shaft seal which is a poor seal to begin with. <br> You
could remove the bolt you've added then force the rag
out.My 154 was an old one and the grease was half way up
the shaft, so unless it was never greased you
probably have grease already starting to
exit...........Mike

Our 3160 doesn't really have side skirts, just the round pieces around the
blades.  Ours does have skids on each side but they will soon be replaced with
wheels.