#29

1948

My friend Rick Prentice who lives about 200 miles away found this not far from his home and told me about it.  The only reason he mentioned it was because the dash was one of the trimmed type that are not commonly found.  He sent the serial number to me so I could put it in my database and jokingly (I think) mentioned that he could pick it up for me if I wanted it.

I asked if he could send some pictures of it and by that evening I had several in my email. From the looks of it I was somewhat interested.  The tires were nowhere near what belonged on a Cub, the hood had been cut up, apparently for ease of servicing and it had a few other defects that didn’t deter me so I gave the seller a call.

He said it was getting hard to start so he gave up on it and let it set.  He finally decided he didn’t have time to work on it so he wanted it gone.  Rick had already tried the engine and found it wasn’t seized.  He also checked out the bolster, engine and final drives for cracks and it all looked good so I made the guy and offer.  Surprisingly he came back with a counter offer that was well below what my top dollar would have been. You gotta love the art of hagglin’ when it comes to making deals.

Rick said he and another friend, George Hibbs would pick it up for me and hold on to it until I could get it.  A couple of weeks later Rick was headed south and said he would be about a hundred miles away.  He said he could bring the Cub and I could meet him where he was going and save several hours by not having to drive all the way to his place.  Now that is a deal nobody can pass up.

Rick had told me that one of the running problems with this Cub may have been because it had a 72” mower on it.  Fifty nine inch mowers can be a burden for a Cub so this monster must really slow things down.  It was also going to be a problem loading on my trailer since my side rails are not spaced wide enough.  Rick took care of that for me by removing the deck.  He also took off the balloon tires and put a set of his regular tires on so it would fit.

June 11, 2010 - I met Rick and George in Sidney Ohio and we moved the Cub from his trailer to mine. When I got it home I checked it out.  The fuel bowl had a ¼” of tar from old gas in it so I cleaned that out.  The tank looked okay so I put enough clean gas in it to get it started.  The mag wasn’t putting out spark so I swapped that for a known good one.  The compression was somewhat iffy in #1 cylinder and about 75 lbs in the rest.  It should have enough compression to start.  The carb is stuck and needs a rebuild so I put on one that I had on the bench.  The condition of that one is unknown but I had to try it.

So far I have spark, compression and gas but no start.  I will be checking the timing as well as the carb as time allows.  I think this will be a runner but for now it looks like this Cub will join the ranks of the others waiting in the barn for me to find time to spend with it.

July 16, 2010 - I took this Cub to the Buckeye Cub Tug as a non-runner to give me something to do.  Since the tank had been cut in half to make it a two piece hood I installed a another hood/tank.  The carb was removed and one of the guys noted the carburetor bottom was shot.  Ralph of Ralphscub.com was there with a bunch of spare parts and just happened to have what I needed.  I bought the bottom and put the carb back together.  It was also noted that the magneto was out of time by ninety degrees.  Once the rotor was removed and reset in the proper position the mag was retimed.

Once the battery was hooked up we hit the switch. This little Cub instantly jumped to life.  It sounded good and when I took off in third gear it showed signs of a lot of power.  I had thought about putting it in the Tug but with so many others with entries and me already having two entered, I figured I would let it sit.  Curiosity may get the best of me one year and I may have to bring it along to give it a chance to show what it can do.

I sent the two piece tank/hood with Gary Dotson who is an excellent welder.  He said it would be a good piece to practice on and said he would see if he could make it whole again.  Two months later I saw Gary at Central Indiana Cub fest and he handed me the tank/hood as one piece.  He had done a beautiful job of putting it back together.  All it needs is some minor body work and it will be a fine looking piece on any Cub.

October 23, 2010 - I found a bushing to replace the broken one for one of the mule drive pulleys so I decided to put the 72” inch mower on to see if the Cub could turn it like the previous owner had said.  Surprisingly, the mower turned very easily under the Cubs power.  I tried to cut some grass with it but the blades need to be replaced.  I believe this mower would work well under a Cub provided it had new, sharp blades.  Since I don’t plan to keep the mower I doubt I will invest in the new blades.

I then took the mower off and parked the Cub in the front yard. I removed the good left rear tire and rim along with the good left front tire and rim and replaced those with a flattened, tore up rear tire/rim and a rusted to pieces front rim with no tire.  After adding, spotlights around it and fake cobwebs along with a plastic skeleton I had a great Halloween prop.  Now that Halloween is over and the proper tires put back on I guess I better find a use for this little dude.