Farmall Cub

Hey everyone. My name is Brian. There has been a 1950 IH Farmall Cub in my fam since the early 1950s. It is white, and the serial numbers lead me to believe its a Demo model from 1950. Its been sitting since the mid 70s in a garage at an old farm that is still in the family. Many other projects have taken priority over this thing, but the time has come for me to get it going. It will surely help cutting the fields at the property, especially since Ive been using a push mower for the past several years! My old man has wanted to get it going, but he's got plenty on his plate, and I am by no means a mechanic, but I have worked in shops and like to think I can be handy. Anyways, the story is that it was parked due to a flat tire. Basically I'm poking through the forum reading up on whats a good first few steps on getting this thing back to life.

Its a 1950 IH Farmall Cub, serial # 104xxx

The motor is free and did not give any resistance while hand cranking (years ago I did pour some Marvel Mystery oil down the cyls, I did again this morning as well).
Its filthy, and has 30 years worth of mice debris all over it. I pulled the tank off, and will clean it out. Radiator is drained. I will dump the oil next time I'm in the area. I pulled the manifold off (it was filled with crap), and pulled the carb off as well. After having the mani off, I hand cranked it some to shoot some pieces of acorn out. Visibly there is still some garbage in there. Next time I will try and get a vacuum and some air to try and blow it out.

I am basically wondering if there is a "go to" place for parts, and how should I go about getting her up and running. For some reason, I was looking for a tune up kit, and saw that depending on what distributor you have, you may need a different cap. Well, its the horizontal IH dist. Then I saw it said the kits were for 51 and up. Is the 50 that much different?

Is a good place to start changing fluids, new plugs/wires, dist cap, points/condensor, clean carb, and fire away? If there was alot of debris in the manifold should I pull the head? I can see the belts are pretty shot too, but I figure try and fire it up before getting too ahead of myself.

I'm a parts guy by trade, working in a motorcycle shop for years, and now in a car dealer. I tinker on my own bikes/equipment, but I do have my own limitations. Any help/insight is greatly appreciated. Hopefully this is the right forum, I do have plenty of reading to get to!

Thanks in advance, and hope to get some use out of this thing!

Brian:

Congrats on deciding to ressurect the family Cub Cubs with close family connections are very special Cubs due to the close personal connection. I am hoping you will enjoy the process.

There are lots of resources available to our members and if you follow the links below these resources will help you get that Cub up and running. Your Cub, does it have battery ignition or a magneto?

The Serial Number range for the Demo's is generally accepted to be 99536-106517. Suggest that you document your Cub very well with pictures showing the white paint taking care to photograph the underneath of the hood, seat, deck, the touch control etc., Documenting the Cub with photo's will go a long way to confirming that is is a Demo after it has been refreshed.

to Farmallcub.com Forum Family. And you have come to the right place for all things Cub related. If you click on the Site Rules, Regulations, & Important Information, it will point you to the Welcome Wagon wherein you will find links to many useful sites and topics. One of the most important resources are Owner's Manuals, Parts Catalogs and Service Manuals. The Cub Manual Server is the home of the jpg versions and the [url=http://www.farmallcub.com/[ Sorry, direct links to manual section is not allowed. ]/index.php]PDF Manuals[/url] -- well the pdf's of course Enjoy!.

A go to place for new parts would be TM Tractor -- one of our sponsor's. A go to place for used parts would be JP Tractor Salvage, another one of our sponsors. Also, you can post wants in our Classifieds Forum.

Welcome to the forum, Brian. I think we have an active member in Monroe. Lots of resources here. Look above for PDF manuals and find an Owner's Manual to download. You probably have a magneto and the appropriate manual should help you identify all the lube points. You will need to prime the oil pump and we can help with that task when you get to that stage. I think you are on the right track with cleaning out the manifold. We have some great sponsors below and TM Tractor has a nice section with photos of parts, like the magneto and distributors.

Our wanted section will be a help if you are looking for implements and other used parts. We will have a Cub Fest in August in Kinderhook where you could have the opportunity to meet some of the folks and even overhaul some parts. There is almost always something being torn down and repaired.

Welcome to the board Brian, glad to have you with us!

Welcome....You'll find all the experts on this site....And ready to help you with all your Cub issues....

welcome aboard, check my website out info about demos. i got five,

Welcome.

Cleaning manifold. Since it's cast iron you can use a water hose, or pressure sprayer to clean out the channels. Muriatic acid if really crudded up.

I wouldn't pull the head just yet.

Parts. I obtain a good portion of parts: tune up kit, seals, fluids, from auto parts store. Case IH has parts. If you have the IH part number, New Holland dealership can obtain parts or frequently has the parts on hand.

Where to start. Compression tests, dry then wet. Since engine is free and has been sitting for years, probably a stuck valve or two.

1950DemoB wrote:Hey everyone. My name is Brian. There has been a 1950 IH Farmall Cub in my fam since the early 1950s. It iswhite, and the serial numbers lead me to believe its a Demo model from 1950.

Hi Brian! Welcome to the forum!

When you say it is "white", is it still in original white clothes or has it been painted over in Red with white showing through? The dealers were supposed to paint the tractors red after the demo duties were done and the tractors sold on as "used" machines. I know of two or three White Cubs that must have impressed a farmer in the field when it was demonstrated because the tractor was never repainted as directed by the factory, but rather went right to work in the field. One such tractor ended up being purchased by a fellow who was a good friend of mine in Wisconsin, and it is a true rare treat.

If your tractor is an original demo that has never been repainted, it is a pretty rare beast! Post pics...I'd love to see it even in rough condition!

Mike

Thanks for the welcome, and info. I live in CT and the tractor is in PA, so it's few and far between to when I can wrench on it. But hopefully it won't take much. Time and tools are limited there, but they seem pretty simple so I should be alright.

It's definitely white white, totally untouched. The headlights and wheels are red, that's all. Just found some old slides I'm having developed for early 50s and it was extremely bright. I'll upload some pics when I get a chance, tried to last night but didn't feel like registering for photobucket.

I prob have some paperwork on it too. It was parked for years next to a 45 willys mb that we had restored a few years back. There are some attachments as well, it was a big part of building the cabin on the property. Right now the sickle bar is still on, but there was (I think it got stolen) a circular saw, a cement mixer, and a couple other tillers or whatnot.

I've used all sorts of tools, and have driven a few oddball things, but I honestly don't even know the controls on the thing, so I have lots of reading to do.

And pardon my ignorance, but this does have a battery box under the seat, and I know my father said its electric start (is that one of the "poles" on the right side, similar to the choke/throttle? If its electric start, would it be magneto or not?

Thanks guys. Pretty sure I used to work with a member on here, I remember him mentioning it years ago when I worked for Harley. Tim t anyone?

Welcome to the forum. If you've wrenched on motorcycles, the cub should present no problems (generally older and simpler systems).

The only Item I would add to what the others have said is be sure to prime the oil pump before firing her up.


Family cubs are the very best kind. Keep us posted, ask us questions, and, in case you hadn't noticed from looking around the site

WE WANT PICTURES!

TST is Tim's screen name

Normally there was a battery box under the seat. These often are corroded and sometimes discarded if they get too ratty. There was also a bracket on the battery box for a rear light. The 1950 Demonstrators originally had magnetos on them, but some of them have been retrofitted with an regular distributor/coil setup. The starter rod is on the right side of the dash underneath the hood and the rod went right to the starter to directly engage a large switch on the starter. If you don't have a distributor, but a magneto, you can go completely electric free and hand crank the tractor to start and run. (Magneto doesn't take battery to run)

The two levers to the left of the steering are the speed control lever and the hydraulic control lever. These have not much to do with actual starting of the tractor.

Take a moment to look over the link above (New) Manuals... this will answer most of the basic operation questions on these nice little machines, including lubrication guides, startup, etc...

Good luck and keep posting!!

Mike

Hengy wrote:Take a moment to look over the link above (New) Manuals...
Mike

Now known as "PDF Manuals"

I believe photos of Brian's tractor have been posted on the forum before.

It does have a rear light behind the battery box. And it has the horizontal distributor on it. Other things that Tim mentioned when I showed him pics years back is there are weights on the rear wheels. There also may be a snow plow somewhere.

Pics of it up??! I wonder how that could be (unless Timmy posted them?)