Front end woes...

[jsmit]

My steering is tight, big time! I rebuilt the steering gear housing, new seals and gaskets a while back. Is it too tight or do I have an alignment problem ie should I look at my linkages.

Here is what I plan to do:
1. Lift front & check to see if steering still hard (may indicated steering gear housing assmby too tight.
2. Measure between wheels front and back, if different may need to adust steering linkages.... am I on track?

Here is another incidental question: when I motor along in 1st gear either the trans or final drives seem to whine, the sound is much smoother in 2nd and 3rd gears, why so? especailly true when more power is applied, I can't recall if it did that prior to my rebuild, cause I took way too long!

[Bigdog]

It looks like you are on the right track. Jacking the front end up should tell you if your gear is too tight or if the problem lies in the steering knuckles and / or axle columns. Settin the front end for 1/4" toe-in will help the steering as well. George Willer's alignment proceedure is on Rudi's manual site.
Now, as far as the transmission whine, as you know some whine is normal. There is usually one gear or another that whines more than the others. You could always tell the "plow gear" on an old tractor. It had the most whine. Mostly because that gear was used more than the others. With your cub, first gear was likely used most of the time for farming operations and therefore is worn more than the others so it whines more. Second and third gears share a different slider gear from first and reverse. Also, these two gears were used under lighter loads. If the wear is in the slider gear, the noise usually shows up in pairs - first and reverse share a slider, second and third share a slider. Since your noise gets worse under load, it sounds like worn gears.

[jsmit]

Many thanks, I will post again when I fix the steering problem. The description of the whine was enlightening. I think my cub may have seen some hard use. In addition, when I rebuilt the motor it was bored .020 over so it has mo' power now, that may exaggerate the noise no?