154 Cub Lo-boy transmission problem

Got it started, but transmission is messed up.
The first three forward gears go in reverse,
and the reverse speed goes forward.
Story of my life... one step forward, three
steps back...

Looking at the service manual, it looks like the
large differential drive gear is on the wrong
side. It appears it can be installed on either
side.
That's all I can figure.

Any ideas? Anybody ever rebuild one of these
transmissions? I'm a backyard mechanic so could
try to fix it if I had to, but may try to sell
it as is.

Thanks for any help.

Rich with the goofy tractor in Florida

That's right, it can be installed either way... and in fact they often are. The Cub Cadets are installed opposite from the larger Cubs, since their reduction gear is ahead of the transmission rather than in the finals.

You'll be money ahead to correct it yourself rather than sell it at a necessary huge discount.

Or... you could get creative and build a fork lift.

George Willer

Can the gear be fixed without totally breaking it all down, or will I have
to tear it apart?
Do the final drives have to be yanked?
It looks from the diagram that the differential
case has to be split to reverse that large gear.

Rich

I don't work on number series Cubs, but I do know that even on the Cadets the final axles have to be removed. Then the bearing retainers have to come out, since they are what holds the differential in place. The differential will come out through the rear cover. It takes a lot of fiddling to get it out, but it will come.

The next problem will be to set the gear clearance. You may be lucky and get it close by using the same shims on the same sides, but by the time they built the 154 I understand the tooling was very worn so the parts weren't consistent.

George Willer