Drive shaft play in 1882

[duke]

I have some back and forth play in the drive shaft.Maybe 1/16th?The pump is solid like wise with the crank.i went to partstree to look but it was no help.I dont see anything i can do to tighten it up.Partstree has changed their site lately and i have fond it is not as accurate.It has my 1882 drive line with grease fittings.
Just wondering if i can do anything and how concerned i should be? Thanks
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3235 2284 1882 1872 2165

[Oak]

If you have not had it apart yet I would suggest that you pull it apart, clean and re-lubricate it. They are easy to do but often never serviced because they are out of sight. The CV system that you have is one of the best used by Cub but the 2K/3K machine drive lines are growing on me.

[PaulArthur]

Hello,

From the Cub Cadet website, it looks like the 1882 has a ball-bearing CV joint type set up, much different than the later barrel rollers. I believe that you are correct that there is no adjustment, but it does look like the individual parts are available. If your 1/16" lash is fore & aft - endwise -, I would not worry about it as I suspect that clearance is necessary. If it is side to side - or as the shaft is rotated, you are probably looking at the years of wear finally showing. I can't find a spec on what tolerable lash is, but 1/16 is probably the max. Hopefully someone that has worked on these joints will chime in. You may be able to keep it lubed and get a lot more use out of it before replacing parts is necessary. Cheers!

[duke]

Hello,

From the Cub Cadet website, it looks like the 1882 has a ball-bearing CV joint type set up, much different than the later barrel rollers. I believe that you are correct that there is no adjustment, but it does look like the individual parts are available. If your 1/16" lash is fore & aft - endwise -, I would not worry about it as I suspect that clearance is necessary. If it is side to side - or as the shaft is rotated, you are probably looking at the years of wear finally showing. You may be able to keep it lubed and get a lot more use out of it before replacing parts is necessary. Cheers!

It is not side to side.

What do i lube it with?Like i said this model is like my 1872 it doesn't have grease fittings,like my 2284 does.
Thank You

[dag1450]

Man......I guess I'm a slacker! I lube my worker 2072 many times a year during the mowing season hitting every part that moves or rubs and never once looked at the driveshaft ends. Let me know what u do and if its practical to get to as regular service. Thanks Dave

[PaulArthur]

Hello,

From the Cub Cadet website, it looks like the 1882 has a ball-bearing CV joint type set up, much different than the later barrel rollers. I believe that you are correct that there is no adjustment, but it does look like the individual parts are available. If your 1/16" lash is fore & aft - endwise -, I would not worry about it as I suspect that clearance is necessary. If it is side to side - or as the shaft is rotated, you are probably looking at the years of wear finally showing. You may be able to keep it lubed and get a lot more use out of it before replacing parts is necessary. Cheers!

It is not side to side.

What do i lube it with?Like i said this model is like my 1872 it doesn't have grease fittings,like my 2284 does.
Thank You

The parts diagram does show grease zerks but I can't tell if they lube the splines only, or if they lube the joint also. You would have to take it apart to figure that out. If yours does not have them maybe you could swap in the shaft they show in the parts diagram.

[Tom Scott]

Duke - I am not clear from your posts what we have here. Please carify...

1) Does your 1882 have CV joints, or does it have rag joints like your 1872?

2) If it has CV joints (like it should) then perhaps it is an early model that didn't get the shaft drilled for grease joints. Or... someone took out the grease fittings and the boot has slid up over them. I have had three Cyclops, one of them fairly early production, and they have all had grease fittings, but perhaps it was omitted on very early models. Slide the boots back on the shaft and look for a grease fitting hole.

3) If it has CV joints, they do need to be lubricated internally. To my knowledge, all the Cyclops used a ball bearing style CV joint. The repair manual and partstree type diagrams are pretty easy to follow for disassembly and cleaning. If you find a grease fitting hole, just insert zerks at each end and lube it up good.

4) If you disassemble and after it is all clean you truly find that you have a driveshaft that is not gun and cross drilled for grease fittings, I would drill or buy a new drilled driveshaft from one of the used parts vendors.

5) The best lube for a CV joint is one that is moly fortified and listed for CV joints. I actually keep a separate gun with #2 moly fortified just for these CV joints.

3) If you have the rag joint style, they use an oilite bearing (self lubricating bronze) that can be used with dag's style of maintenance; none...

4) With either driveline, I would not be alarmed by 1/16" of axial clearance. In the CV joint setup, the shaft is allowed to move inside the hub some for clearance, but this does not indicate a worn joint itself.
Let us know!

[dag1450]

I actually keep a separate gun with #2 moly fortified just for these CV joints.

Well if anyone is counting....and i am, this is about the fourth dedicated grease gun Tom has......can u say OCD!! Next thing ya know he will be showing us his air powered bacon grease gun for the extra tall cart tailgate

[bbaker]

Looks like you have some great answers. I've never grabbed a CV joint shaft and tried to move it back and fourth. I have seen them in bad shape though from lack of grease.

In all tractors there is some frame twist etc that there has to be a little bit of clearance, I highly doubt a 1/16 of an inch of movement is anything to be concerned about if the driveline is running as it should.

The CV joint shaft is a very good setup, although like Oak, the 3K driveline works really well too, and is a vast improvement over the old rag joints.

[duke]

It is the same setup as my 2284.So it would be the CV joints.

Just to make sure i was not over looking holes for the grease fittings.I took the hydro fan off so i could pull the rubber boot back even more.No holes.
It is a early 1990 model going by the serial # it was the 2747th Cub made that year.I have no idea what # of super or cyclops made that year?The 1882 was made in 1990-91.
This is the only used tractor i have gotten with the owners manual.The 1st owner got it 4/26/90
Also looking in the manual under lube it has nothing on greasing the drive shaft.The shaft could have been replaced?But i don't know why it would not have got the correct shaft.I think it was just a mowing tractor,the hitch had no wear on it.The hitch is on my 1872 now and it has some wear from me using it.It was in great shape when i got it except for the plastic.
I got it june 2011 and have put 142 hours on it.The hour meter was broke when i got it so no idea on total hours.But i believe the hours are low.
I never worried about greasing the shaft because none of my tractors past or present called for it so i never gave it a 2nd thought.Now it is bothering me more than the play in the shaft.
Thanks

[Tom Scott]

Duke - I am going with door number one, that this was a very early model and they hadn't standardized on grease fittings yet.

Fret not, it is just stuff, and all stuff is fixable with enough outlay of time and money.

In this case, it should minimal time and money. Since you have not detected any vibration or excessive play, the CV joints are probably still ok. Even your worst case scenario isn't that bad; if you took it apart and found extreme wear, there are plenty of our parts vendors parting these tractors. You could easily get a complete new drive line. With mild wear, I would clean it up and put it back in service, nothing to lose if you aren't getting vibration.

I am betting that it just needs to be disassembled, then gun drill each end deep enough to clear the boot, then cross drill for a grease fitting. Thread the hole and install the grease fitting. The hardest part is the gun drilling part, best done with a lathe or drill press and held accurately with a drill press vice, but I would be game even with a hand drill, a bench vice, and a steady hand. You are not drilling all that deep, so you only need to be accurate enough to be able to intersect the hole with your cross drilling. Again, even if you mess up royally, you are only committed to buying a new driveshaft. The splined ends are probably hardened, but probably not very deep. Might need a cobalt drill to get through the first 1/8" of outer hardened steel. You might even get lucky and find the shaft was gun drilled but they forgot the cross holes!

The other option is take it to a local machine shop to drill the four holes. I would hope they could knock it out for $50 or so.
So, dig in and keep checking back in, we all like to see how the show ends. All should work out just fine!

[SWilliams]

The early 1882/2082 units didn't have fittings. They later made an updated drive shaft kit that replaced the non-serviceable parts in both models with parts. (kit is 759-3614P and still available for around $350.00) However the early units came with those joints packed with good CV joint grease. The later units get lubed with CV joint grease as well. Don't use "normal" grease in them. Personally I wouldn't bother with the kit. I would take the joints apart clean them up (don't get the grease on you it is NASTY stuff to get out of clothes) and repack with good CV grease. Think about the CV joints on your car, they are under far more stress and unless the boot fails or the unit itself fails the grease doesn't get changed for 100,000 miles or more.

Oh and it has another of the same CV joints in the steering column. Same unit but they only put 2 balls in it instead of the 4 on the drive line units.

As far as play, The shaft should slip a bit in the splines it has a retainer clip on the trans side only. That allows for chassis flex and engine movement.

[duke]

THANK YOU ALL

My work is road construction.So my time for projects is about to the end.So i really won't have time to do any upgrades until next winter.
Everything seems to be solid.So i'm hoping to get another season out of it.Is this a ok idea in your all opinions?I rotate my tractors and the most hours i have ever put on it in a season was 37.7hours.If my new to me 2284 works out it should be far less than that.The 1882 is one of my favorites and i want to use it this year and i don't want to take it to my dealer and pay all the labor cost.
The only thing is i will always be thinking about

Thanks again (i learn new stuff here all the time)