Considering buying a case 2670 - first Case, should I?

Hey all,

I grew up on John Deere, and have been using my dad's 4640 the last couple weeks to plow and power harrow. He needs it back and I can't afford to buy my own just yet. So I need to find a good, cheap horse to finish up fall work. There's a 2670 for under $5K near me that I want to go look at and potentially buy today and looking for some fast advice. I have done some searches on them and it seems there's a love/hate relationship with them. Most of the haters say complicated, unreliable, hard to fix and expensive to fix, slow down the road, and rough riding. Most of the lovers say the opposite. Just like every tractor argument, right?

If I buy it, I'm going to put it on a 13 foot power harrow and harrow 100 acres of 20 year old sod. This power harrow would bog down the 165hp 4640, so it requires a fair bit of HP. I need to know if the 2670's 3 point hitch and PTO is a good setup and if it has big 1000 PTO. I'm heading out by about 11am to look at it and appreciate any feedback plus or minus. I'd hate to invest 5K in a machine that isn't gonna do the job.

That tractor appears to have had excellent care, and upon 1st glance, I would not be afraid to bring it home if I were in the market. The 1st place I would look is for exhaust leaks at the head & manifold ports. The problem I had w/ that intercooled 504 was that the manifold would twist over time, and blow the gaskets. I'd have it re-surfaced and get another 3 or 4 years out of it. Great engine, fast starting, use no oil. The Power Shift works best when shifted @ low RPM's and left there. Don't jump ranges back & forth. As far as the 3PT & PTO, both units are way over-built. Look at the pictures.

it does not have the big 1000 rpm shaft, these were built long before that came out, 3 pt hitch will lift 10,000 lbs and are very strong and heavy built CAT III unit, look for leaks at the wheels, if they are not greased the trunions will wear allowing misalignment wearing seals and causing leaks, I have ran 2670's for years and like them very well, they do have enough weight and power to tear up the powershift if not operated correctly yes and yes they are $$ to fix,, good luck on your search
cnt

How are they on fuel? The 4640 is 10gph at full throttle. Tractordata puts these at 14.4 gph. If course, they're 40 more hp....

Looks like it has been repainted....check for engine blow-by, breather tube is at the rear of the engine on left side. Shift down power shift
by hand rather than step on the clutch to bring it to first. Will shift jumpy when cold. Road gear is 13 mph. Run the engine and shift thru
all the power shift clutches and observe the hydraulic pressure gauge....will dip on each shift if all is correct and should not try to kill
the engine. When in reverse they have a high pitched whine when backing.....it's normal.

With 30' equipment behind my 2470 it uses 1/2 gallon an acre at 6.5 mph. Bought a 4690 from a neighbor who then bought a 9482 New Holland 4wd
and he says the Case used less fuel per acre than the NH. They are very reasonable on fuel for the work donw.

I couldn't feed 14.4 GPH through my intercooled 504 with a funnel!! I think governed engine RPM is 2250, but we never ran ours past 2000 RPM. Lots of torque to do the job.

I have had three 2670's through the years,,, all would run pulling a plow 11-12 hours on 100 gallon,, like Steve and John said, pulling a normal load mine will do 14-15 hours easy on 100 gallon or less,, nothing against Deere's but anyone here who runs both always say the older CASE units like this use 1/3 to 1/2 the fuel doing the same job, not my words but the owners words
cnt

As a general rule, BEWARE of fresh paint jobs that have been power washed and painted. Case tractors are my sentimental favorite. An 1170 is my all time favorite having had it for 35 years.

I have run a 4650 and a 2670--both in "average" condition and both belonging to the same large farmer (Earl) who has several brands of tractors. Earl buys auction "bargains"--nothing new--any brand. Earl considered the 2670 a bargain. Earl, now age 77 and not driving tractors but still calling the shots, he never sells equipment so he has a large number of "retired" tractors and "junk" implements. To be polite and avoid the word crazy, Earl's son describes his father as being "unique". Earl and I are good friends. Earl has a heart of gold and has lots of friends.

Running his old 4650 was "pleasant". Back then, Earl had grandsons almost old enough to drive tractors but not yet. I often helped out driving a variety of his old tractors. When I used the 2670 to chisel plow, my thought was " the grandsons will complain big time about having to run this thing". Fast forward three years, grandsons are now doing most of the field work. I was right. The 2670 is "retired" even though sill usable. Earl's 2670 is like a son that only a mother could love. LOL The other farmers at the auction "voted" to let a 2670 sell at a "bargain" price. Go figure!!!!

The power shift was so rough, I resorted to selecting a gear that could get thru the toughest spot and left it in that gear. When trying to go straight ahead, the rear steer would randomly crab either left or right---even though the mechanical steering linkage looked to be in good shape and no loose brackets. It was best to lock out rear steer and tolerate large radius turnarounds--fighting the steering wheel.

I remembered back to when the 2670s were new. The local Case dealer seemed to always have a PS transmission apart in the service bays. I was sad to see that.

At that price, buy it and run it until a major break happens. Then go get something better because they aren't worth the money to fix. There is a reason why they so cheap. I think my neighbor would dump his immediately if he knew he could get that much out of it.

Ron, we all need friends like Earl. Good post Ron

Ande, If I start writing good things about Earl there will be no place to stop.

Perhaps the best and most accurate comment made about Earl was from their full time mechanic. Earl's one son has a large fertilizer business with a jillion pieces of equipment--floaters, sprayers, NH3 wagons, etc. So with Earl's used equipment, they have use for a full time mechanic (Kevin) and a well equipped service truck.

Kevin shows little signs of being a religious person but one day after he had repaired Earl's planter in the field and I happen to be there, Earl starts planting again and Kevin very seriously says to me "The good Lord looks after Earl". You see, Earl never farms on Sunday and always is in church on Sunday.

Earl would loan me (and most others) any piece of equipment. For example, he observes that my biggest tractor is a little small to pull my 5-shank ripper. I never ask to borrow a tractor or any complex piece of equipment but Earl being Earl will suggest that I use one of his big tractors. I did one time for a few hours.

I have noted around here that all his crop always gets planted and all his crop always gets harvested. This fall, two gleaner combines each with near 6000 engine hours did the harvest. Earl is an only son so his dad's small farm became his land to farm. Earl bought 100s more acres of land locally in Illinois. He now owns some land in Missouri and a huge acreage (1000s) in northern Minn. Also, it was the farm income that set up the fertilizer business for his son.

One can only conclude that with the "bargains" Earl buys and the good Lord looking after him----that his "system" works!!!! In the Bible, Job was blessed with thousands and Earl seems blessed with thousands.

Hey all,

Thanks for the replies, I've been chewing on the advice. I didn't get a chance to go see it last weekend, but may go look at it this weekend.

One thing in the replies that bothers me is it seems the power shift is a weak link. What's this business about throttling back before downshifting? So when you're going full throttle in the field and you're coming to a tough spot, you need to throttle down to downshift??? That seems counter productive.

Not an issue when down shifting under a load at full throttle. When not under a load and for a smoother shift especially in road speed idle down. Most will tell you to find a gear that the tractor will pull the implement with ease and stay in that gear.All my power shifts have been very reliable with regular filter and oil changes.Hope the purchase works out for you.