missing serial number tag

rick56

Member
Looked at a Super MTA recently that was missing the serial tag (current owner said he bought it that way and knew the previous 2 owners personally). The tractor's casting numbers all seemed to be correct. I thought I read somewhere that the serial number was also stamped on the block and noticed a number on a boss on the right side of the engine block. Assuming the block is the original, would the number on the block be the correct serial for the tractor? If so, does this hold true for all letter series farmalls? Thanks.
 
During and after the second world war there were a lot of Farmall tractors that had the serial numbers taken off. They were called, "black market tractors"
I don't know that they did it as late as the MTAs
 
I know the H and M had the same block and tractor
sn, but If I recall correct, IH quit that for the supers.
I too little experince with the rest of the IH alphabet,
IIRC from posts here, its model dependent as to if the
block and tractor number match.
 
Engine serial numbers in a SMTA unless diesel are all higher than the tractor serial number. If the original engine, there is a way to tell what month the tractor was built going by the engine serial number and then maybe get a closer idea of what the tractor serial number was. Or know what serial number tractors were built that month. But no way to know for sure.
 
I didn"t think IH tried to keep the serial numbers running concurrently in many of the tractor models. I have a 1940 Orchard 4 that has the factory block in it but it doesn"t match the chassis serial number.

As of now the month a tractor was produced in is as close as we can get to the date made. IIRC there are box after box of IH records that haven"t been opened yet at the archives.
 
Not sure about M"s, but my "50 H has the serial number stamped into a raised boss slightly under the No. 1 spark p;lug. It matches the serial number tag on the other side. M might be the same.
 
IH intended H to match, few people claim they have H tractors with original engines that don't match. So maybe there was a few mess ups. never found one that didn't match with a original engine myself, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.
Early M tractors had some matching numbers, but when diesels started being put in the chassis that ended.
SMTA engine numbers started with C-264 engines. By the time C-264 tractor engines were installed in SMTA tractors the engine serial numbers were 6 numbers long.
 

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