Just one more question!!!

OK troops, we have established that my M was born in July of 1949 (or close enough for me). What should I do for a SN? Just pick one from
that time period, or stamp the date, or use the SN from my tank in the army? Thanks, Ellis

I strongly discourage "making up" a serial number. If it is anywhere in range of an original number, the number belongs/belonged to another tractor. The owner of that tractor may even have the bill of sale.

Can you use the same serial number that is on the engine block?

M engine and serial numbers don't match. The engine number put on a serial plate is just like a made up number -- it belongs to somebody else. I'd consider "unknown" or a date or even leaving it blank.

I would NOT make up a serial number.Go ahead and get a SN plate.Only put "Unknown" or Made in July ,1949 on the plate instead.

Stamp on the plate something like:Original
serial plate missing. By castings made
June 1949.ml

Guess you couldn't get the original engine serial number? Non diesel M tractors started out the year with engine serial numbers around 7,000 lower than the cassis, then 8,000 lower and finished the year 9,000 lower. After the middle of the year tractor serial numbers were exactly 8,000 or 9,000 higher than the original engine number 99% of the time. After I noticed the engine numbers on late M tractors ended in the same 3 numbers as the chassis I looked at every tractor I could for years. Very few times have I found a original tractor built after June 49 that the engine wasn't a exact so many thousand below the chassis number. Only problem is figuring exactly when IH jumped them another thousand. If the tractor is not close to a jump number its easy to tell what the chassis number was going by engine number. Every M tractor I see near a jump helps me get closer to figuring chassis numbers around the jumps.
Example of a M assembled in August, chassis # 203073X1, engine # 195073X1 # 8000 difference, same 8000 for July. Before that a lot but some not. Sometime in Sept. they jumped to 9000 and then started 1950 at 9000.
This is a 1950 9000 spread tractor. Chassis 218468, engine 209468.

I have not followed all this discussion, but on my "H" the tractor serial number is srtamped on the left-side aluminum plate, and the same number, the engine serial number, is stamped on a flat spot just under the right-side forward No. 1 spark plug. The M might be the same, you could look; right side, under the No. 1 spark plug.

(quoted from post at 07:51:39 05/31/15) . . . The M might be the same . . .

Click to expand...

t isn't.