Bought this Ford backhoe..need advise on manuals

Bought a ford backhoe this past weekend. Runs nice and has strong hydraulics. Looking at the numbers on the bell housing, it appears to be a 1969 ford 3500. Its a 3cyl gasser with the 6/4 trans and the hoe is a 750. Haven't found the loader model yet. The only real issue is the clutch which won't disengage. Either stuck or something is broke so I would like to get a book for this machine before I tear into it. Looking on this site, I found the following:

[b:654c4848f0]3500 Ind 3-Cyl TLB Tractor Only (65- 5) (5 Vol) 40340070 - Due to the heaviness of this item, there is an additional $5.00 shipping charge that will be added when your order is processed. Service Manual - 1807 Pages (Part No: FO-S-3400ETC) $169.95[/b:654c4848f0]

Would this be the best manual to start with for all around service? Does anyone have any experience with this book and how is the quality of the reprint? Also, are there service and parts books available anywhere on CD for this machine? I'm sure I'll be back with more questions as I start to work on it. This is my first Ford tractor and it looks to be a tough machine.

Thanks everyone,
Dan

<a href="http://s202.photobucket.com/albums/aa18/oldtrojanm/?action=view&current=Fordsmall1.jpg" target="_blank"> </a>

you can get all the parts info you need w/o buying a parts book.
NEWHOLLAND.COM

Don't know about the manual from this site but at 1800+ pages it ought to be pretty complete. The reprint I bought is about 900 pages and has 17 chapters and covers the ag tractors and those features common between the ag &amp; industrials. It was aprox. $30 plus shipping. This same manual is available in book &amp; CD form from several vendors on Ebay. The supplement that is chapters 18+ that covers the industrial features don't come up on fleabay often. It is available from New Holland for $500+. You may want to call YTmag and see what you get for $169.

I have a '67 3500D with the 753 backhoe and 735 loader. Very similar to yours. They are mighty machines:


On the manual, I have that very set. I'm pretty sure I got it from here, and although it says "Reprint" on the back it looks as though it came fresh from Ford.
I just pulled it out of the cabinet to check, and each of the five volumes says on the back "40340070." Reason I looked so close was that the description you have says,"3500 Ind 3-Cyl TLB Tractor Only" and the service manual covers "Tractor Series 2000,3000,4000,5000,7000,3400,3500,3550,4400, 4500,5500,and 5550." It is very thorough, covers everything you could need to know about the tractor, the hardest part is sorting through to figure out when what you're reading applies to the 3500 and when it's about some other model. These were really made for the dealers service guys and I guess Ford was trying to cut down on bookshelf space.
The loader and backhoe have each their own manuals, much smaller and less expensive. The ones I got of those came from another place; the quality of the reprint is not nearly as good. They're on heavy paper and look like old manuals, but the print, while legible, is blurry and the pictures hard to see.
Good luck, and if there's anything you think I can tell you about the old beast, lemme know.
Wm

Now I see. The description you've got says "3500 Ind 3-Cyl TLB Tractor Only." What they mean is not that it covers only that model tractor but that it covers only the tractor and not the loader and hoe.
Aren't I the clever one.
Good luck, Wm

Thanks for the info on the book, I'll probably get the big set of manuals first and use the online newholland.com parts diagrams. Nice picture, it looks like yours had quite a job ahead of it! Mine is sitting at a friends house that was close by to where I bought it, so I'm eager to get it home and start working on it. After doing research in the archives the clutch problem may only be the bolt on the cross shaft fork. It certainly acts like it from what people described so I'm hopeful I could have a cheap fix, although I won't hesitate to give it a new clutch if that’s what it needs. Should be a fun summer! Thanks again for the help.

Dan

Thanks. I checked it out, looks like a great resource.

Dan