TNDavid

New User
I am looking at an 801 to buy. I would have gotten it today except two things scared me a little.
One, The PTO wouldn’t engage. The lever would only move maybe 20-30 degrees & when you moved the lever the PTO shaft would move in & out a little. When you grab the shaft it would spin freely.
.
Two, the lift arms only came up to about 2:30 position. I’m use to them coming up to almost one o’clock. I didn’t think to see if the control lever was bent. I pulled it to the end of the slot, there was no stop in the slot. They did seem to come up pretty quick though & went down almost to the ground.

I would like to get it, but I can’t afford a big parts bill right off the bat. The starter bendix didn’t work even after tapping the starter, but that shouldn’t be a big deal. Any ideas and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!!
DD
 
Sounds like the snap ring that holds the PTO bearing in place may have popped out. You might be able to fix it for the cost of a snap ring or the cost of a new PTO shaft with a new bearing, housing and seal.

The lift sounds like it needs a rebuild. A $15 gasket and o-ring kit along with a new cam follower pin ought to put it back in working condition.

Use the lift and PTO as bargaining chips.
 
As Texas said.
What is the asking price?
We'll help you not get taken if we can.
How are the tires, tin, paint?
How does the engine sound? Smoke? Blowby?
Rattles, knocks, leaks?
How are the tires?
Did I mention the tires?
An 801 is the series.
But depending on which transmission is in it - 4 or 5 speed and depending on if it has live pto would make it an 841, 851 or 861, etc.
Or does the tractor have a 10 speed Select O Speed? - 871, 881?
Tractor may or may not have power steering and may be a gas or diesel model.
All of which would affect the price.
Tell us a little more about it and if you can post photos that would help a lot.
We will help you determine a value if we can.
 
I should have taken pictures. It may have original paint, very faded with straight sheet metal. Looks like original 801 Power Master stickers. I think all of the sheet metal is there. It has what appears to be a factory brush guard, although I have never seen one that large. It comes all the way up to just over the lights. It's a diesel, 4 speed. Manual steering. Looks like the original generator is on it, although he was using a 12 volt car battery. Original air cleaner. The wheels look ok. Front tires will need to be replaced. Rear tires are fair, pretty good tread & not real cracked. The oil looked and smelled ok, no gray color or diesel smell. It did smoke some, but it has been sitting for over a year. I should have paid more attention to that, but I was focusing more on the PTO & hydraulics. It did sound good though, no knocks or rattles. Before we got it started, he said he would take $1500 & I told him that I thought it was a fair price if it ran good and the PTO & hydraulics worked ok. After they didn't I told him that I needed to do a little research & get back with him. I was thinking about offering him $1300.
 
Diesels were 12V from the factory. The PTO is not live. If you do much PTO work it is not the kind of tractor you really desire, but will work.
 
Maybe I should have said tell us the price and we will try to keep you from stealing it.
$1500 for that tractor, even with the pto and lift issues you describe is more than a bargain.
Larry has a point about no live pto.
But I think that unless you are using it to run a baler or snow blower, lack of live pto isn't a big deal.
I suggest you buy it Now and sort out the lift and pto problems later.
The tractor is most likely an 841 so for future reference I would call it that and not just an 801.
Does it have an extra handle on the left (port) side coming out of the bell housing by the steering arm?
If so it has a Sherman Aux. tranny and would be even more of a sweet deal by giving you 12 forward and 3 reverse speeds.
Keep us posted. It is a great tractor.
 
I agree that it sounds like a good deal. Don't worry about the smoke because they will all smoke until warmed up with some work. A word of caution though, There is a recent thread on this forum about a parts for a 4000 that you should read. If the injection pump is worn out it will be hard to start when hot. Injection pump work can be spendy. It will however be very hard to get it hot in cool weather, in order to test this. You pretty much need to put a heavy PTO load on it which would be tough with the PTO problem. We do have Dieseltech though, as a resource if it should turn out to need a pump rebuild.
 
ditto what texas said.

120$ pto shaft assy at worst.

20$ in lift top cover kit

50$ starter drive gear.
 
(quoted from post at 15:27:19 03/17/14) What's the difference in live & non-live PTO? I will need to do some bush hogging with it.

Live PTO means that the PTO is controlled directly by a second clutch plate. When the clutch pedal is pressed all of the way down, both clutches are disengaged and both the transmission and PTO are not getting power from the engine. Let the clutch halfway out and the PTO clutch engages and provides power to the PTO without applying power to the transmission. Then with the clutch all of the way out both the transmission clutch and the PTO clutch are engaged and both are receiving power from the engine. When you push the clutch back in the implement can continue to spin without affecting the transmission or rear wheels.

Non-live means that the PTO is connected to the transmission and there is a single clutch that engages/disengages both the transmission and the PTO at the same time, so when you push in the clutch the PTO is still connected to the transmission, which in turn is connected to the rear wheels, as the clutch only disengages the transmission from the engine, not the rear wheels. What this means is that a heavy implement on the PTO, like a brush hog, will impart it's angular momentum back through the PTO shaft into the transmission and can cause the rear wheels of the tractor to keep moving even after you push in the clutch. The force can be stronger than the brakes in these old tractors, so even pushing in the clutch and pushing on the brakes might not stop it, which is dangerous. That is why you should get an Over Running Clutch (ORC) for the PTO. It sits on the PTO shaft at the back of the tractor and acts like a ratchet so that the tractor can provide power to the PTO, but when you push in the clutch and apply the brakes the implement can continue spinning and the ORC will ratchet so that the force of the spinning implement is not imparted through the PTO shaft into the transmission.

With an ORC, running a brush hog is perfectly safe and a fine thing to do.

Other implements like a roto-tiller and snow blower are not a good match for the pre-1965 Ford tractors, even with an ORC, with the exception of the models with the Select-o-Speed transmission because the manual transmission models were simply too fast even in first gear at proper PTO engine rpms for a roto-tiller or snow blower to be effective.
 
Ok thanks. I had a Ford 2000 that was like that. I used it to bush hog a long time before I learned about the ORC that sure made life easier. This tractor actually has one already on it. I took it off when I was looking at it.
 
Sean gives a good description of the different types of pto.
Here is a photo to go along with that description.
The inner/smaller splined shaft in this photo drives the rear wheels.
The outer /larger splined shaft drives the pto.
On a non live pto tractor you do not have the outer shaft. Both functions are done off the smaller one.
Is live pto better?
Yes
Is non live pto adequate?
Yes
There are hundreds of thousands of old Fords running brush mowers without live pto.
I did it for years myself. With an ORC of course.

100_1537.jpg


I like the type of ORC that snaps on with a button as shown.

QDOVERRUNNING.jpg
 
Wow Thanks!! I've never seen one with the quick connect like that. I definitely want to find one like that. The one that is on it is really rusty and probably needs replaced. The one I had before had like a zinc coating or something like that. I had a JD 2630 that had live PTO. Had to sell it to make mortgage payments after the crash. I'm slowly getting my head above water now.
 
Well, we have a verbal agreement of $1300. I am suppose to pick it up this Saturday morning. I will post some pictures ASAP, probably Sunday since I have to work 2nd shift Saturday.

BTW, he said that after I left he needed to move it and it fired right up using the starter. We had to pull it off the other day because of the stuck bendix. I tapped on the starter with a hammer, but that didn't work. I guess a little warmth & vibration from running freed it up. I will still remove the starter and at least inspect it and clean it up. Maybe a dumb move, since I don't actually have it yet, but I ordered a shop manual and also an owners manual.
 
I haven't seen the tractor but if it is decent it would probably sell for around $3500+ here.
I looked up a JD 2630 on Tractordata and while this 841 wont hold a candle to that it is still a good, reliable machine.
 

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