My Ford 4000 'A Work in Progress'

Just a little I thought I would share.

About 8 years ago I had been borrowing tractors to take care of our landscaping and gardens every year, and every year I would have to replace a hose, fix a tire etc etc... well the last year I was going to borrow one Dad went out to pick it up and called me telling me the clutch was slipping, I told him to take it back, I don't mind a small fix, but wasn't going to replace a clutch.

So I went on the search for a tractor.

I wanted a gas tractor, and a loader. A friend of ours said he had one for sale, and the price was right.

So we got it.

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1964 Ford 4000 Industrial (Light Industrial or All Purpose Industrial)

The tractor has run great, we used the bucket to do a lot of landscaping at both my house and my Dad's.

When we hooked up the tiller though, we found out why we got such a good deal. Every time we kicked in the PTO with the tiller in the ground it would die, or try to. A little investigation and we found that the fuel line was pinched in the middle section. So under a load it was starving for fuel. $60 later and a new fuel line, and we had a perfectly running tractor for $1900.

Fast forward 8 years, lots of food plots, several 30 mile road trips until we finally got a trailer to haul it, and the only thing we had to do was fluid changes, oil changes, and the annual set of points... I did buy one new front tire. But at least the annual money spent on it was spent on MY tractor, not fixing someone else neglect.

This last fall we noticed the oil pressure was not holding, and it was leaking some from the rear main. Removing the cap, we discovered that the rear main bearing was bad, and it had worn on the crankshaft.

There was no decision to be made, I have grown very attached to the tractor, so it was time to split it, and fix it. I had always been nervous about splitting the tractor, but with the encouragement of my daughters boyfriend who is a mechanic and after watching a dozen videos on youtube, I decided to tackle it with his help.

First was to remove the bucket.

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And find a good spot in the barn to do the split.

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Then came the split.

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Check out that deluxe seat!!

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Then we had the decision to make, the crank was worn to the point it would have to be built up and turned in order to even use .030 bearings. So I opted for a used crank that was still at STD spec. The crank was out of a ford power unit with low hours and looked awesome. Also with this came the ordering of parts, lots of parts, mostly to fix those small things I hadn't gotten around to yet. And while we wait on parts... we paint...

The paint wasn't intended to be a restoration quality paint job. More to make it look decent and prevent future rust. So along with paint, there are the 50 shades of gray... so to speak. So I took my boy to the store, to let him choose, since the tractor will more than likely one day be his. And I hope to not have to paint it again for a long time.

The worst of the rust that I had.

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And Repaired.

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And you see his choice of gray. I know its not 'correct' but as the project goes along, I think it 'should' have been correct hehe.

Here are a few pictures of progress and paint.

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I did hand paint the lettering on the fenders, it doesn't look bad from a distance, just don't get too close...

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Along the way, I had problems with the oil pump suction, and trying to locate a side suction, finally I gave up and got an updated pump, with the bottom suction.

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And I still haven't managed to get the side cover off of my SOS shifter.

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I may just have to paint it in place, mask it off and paint the shifter.

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I did manage to get the seat frame cleaned up and painted, but still looking for cushions, haven't decided as to whether we are going to have a local upholstery place make them for us, or whether we will go with a modern style seat, like I said its not a restoration, its just fixing what was broken, and that old seat was past due for replacement!

Learned from Tony that I was supposed to have a foot throttle.

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I am however missing the pedal and the lower linkage... which I hear are the hard if not impossible parts to find.

And here is where I am at now.

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Still scraping and cleaning, getting it ready to paint, before we start putting it back together.

Once its back in rolling condition I will move it back around to the front of the barn, and take the rear tires off, which are filled with fluid, so that I can paint them, and see about putting on some new brake shoes.

I did have a friend of mine coat my gas tank while it was off, so that we won't have to worry about rust in the future.

All in all its been an awesome experience, I have gotten to meet and talk to several great folks here on the forum, and I learn something new every day, even if its not me asking the questions, I learn from the issues that others are having.
 
Good looking tractor! Sounds like you've already gotten your
money's worth out of it, so this will be insurance on the future.
Looking forward to seeing some pictures when you're finished.
 
You take great pride in your work and your story and photos show it. Nothing wrong with that shade of grey. I'd recommend a new modern seat.
 
Dad put a loader like that on his 850. I felt like
it save My life. Loading Dads truck with dirt
instead of Me doing it with a shovel.
Ron
 
Thanks for the writeup and pics, just the kind of thing to motivate me to get to work on mine!
 
When said and done, makes a very useful tractor, and for those select-0-speed critics..... LOL !!!

Well hopefully, the trans is in good shape and all you have to do is the service and or adjustments when needed. Its going to look nice when done, well worth doing in my opinion.

I had a '64 4000 S-0-S, and often think back about it, sure was an easy tractor to learn and believe it or not, my mother even ran it, thinking about it now !

Nice you have the light industrial front end and or that particular model. I guess the heavy industrial of the period was the 1841 with S-0-S, I've seen a few locally. That trans would seem to be fine for the average user, gardens, food plots, miscellaneous work as needed, and though the 5 speed is nice orientated like a shuttle in 3rd-reverse, I'd probably lean towards an S-0-S as sometimes 3rd is just too fast when loading a bucket or using same in a push or what have you.
 
I appreciate all of the encouragement.

James you can definitely do your tractor. I'm no master mechanic. The books provide very good details on the work, and what you don't understand there, I've been able to ask about here from others who have already done that.

3 major things I've found so far you need.

1. Dry place to work.
2. Lots of free space for all the parts.
3. Patience.

Never get in a hurry, I've labeled band bagged all the parts as I took it apart, took pictures of most of the intricate hookups, I clean up parts, paint them mostly with the rattle can from VanSickle Paints, and put them up for when I'm ready to put it back together.

I would recommend a trip by the power washer before you take it apart though, I think I've filled up at least 2 five gallon buckets with sludge and grease that I've scraped off of the tractor, and I'm not done yet... If nothing else it should be a bit lighter once its back together...

I'm not doing any type of major overhaul, as the crank was basically all that was wrong with the engine, and later to find out the oil pump needed updated. We did pull the head to check the valves though, and put a new head gasket on.

But I'm taking this time to fix all of the little things that were either broken or lost over the years, doubt I'll find another foot throttle for it, but I'm going to put all the parts that I have back on it, and if I find one later, I can always add it then.

I only work on it a couple of hours a night, wish I could spend more time, but that's what I have, And most weekends are filled with family stuff, so its a little slow, but like I said, I hope to not have to split it again, so I'm not in too much of a hurry.
 
A little update.

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Got my tank back from being coated and got it painted, new sending unit and cap installed and ready to go on.

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Transmission and steering column painted, and got the engine mated back to the transmission tonight.

Waiting on a few small parts from the Ford Dealership and then I should be ready to put the front axle back on and see it rolling again.
 
Never been so dissapointed in something I had ask for ....

Got home today and saw I had a package, a CD Package in the mail...

Ripped it open without even looking at the return address, just assumed it was my Tractor Manuals...

It was a woodturning tool catalog I had ordered on cd...

Oh well, at least I'll have something to look at while I wait another day or two for my tractor manuals.

Gotta wait on paint anyway, ran my local store out of paint, they had to order some more for me to finish painting the rear end...

Waiting on steering seals from CNH to put the front axle back on, and screws from Forddoc to put my shifter back on...

Just kind of tinkering around putting small parts together, trying to keep warm, 10F outside, gonna have to build a good fire in the wood stove tonight.
 
Got my parts from the Dealership today, so I could put my steering arms back together, And got my parts from Forddoc so I could put my shifter back together.

Got the front end back on, and all hooked up, won't be long now and she'll be ready to roll around to the front of the barn and take the Rear Tires off and fix the brakes, and paint the rear end.

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Got some more work done tonight.

Although I seem to be spending a lot of time running back to the store to find bolts to replace ones that were missing for years...

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Got the exhaust on, and the dash and steering wheel on, and waiting for a handful of small parts to dry, so that I can put some more together tomorrow night.

Went ahead and drained the rear end tonight. Good thing was that I had nice clean oil, just like the transmission. Which means that my seals are good between the Transmission, Hydraulics and Rear End. Because the Hydraulic Sump when I drained it, had quite a bit of water in it. Dunno how its getting in, and not in the other two sumps. Gonna make sure I get some threadlock on the seat bolts when I put them back together, they were a little loose, everything else looks to be sealed up good. Will have to run it to get it warm and change the Hydraulic Oil to try and get that thick stuff out.

Hoping to hear her fire up sometime next week, then I'll get the sheet metal back on, and move it around to the other side of the Barn to take the Rear Tires off, and do the brakes and finish the paint.
 
And you can see in the picture, I did decide to go ahead and get those short 5/8 bolts and fill the holes into the bellhousing. I pulled all kinds of grass and sticks out when I split the tractor.
Don't mind so much that stuff on the outside, but don't want it on the inside...
 
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Well I was all ready to fire it up, and as I was putting some gas in it, Jason yells at me and tells me its leaking out the end of the fuel shut off valve....

It hadn't worked as a shut off for a couple of years, but it wasn't leaking, oh well, I guess its time for a new one now.

Getting closer though.
 
Well a bit of an update on my progress.

After getting the fuel shut off on, we fired it up and she ran great, except that I was leaking hyd. oil from the transmission.

Went to split it and found a bad o-ring on the hyd. manifold, thought maybe that was the trouble, replaced it, and managed to break the manifold tightening it up.

On the ride to the salvage yard we decided to go ahead and split it again and check the seal on the front of the SOS.

Sure enough it was leaking a little, so we changed it out. Should have done it when I had it apart the first time.

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Got it back together, I have a small leak on the thermostat housing to fix, and a small leak on the exhaust manifold.

Got my foot throttle ready to go on.

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Got my new Rest O Ride painted, with new bushings, springs and adjuster.

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Gonna have a day to tinker on maybe Thursday or Friday while I wait for the Elec. Co. to replace a main power pole coming into work, so hope to get the water and exhaust leaks fixed then and get some sheet metal back on it.

Pretty much on the down hill slide now. Only major thing to fix now is the brakes once I get the metal on and bring it around to the side of the shop with the chain hoist to remove the tires safely.
 
(quoted from post at 19:51:35 03/24/15) Well a bit of an update on my progress.

After getting the fuel shut off on, we fired it up and she ran great, except that I was leaking hyd. oil from the transmission.

Went to split it and found a bad o-ring on the hyd. manifold, thought maybe that was the trouble, replaced it, and managed to break the manifold tightening it up.

On the ride to the salvage yard we decided to go ahead and split it again and check the seal on the front of the SOS.

Sure enough it was leaking a little, so we changed it out. Should have done it when I had it apart the first time.

The age old mission creep problem. You start with a plan for one repair, then you keep thinking, "well I better do this too while I'm here" but where do you stop?

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Got it back together, I have a small leak on the thermostat housing to fix, and a small leak on the exhaust manifold.

Got my foot throttle ready to go on.

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Got my new Rest O Ride painted, with new bushings, springs and adjuster.

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Gonna have a day to tinker on maybe Thursday or Friday while I wait for the Elec. Co. to replace a main power pole coming into work, so hope to get the water and exhaust leaks fixed then and get some sheet metal back on it.

Pretty much on the down hill slide now. Only major thing to fix now is the brakes once I get the metal on and bring it around to the side of the shop with the chain hoist to remove the tires safely.
 

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