Yo Sean PA!

UltraDog suggested you might be able to help me!

Need to know the year of a Ford 231 I bought at an auction....my post back to the Dawg!

Easy enough....very readable....from the right side of tractor...just aft of the starter....inboard to outboard
BL123C
6B13B
*C489151*
Hopefully Sean will see the post!!

Thanks again Dog!!

Thanks Sean!
 
The serial number - *C489151* - says it's a late 1975 tractor if you believe everything you find on the internet, but the starting serial numbers for various years as listed on the internet have been known to be wrong. Supposedly the starting serial number for 1976 was C490300, but the Unit number, which I cover down below, says that it was made in 1976.

Model number - BL123C:

BL1 is the model designator for the 231 (BL2 was as well, and they switched from BL1 to BL2 in late 1976, so the BL2 says that it has to be either a 1975 or 1976 tractor).
The 2 says it has a gas engine
The 3 says it has Live PTO
The C at the end says that it has the 8 speed transmission.

Unit number - 6B13B:
The 6 at the beginning says that it was made during some year that ended in a 6 and since the BL1 designator was only used in 1975 & 1976 this says that it was made in 1976, which disagrees with the serial number, but re-read what I said above about what you find on the internet February 13, 1976 during the day shift.
:D
The first B says that it was made in February (B is the second letter of the alphabet and February is the second month of the year).
13 says that it was made on the 13th day of the month.
The last B says that it was made during the day shift.

So your tractor is a 1976 231 with a gas engine, live PTO and an 8 speed transmission that rolled off of the assembly line on February 13, 1976 during the day shift.
 
Sean.....I am impressed....How did you come to know this?...lots of research....or are you related to Henry....Thanks so much!!
 
When I first got my '73 4000 I started Googling things to find out more about it. The first site that i learned to most from was this one:

http://www.springfieldbiz.com/oaktree/codes_short2.html

That site only covers the '65-'74 thousand series tractors, but the information for the date codes in the Unit Number can be extrapolated to any decade if you know what model it is and what range of years that particular model was made.

Later, I was asking around and someone sent me a scanned PDF copy of a document that listed all of the Ford model designators from 1929 (9N) up through about 1991, along with some engine info, so I transcribed that into a text based PDF document and posted it on a web page for anyone to download and use as a reference when trying to find out information for their own Ford tractor(s). It isn't 100% complete, and there may be some inaccuracies because the original document that i transcribed doesn't always agree with the New Holland parts site with respect to the date ranges for production of a particular model, and I have been working over time to add to it and make corrections where errors are found. Here is a link to my web page, you can download the latest version of my document there:

http://nouveauredneck.mywebcommunity.org/
 

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