SOS driving

So I thought my new to me tractor was a 971 turns out it's a 981. The serial is eroded away, I guess from battery acid years ago, but it has the two speed PTO thus a 981.

Regardless my question concerns the SOS transmission. So it seems to pull my 5 ft brush hog, yall talked me into, well however certain gears seem to be really slow. Example R1 seems to not move, it does but very slow, however R2 I have to stay on the inching pedal to slow down. Same story 1st aND 2nd moving but like .5mph then 3rd up work great. I don't know if there is an issue or if just the low gears were just designed for very low speeds.

Thus my question is this normal?
 
Sounds like you need to get the SOS manual and go through the band adjustment, may have one band slipping.

Its not a hard adjustment to do, but you need to have the manual and follow it carefully.
 
R2 is fairly fast, its not intended for using when hooking up equipment, not really sure what its meant for, unless you just like driving backwards down the road.

Your SOS shifter should have 'approximate' speeds shown on it for each gear, at least mine does, some of the aftermarket markers don't.

I like my foot throttle, I can set the throttle to an idle and feather it backwards with the foot feed, I can also feather it between shifts going forward and I don't get the 'typical' jerk that most people complain about.
 

Foot throttle? I don't think I have that on my 981, I have a throttle on the dash done by hand. A JD I had in my younger years had a foot throttle, but not this ford.
 
My 64 4000 Industrial SOS came with one, but part of it had been lost over the years, I managed to find the missing parts in a tractor salvage yard for $5

5704FE9A-1A6F-4668-BA9D-49F8BF4FEB38_zpsx44ldg6f.jpg


You can feather it with the throttle on the dash as well, I just like the foot throttle. I believe one off of a 4000 would fit your running boards, not much was changed over those years. Finding them isn't easy though, I have seen a couple on Ebay, but they are few and far inbetween, it is a worthwhile investment though for an SOS tractor in my opinion.
 
I think a foot throttle would be Very handy
on an SOS. Feather the rpm a bit between
ranges.
Some folks here don't like you to mention
the word Jerk in the same sentence as SOS.
But it would stop some of the ahh, ummm,
"lurching" that occurs.
 
R1 is fast enough that if working properly you should be able to clearly tell you are moving.

1st and 2nd are pretty slow though- I think 1st is .6 and 2nd .9 mph on the dial?

I'm a relatively new SOS owner myself, and I noticed my 871 seems more troublesome in the cold. Even though its in a heated garage, I'm sure temp is still down in the low 50s prolly. If I just hop on it and try to go immediately, R1 does not want to work, however let it warm up for a few minutes and its fine.

I want to try adjusting the bands but its been so cold here lately I have no been able to get my trans hot enough
 

How long do you mean warm up? I've been running mine when the temps are sub 40s. Maybe I'll let it warm up and see how it does.
 
(quoted from post at 11:49:57 03/03/16)
How long do you mean warm up? I've been running mine when the temps are sub 40s. Maybe I'll let it warm up and see how it does.

I always try to let it run for 10-15 minutes if I can. Sitting in park about 1000-1200 rpms.

I back my Tractor into the garage so after warm up I usually pull out in 3rd or 4th kinda slow for the first 100 ft or so.
 

I have a 4000 industrial SOS backhoe. R1 is pretty slow but not as slow as you describe. I think it feels like 2nd or 3rd froward speedwise. 1st is very slow like .5 MPH and what I use when digging dirt and grading. I could probably use 2nd but it kind of fast to be adjusting the bucket at the same time.

R2 is like 6th or 7th gear. I hardly use it on the backhoe I have.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top