960 numbers

grandpa Love

Well-known Member
Every now and then someone asks for help in identifying a tractor. Well everybody on here is always helpful. So my turn. Folks claim you can tell what day and what shift built your tractor? So when was this one built. ? Thanks I know it's a 960. Lol. '57 I think
a152302.jpg
 

65 and later -000 series have the build date, as for as I know on the pre 65 models one can figure the year by the serial number breaks but not the actual date.
Serial number will give one an idea if it was built early or late during that year.

1959 serial numbers started at 58312
1960 serial numbers started at 105943
Your number being 102376 tells me it was built late in the 59 model production run
 
(quoted from post at 18:17:11 02/23/17)
Your number being 102376 tells me it was built late in the 59 model production run

No it wasn't. *00 series tractors were built from 1955 to 1957. They were not built later than that.
 
As Destroked said, the 65 and later tractors had 3 lines of code stamped into the transmission behind the starter.
The top line is the build date.
As more tractors were built with varying engines, transmissions, options and ag, utility and industrial models they encoded all that stuff in the second line.
The lower line is the serial number.
100_2000.jpg
 
"This number is on left side of block. Mean anything? Is the "z"a number?"

The raised numbers are casting numbers with meaning only associated with the foundry where the casting was made - I've never seen anyone decode any information from them -
 
Actually...
I think some of those numbers do tell you a
little.
The Ns had casting dates in several places
that could be decoded. On the trumpets is
one place I remember. They didnt tell you
when the tractor was built tho. Just when
the item was cast. But ususally you could
figure it was less than a month from the
time a trumpet's date code that it became a
complete tractor.
There was a member here Jim UT who was very
knowledgeable about that stuff. Too bad he
sold his tractors and we don't see much of
him now.
 
Your tractor is fairly close to my 640, less than 2000 later (100,7XX) . Most of my castings were cast between late April and late May of 1956. My 850 is in the 86XXX. Which would be a fairly early 1956. Would be interesting to know how long it took from casting to finished product.

If you subtract the beginning and end numbers to get the total number of tractors made in 1956 116,368-77,271=39,097. Then divide by twelve to get 3258 tractors a month to get a rough idea of when it was made. It would be consistent with mine being made in June or July of 1956 which would jive with the casting numbers and them starting with the calendar year.
 
(quoted from post at 03:02:10 03/04/17) Your tractor is fairly close to my 640, less than 2000 later (100,7XX) . Most of my castings were cast between late April and late May of 1956. My 850 is in the 86XXX. Which would be a fairly early 1956. Would be interesting to know how long it took from casting to finished product.

If you subtract the beginning and end numbers to get the total number of tractors made in 1956 116,368-77,271=39,097. Then divide by twelve to get 3258 tractors a month to get a rough idea of when it was made. It would be consistent with mine being made in June or July of 1956 which would jive with the casting numbers and them starting with the calendar year.

You have to keep in mind that a lot of the production for a year would have been in the last two months of the prior year, and that the first three months would have been very high production, in order to get the tractors out by train to dealers for spring/summer peak sales season. The fall would have been low production as the factories tooled up for producing the models that were new for that year.
 
Would be interesting to know how long it took from casting to finished product.

I'm not sure on the pre-1965 tractors, but on the 1965+ tractors the time varied greatly from the time the individual components were assembled to when they left the factory as a finished tractor. I've seen gaps as big as 5 months from when a component like a transmission was assembled and the final assembly date of the tractor. The dates of the individual components on a single tractor varied greatly as well. I have seen some where the engine was built 3 months before the tractor was assembled, but the transmission was built only a week or so before. That doesn't count the time that the castings sat after they were cast waiting for the trans or engine to be assembled either.
 

I did think of that, that is why I mentioned calendar year in my post. If I am reading my casting numbers right, it would suggest it fits calendar year more than you'd expect. They range from 64X to 65Y. It doesn't seem to follow the pattern for cars when changeover would be around August. That would mean they made a huge number of tractors around July seeing the serial numbers are in the middle of the 1956 production. The amount of time from casting to finished tractor is an interesting question. Maybe if they started just a couple of months before January then our tractors were built in early June which means the castings didn't sit around long.

The carbs on both my tractors I believe were made in 1955. I always thought the one on my 850 was changed out for that reason but the 640 carb was built long before also so maybe not? I know they weren't using much "just in time" strategy back then but hard to believe they'd make the carbs that far in advance. Maybe because they were built my Marvel and not in house.
 

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