parts available for older masseys? other brands?

Nick m

Member
Been tire kicking older combines. My neighbor harvests everything for me now, but the price is creepcreeping up. Was thinking of maybe a deere 4400, but have come across some masseys at reasonable prices. 750,760, 560 have been a couple models spotted. Are parts still readily available for these combines and their heads? Is there any reason to stay away from them? I'll be covering 60 acres now and hopefully more in the coming years. Corn wheat and soys. Would be open to any brand, the closest dealers are massey and deere, with gleaner third.
 
I haven't had any trouble getting parts for my 750. Dealer network has about dried up in my area, but between salvage yards, after market suppliers and my own parts machines, I kept my machine running for almost 20yrs. Like you I don't use it on many acres. They can be a real bear to work on sometimes, but any combine is.
 
Mikes Equipment in Buhler KS is a good one. Nice folks. Grew up around them. We always used Howard's in Mt. Hope KS for our Masseys before Mikes got big. I assume it is still in business.
 
I've been around both Deere and Gleaner. I've helped work on the 20 series Deere's and I wouldn't own one. I have ran the F series Gleaner and now have an L2. Haven't worked on a Massey but Gleaner hands down are a lot easier to work on in my opinion. Parts are available. I wouldn't buy a Deere unless it's a 9000 series or newer. Just my opinion.
 
Mike's Equipment is still showing a website. www.mikesequipment.com

Pretty impressive looking at it via satellite view from Google maps.
 
Well Nick: There is a reason that MF has about a 2% market share. First and foremost is you are at AGCOs mercy for new OEM parts. So plan to pay through the nose for your parts. 2) MF are a nightmare to work on. 3) The headers where not much more than junk when new and now that they are 25-35 years old there are really junk. 4)They where not a very good machine compared to the other brands. There was a MF dealer here in town. So there where a fair many MF 750 and 760 combines sold around here. Every year I would get called to finish one of the MF combine owner's crops as his MF was broken down and he wanted to get done.

There are many reasons that they are selling CHEAP!!!! So run Forrest Run!!!! LOL

If your only doing 60 acres I would look at a JD or a Gleaner. The Gleaner would be the easiest to work on but be ready to work on it regularly. They also are harder to switch form crop to crop. For some crops you need different drive pulleys and belts. So you will need to make sure you get everything you need to run your crops. Also the older Gleaner headers where not great either. The biggest advantage JD had over the other brands was better headers. The 40 series cornhead and the 200 series flex heads really leaped JD ahead.
 
Why anyone gets all bent about parts for a combine is beyond me. 90% of what you will need is belts and bearings which are available anywhere. If MF combines are all poorly designed, worn out junk like most everyone on here says, there should be one hiding in every fence row to steal parts from.

The 1100 series headers are fine. I can't think of any failures aside from the occasional idler sprocket, or eating/losing a gathering chain. I'm not trying to run a 1000 acres a week through mine, or pushing it right at the breaking point though.

Even a lowly 510 will run circles around a 4400, for way less money, on way less fuel, quite likely less headaches to, as you will find a lot better 510 for your money than a 4400.
 
seller, most of your information is accurate on your perfect farm but I'm going to differ with you on a few things,you say a massey is hard to work on, have you ever put hydro belts on a 7700-6620 ect? worst job ever, yes there are somethings on a 510/550 that is hard to get at but it only takes a few minutes to remove a wheel if needed, a massey straddled the corn rows and didn't eat up your tires like a jd did so the wheels were closer to do this, yes a Massey corn head isn't quite the head as a 40 series jd but I have picked a lot of corn for many years with an 1100 series head in a lot of differen't conditions, and yes the 200/900 flex heads are good but the factory Massey 1859 bean head does a decent job and cuts short if maintained, I don't chisel much of my bean ground and I'm not ashamed of the cutting job, they are not junk as you say, a Massey will put out cleaner beans than many of the newer combines, I know I see some peoples messes at the elevator and I know what they run, this guy wants to cut 60 acres not 600, a maintained 510/550 will do this with ease and run circles around a 6600, I will agree with you on a gleaner, they have more belts, chains and running machinery than anything I have ever seen and have the reputation of being lightly built and unreliable, a wheat runner I knew always said "when a gleaner runs nothing will run with them but there is always one out of five down for repairs" There were a lot of masseys around here but they are pretty much gone now as the newest 850/860's were made in the 80's. I'd run a Masey rotary if the closest dealer is 80 miles away. You can keep a massey running with the help of Shoup and a few salvage yard donor machines.
 
thanx rg and brutus for pushing back for massey,. they are good machines ,,, and will hold their own to most anything built . never workt on a green combine past the old pulltype 30 and 45 , but I have been told you don't have to ever fix them .. LOL,.. don't want to start a argument . I will never be able to buy a new axial flow , or deere,,. so I buy or trade for what i am familiar with,, and whatever I can get a good deal on and whatever I have heads that will fit on it . since I was nearly birthed in a massey 300 ,, I have stayed reasonably satisfied learning about them .. there are virtualy no adjustment needed to switch from corn to beans on a 750,, and going to wheat is accomplished by shifting the cylinder gears with the little lever , and tweaking the sieves ,,. I sure don't care for all the must learn quirks of gleaners and all the pulley possibilities to switch crops ,, that being said ,, a well versed gleaner man can set a silver seeder to do a excellent job and will PUT ALL THE GRAIN in the bin and not out the back ,..had i cut my teeth on gleaners instead of scraping my knuckles working on masseys since the early 1970s I would know everything about gleaners ,..not sure if I can agrre masseys are harder to work on than gleaners, they certainly are different animal for sure , I recall swapping traction belts on a gleaner,. and figuring out the adjustment quirk,,. never cared for the muscling of the unloading auger on the gleaner f I had a few years ,,. and my hills nearly scaredt my nephew out of the cab one day when he attempted to back up a hill with the head up and a nearly full bin ,, the gleaner started to back rite out from under the load and stand on its nose .. the gleaner did me a good job . and I am certain it is still a good machine . but honestly there are a lot of factors to consider when buying a combine,. most important imo is buy what you and your mentor are familiar with ...
 
I favor the green stuff, but all I could afford at the time (80's and into the 90's) was a '78 Massey 760.

I called it my "poor man's 8820".

It was a good machine.

Most stupid/irritating issue was when a piece of the steel flex plate that bolted to the flywheel cracked and a section broke off. Still worked but vibrated so bad we had to shut down and replace it.

Outside of that it combined a LOT of barley, wheat, and 'flowers without much trouble.

<img src = "http://www.gondtc.com/~blweltin/Bob/Massey760.jpg">
 
got a big time farm operator here in the county , that ran and traded gleaners for 20 years,, leased new Holland one season ,and spent some time in axial flows ,,. now he is leasing 2 deeres ,, and I think he tries to collect insurance each year judging from all the sprouting volunteer corn growing in his field this warm wet fall.. kinda hard to understand and figure him out ,,. I just know my granpas and uncles and dad never built a fortune of farms harvesting like that ,..
 
How about a IH AxialFlow?(1440/1460)... A 4400 is probably the last combine I would buy. A friend/partner bought a 4400 the same time I bought my 95. He ended up rebuilding it....The 4400 has something like 44 belts. The 95 has 12. The 95 will 'smoke' the 4400.Funny thing,the 4400 has yet to finish a harvest. the 95 always ends up finishing. Dont know a thing about a Massey,but a Gleaner would be a possiblitiy for me
 
Its for a good reason. Here is a picture of when we traded our 760 off for an 8820. 760 was bought brand new and we could never string together more then a 3 days without something going wrong with it. One of the things it did was it kept blowing the drive belt. Couldn't figure out why until we took the pulley to a machine shop and they rebalanced it. Neighbor had to do the same thing on his 750. That feederhouse with all the paddles and double roller chain was a marvelous piece of engineering. We ran that 760 for 3 years and the auger flighting was razor sharp. The 8820 augers still looked brand new even though the combine had the same amount of hrs as the 760. Check the base weight of a Massey and a comparable JD. The JD will weigh more because it just built heavier. I can give you a phone book worth of people around here that had similar experiences with Massey.
JD 8820 and 760
 
I've been running a 750 Massey (1977 model) that I bought used. I usually need to replace a belt or a straw walker section or maybe a bearing but this machine is nearly 40 years old. This year I went to the salvage yard to pick up a piece for it and it hadn't been brought up to the counter yet when I got there so the lady said go out to the boneyard and find the guys. The boneyard had rows of John Deer, a few IH and 2 Masseys. Now tell me why there were so many Deere's in there. It isn't just that so many were used in that area either, that was a big Massey area too.
 
Howards is still in business...I hear that they have Massey combine parts going back to the 21 and 21-A's...That was one huge Massey dealer back in the day...Now they are just short line and used stuff..
Howards Inc
 
We run 550's and 760's. If you are choosing between 760's, 750's and 550's I would go with the 760 first then the 750 then the 550.

550 is too small for working on. It is ok when you are a skinny teen ager, but when you are more mature they are a pain. Rear end is small, very tight working in rear end. Engine compartment is really crammed. The real killer for the 550 is the separator clutch arrangement. Guaranteed to fail by design and a massive painful contortionist's nightmare of a chore to fix.

760 is much, much easier to work on and does not have the poor separator clutch.
 
And the deere's 00 and 20 series are copies of that design. They do not have the separator clutch, but they got that useless shaft instead of a simpler fixed speed beater.

I got a MF860 and a Super92, and a Super 90. Super92 is the easiest to work on, but the 860 is not bad at all. The 860 and 850 are eaisier to service because the panels on the LH and RH front are hinged. It is alsmost unbelievable that they bolted them on on the 750 and 760!
Why is the 760 easier to work on than the 750's? I am thinking at buying one, hydro model, red cab, 1976, black interior, and restore her!
 
I just think good old farming style is a Deere 5020 or 4430 on the grain cart, a 760 with a 24' head and a good 1977 Ford with a 460 pick up with the fuel or bringing diner at the edge row...
So you get all the best of everythings...
 
They are all good....I just remember what one older farmer told me once..."No such thing as a poor combine...just poor operators"

Ben
 
Nick,

I have been kicked off Web sites for sticking up for Massey Harris and Massey Ferguson combines. I will voice my opinion whenever I fill necessary. My family utilized these MH and MF conventional combines from 1944 to 1986. I still run a Massey Ferguson rotary combine today. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a Massey Ferguson Combine. A properly maintained machine will provide years of service. Don't be scared by a few green guys bashing! I was never impressed by a salesman that run other lines of equipment down! Look over the machine if it's in good shape buy it. E-mail me if you have questions.

Masseypride
 
I took a few pictures of Mike's salvage yard. They still got quite a bit of Massey's, but the 750's are all gone. They were still there a few years ago, but not anymore. I saw him scrapping them, and I believe the big pieces like engines, front axle, rear axle, were saved. :( Mike is scrapping by model, and all of them at the same time. Same way, he does not have any Deere 55 left, but he got a lot/many of the 105 squareback, just for their engines that should go on a 4010 gas).

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There is quite a bit of other brands. Many small Gleaner G that are so small nobody run them anymore, and seemed like nobody take parts of them off.

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He has also a 9700 with the engine still on it, and this amazing 510 hydrostatic, that I would like to get the hydrostat, cab, and big grain bin to put on a French 510 someday!

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510's hydrostat pulleys. Probably harder to find than hen's teethes!

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Taken this year, a beautiful 860 with a 24ft head. One of the nicest around here still going strong on a small family farm. They are quite many 750 to 860 still going around here!

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This was taken this year, neqr Sedgwick, KS, but the old girl was still going this year. Ice cold AC!

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This is Howard's salvage in Mount Hope.
They got quite many masseys that seems to have many parts left on them, and few with a Gilcrest or factory "JD" 4WD.

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Quite many older combines, some of them in "mint" condition, like the one on the right, with no dents.
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And of course, you can see some machine that just came in or out for repairs or winter service. This one looks awesome with duals, altough I think it is better for the final drives to put axle extensions with threaded pulling rods underneath, and symmetrical rims.
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I like JD machines for the reason that Moravian barley and pinto beans are easily cracked and cracked product will be docked or refused at the elevator, and massey had that return cylinder, notorious for cracking kernels, and they never got popular, Deere was more apt to leave a dirtier grain tank sample, but less apt to crack. Massey was OK for corn, wheat, oats, probably even spelt, but it was crazy to make a cleaner tank sample and get docked due to cracking or make it dirty, sell them the chaff and straw, get more tonnage/cwt, and at a higher price. Sweet corn seed wasn't ran well through the masseys either, but Hay seed was as I remember, I think they were one of the better machines for hay seed. I always thought JD made a well rounded machine, fairly thirsty on fuel, dependable, and would make a good tank sample if needed, or open up and make a dirty sample but no cracking. I ran a 1480 on barley in the san luis valley, would almost thrash with 9500s and 9600s but the straw was really chewed, and kernels would start cracking if pushed, had to slow down, JD would get more done in a day and usually have better product, we would mix the grain together, and never got rejected, but we knew whose was doing the cracking. I prefer a walker machine, as I am not an IH man as well as the straw was always a part of the crop, so I could get about a dollar more a bale for straw ran through walkers than rotary.
 

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