New to Me Farmall C

Hey all,

Just sharing a pic of a tractor I will be acquiring next month. Apparently this C belonged to my wife's great uncle and has been with her cousin for the last 15 years or so. He has not been using it and has not had it started for 3-4 years. he wants some room in the shed so he asked me if I wanted it. Who am I to refuse a family heirloom? So in mid July it will be mine! The serial number says it is a 1950 model and it has the Zenith carb. I plan to refresh the carb and give it fresh plugs and wires right away before even trying to start it, probably change the oil right off as well. Should be a fun little tractor to have around!

Good looking tractor. Does it have a fast hitch? By the way, if I were you, I'd check to make sure engine's not stuck and then I'd just drain the gas, replace with fresh gas and see what happens when trying to start. Maybe put a little oil in the cylinders and rotate by hand before cranking. Chances are you'll get it running and then can trouble shoot if it has problems. Sometimes replacing parts first, introduces problems that didn't with old parts.

It does not have a fast hitch.

I did intend to put some marvel mystery oil in the cylinders right away and leave it sit over night plus drain the gas and put some fresh in right away with some seafoam. The owner did say that last time he had it running it was
sputtering a bit leading me to believe it needed a carb clean at the very least since he did not run it much and had old gas in it.

Good for you!
I got my A last July and approached it the way you plan. I have been putting things back to the way the manual instructs for the year. Just put new rubber and new rims all around. Plan on in frame rebuild next.
Just go slowly you will have no problem finding something to fix. I have a list as long as my arm as to what I have done to it over the year.
Sal

I second what denglish says, don't start changing a lot of parts just because they're old, many do that and then post on here that their tractor won't start because they have screwed it up! I would put a little oil in each spark plug hole, check the engine oil, coolant, and clean the points with a piece of paper, then put some fresh gas in it and start it up. Do the spark plug hole oiling one at a time so you don't mix them up. If it was running OK when parked it should run now. We have a Farmall C with a Woods belly mower, used it yesterday, it's a great little tractor! It has elecric start but I like to start it with the crank, after sitting since last October it started with just a few pulls on the crank. 1/4 throttle, no choke, but as soon as it fires then 1/2 choke or it will die. Yours may be different.

You already got good advice. Too bad about that grille, would really take some metal magic to straighten that. My question is what does that shiny Philips screw under the carb. do? Goodyear must of sold millions of those traction torque tires, my Super C has them and about sixty years ago on the farm we had three tractors with those tires on them. Those are a nice little tractor.

Well This past weekend the tractor was delivered to my house and I wasted no time getting to work!
I soaked it over night with MMO in each cylinder, filed the points, checked the fluids, and changed the plugs because all 4 were horribly sooty black.
Upon further review it actually has a Carter carb on it and it is not in very good shape.... Super rusty, the float is junk, the jets have been mostly broken off so I can't even get them out and the threads in the mounting flange are nearly stripped out. I cleaned it up as best I could and tried her out.
The gas tank was bone dry, so I dumped some 91 non ethanol in there with seafoam, threw on a battery and turned the key. She took right off! (Pix and vids below)
I already ordered a used Zenith cab to replace the carter as I am having a hard time finding parts.
Other issues I discovered are, the alternator is not charging (not sure if it is the wiring for the Delco itself), the radiator cap must be shot as after 5 min of run time, the coolant is spewing past the cap, bypassing the overflow. So I am guessing weak spring, or van seal.
Other than that, she runs pretty good! All gears work, clutch seems good, rear end is quite.

https://youtu.be/AMZ3eA17tLM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4AlgpmPpZI

The alternator is "self exciting" usually need to go up to around 600rpm to have it start charging. Also check the AMP gauge by bypassing it. The Radiator cap is probably fine, check the over flow tube itself it is probably clogged. I don't think it is pressure related, also my block was clogged up and only held 1.5 gallons of fluid and I needed to remove the radiator and stick the pressure washer up in the bottom inlet along with a wire to open everything up.

I tried it at full throttle and still no dice. I will try bypassing the Amp gauge though and see what happens..