Picked up a TO-30 with options

Hello all. I picked up a 1954 Ferguson TO-30 over the weekend that came as part of a package deal. It has been sitting for a while so its not running. It seems to be a pretty well optioned tractor. Its got a Wagner Ironworks FEL and some really nice wheel weights mounted inside the rear wheels.

There are also a couple of extra levers that I haven't quite figured out yet. The first one comes out the right side more or less under the steering column. It is a squared off handle that curves near the end and has a round ball handle.

The second extra lever comes out the left side of the transaxle and the lever ends up next to the seat at about the height of the seat back. I've done a little hunting on here and I'm guessing I have an under drive and an overdrive on the same tractor. Ill try to add some photos later. Can anyone shed some light on the additional levers? The other tractor in the package which is the one I was after is a 1930 McCormick Deering 15-30.
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This post was edited by stluciemotors on 08/24/2021 at 03:00 pm.
 
(quoted from post at 09:16:49 08/24/21) I, for one, would love to see your transaxle. Got a pic of that?
A couple of closer shots of the levers in question:
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This post was edited by stluciemotors on 08/24/2021 at 03:01 pm.
 
believe that lever on the right hand side under the dash is a Hupp aux. trannsmission not sure if it is a over, under, or both which is possible. does it have a position up, middle and down, or just up and down? if it has a middle it should go sideways and down for a creeper gear.
 
The handle out the right side as you sit on the machine is the Hupp combo. Down is standard drive, up is overdrive, out and up is under
drive. A mention was made of a creeper gear and that is most likely dependent on the model Hupp combo you have. There were two options made
and the fastest way to find out is to measure the top speed. One is about 15 MPH and the other matches the Sherman at about 25 MPH.
The early HGupp units were prone to hanging up between gear ranges when shifting and the best way to avoid that is with slow and deliberate
shifting, especially with the under drive range. You get fast and loose and you will find it hung up between gear ranges when you release the
clutch and the engine stalls out and dies.
Your other handle appears to be the Sherman Live PTO option. This is now the second or third one I have seen in about 25 years.
Last one I saw didn't work. Does this one?
Have fun with your toy.
 
(quoted from post at 22:17:40 08/24/21) The handle out the right side as you sit on the machine is the Hupp combo. Down is standard drive, up is overdrive, out and up is under
drive. A mention was made of a creeper gear and that is most likely dependent on the model Hupp combo you have. There were two options made
and the fastest way to find out is to measure the top speed. One is about 15 MPH and the other matches the Sherman at about 25 MPH.
The early HGupp units were prone to hanging up between gear ranges when shifting and the best way to avoid that is with slow and deliberate
shifting, especially with the under drive range. You get fast and loose and you will find it hung up between gear ranges when you release the
clutch and the engine stalls out and dies.
Your other handle appears to be the Sherman Live PTO option. This is now the second or third one I have seen in about 25 years.
Last one I saw didn't work. Does this one?
Have fun with your toy.

Thanks Thomas and Bruce for the replies. I'm out of town until Friday afternoon. I'll check the positions on the Hupp drive handle when I return. The tractor is currently not in running condition so I can't comment on the top speed. I'm going to try to dig in a little this weekend and see what it will take to get her running.
 
.

Looks like a fun project tractor!

I'd strip off the loader and set that aside so you can do all the other work necessary.

Useful youtube tractor repair channels: primary Bundy Bears and secondarily the Gingell and Steiner channels.


And it seems more than one tractor will follow you home.

.
 
If youre Sherman Live PTO is out adjustment it has adjustment on right side below seat. Next to dip stick adjust in or out depending on what wrong. Let us know and I can help with it. I have it also.
 
Here is a little info on add on transmissions.
https://www.machinerecycling.com/Kenosha-/Agriculture-and-Food-/Threshers-/Sherman-howard-hupp-transmission-ford-ferguson-8N-to-20.ASPX
 
(quoted from post at 19:33:35 08/25/21) If youre Sherman Live PTO is out adjustment it has adjustment on right side below seat. Next to dip stick adjust in or out depending on what wrong. Let us know and I can help with it. I have it also.

Very good information - Thank you. I plan to make some time to work on it this weekend. I did notice when loading and unloading that I couldn't get the tractor to grab a gear even though the transmission shifted normally into all gears. It would not attempt to turn the engine or even slow the tractor when pulling it. I figure it's either between gears on the Hupp (though I did try up and down positions) or possibly the Sherman live PTO is disengaged.

I'll report back once I am able to access the situation. Thanks everyone for the great information so far.
 
I had a couple hours to mess around with the TO-30. The Hupp lever has 3 positions - down, up and out and up.

Also, I have been able to get it running. I did the quick down and dirty method just to see if it would run with no major issues (rod knock). It sounds good, so now I can go through it more thoroughly.
 
Now once it's driveable, run it to top speed, 15 MPH or 25 MPH? Make it run dirty style? Can of ether to make it fire and run?
Hopefully you lubed the cylinders before firing if siting a long time. If not, too late now.
 
(quoted from post at 21:40:10 08/30/21) Now once it's driveable, run it to top speed, 15 MPH or 25 MPH? Make it run dirty style? Can of ether to make it fire and run?
Hopefully you lubed the cylinders before firing if siting a long time. If not, too late now.

According to the PO it was driven to the place where it was sitting (ran when parked). I'm always a bit skeptical of those stories so when they are of unknown condition I like to do a quick evaluation before investing a lot of time or money. For the Ferguson here's what that looks like:

. pull dipstick to check for oil and presence of water - dark oil but no sign of water.
. remove sparks plugs - again no signs of moisture. Numbers 1 and 4 were nice and clean. Numbers 2 and 3 were sooty like they had run rich.
. squirt atf in the cylinders and let rest while I worked on getting a battery on it.
. spin over engine with starter and plugs removed - all good
. evaluate ignition system - spark plug leads are in rough shape, one is missing etc. Cap, rotor and points look pretty good. Quick cleaning of the points and a jumper wire to the coil and i had pretty blue spark. Rounded up another old lead for #3.
. gas tank is full of junk so I disconnected the fuel line from the carburetor and turned the fuel fitting up. Used a squirt bottle of gasoline to fill the carburetor bowl.
. re-installed spark plugs and connected leads.
. Verified choke and throttle linkages are working.
. Connected ignition wire, pulled choke, hit starter and she lit right off. Let it run for about 45 seconds or so; she sounds pretty good. Shut her down because no coolant in the radiator.
. Limbered up spool valves and ran it again for under a minute to try loader attachment. No movement - must be low on hyd.
. Back to it a few hours later - attempted to fill radiator and it's a gusher. Water runs out as fast as you can fill it.

iCloud video of the first start

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0W-_yFx-Fx92YDVftBAdEPZlg

Now I have to decide how far I'm going to go with it. This tractor came as a package deal with a McCormick 15-30. The McCormick is the tractor I was really after. That's all for now.

This post was edited by stluciemotors on 08/31/2021 at 05:52 am.
 
It's been a while since the first post. I put a new radiator in it today and was able to really drive for the first time more than just a few feet. In high range 4th gear on the road, I clocked 18 mph with the app on my phone. I have previously verified that the app is accurate. I never got the engine really wound out so I think it would pull 20+ under the right conditions. High range 4th is so tall that, it just about won't take off in that gear. You have to really feather the clutch or better yet, take off in 2nd and then slide it into 4th once rolling. In low range 1st gear at idle it just creeps along at a pace to slow to clock.

This post was edited by stluciemotors on 11/15/2021 at 11:21 am.
 

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