Brand new to me Ford 1500 tractor

bc

Well-known Member
Hello guys. Guess I'll have to start hanging around the Ford forum. Just bot a 1979 or 80 Ford tractor last night. Tested it out in the driving rain and it worked. Pick it up next week. Has the 4 wheel drive and 2 cylinder diesel. He used a little starter fluid to start it at 36 degrees without using the glow plugs and it fired up. Came with a 5' 3 blade finish mower and also a model 715 snowblower that he never used. Got it all for 3100 bux.

He had it for 3 years that he mowed a few acres with. Said it was slow mowing and then he bot a 72" Bad boy ZTR mower. He got it from someone who had let it sit for years. He flushed it and put a new water pump on. I saw the ad Monday night, searched the archives of this forum and it seemed to have good reviews. I was looking for a red IH but oh well.

Will post more after I get it home and try it out. The snowblower has a bunch of attachment rods and a mount but is missing the pto knuckle on the shaft.

I'm not used to hearing a 2 cylinder diesel but it just sounded like it had a higher pitched sound than a 6 or 8 cyl diesel engine.

I will change the oil and filter. Any recommendations for oil other than a 15w40?

Plan on using my 6' land pride brush hog with it. Tractor data said the 3 point will lift 1400 pounds. Apparently it doesn't have a live pto since he said I had to put it in gear to run it but now I'm not sure as I had one tranny in gear and the other one out of gear and it ran the mower without moving.

So anyway thanks in advance for any comments you guys might have on this tractor. Still waiting on a new cam so the shop can finish the engine on my IH2606 so I can put it back together with loader and backhoe.

Another thing, I'd consider putting on a little loader if anyone has any recommendations and if I can find one for not too much.
 
I would guess a 6' brush hog would be to much for it but as I said just a guess. That said I ran an 8' flail mower on my 1710 though folks all said it was to big for it, I took it real easy and mowed every 3 weeks so as not to let the field get to high. I did that for one summer while we were trying to sell the property I wouldn't do it permanently though.
 
I think he meant you have to put the pto in gear to run it. As you have done, you can run the pto while stationary. However you can't start the pto before the tractor starts to move as it has a non-live pto meaning both wheels and pto will start at the same time.
I run 15-40 in my 1210 year round. Have a block heater to warm it up when it gets below 20. I park inside a pole shed and let it warm up before heading out.
 
Make sure the glow plugs are working. If not repair/replace them. Using starting fluid is death to those little
engines. Been there more than once! Those engines are just about impossible to find anymore.
 
I owned a 1600 many years back, was a solid little tractor.
Like what was stated earlier, get the glow plugs working,
they need to be used no matter what the temperature is.
I ran a 5ft. brush hog behind mine, and seemed maxed out.
Loaders are extremely hard to find, and without power
steering, have limited use. Those little tractors will run all week
on a tank of fuel! and being a two cylinder, have a lot of low grunt
to them. Keep fresh fluids in in it, I used 15w40 in mine.
 

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