Got the Fordson home.. time to get dug in...

We got the Fordson home uneventfully, trip went pretty well. Pic is at the end of their driveway as we were leaving...



I have some video clips of getting it loaded up, but need to get it edited into one clip, then upload to youtube..

Getting it down off the roll off truck was a bit of a nail-biter, as in "please don't break a chain!", but in the end she was safely set down and unchained to be driven off the flatbed. Only had one thing come loose, a pin for the front bucket that was missing a cotter pin.. we found a whole bunch of missing cotter pins after poking around a bit, lol

Been a long time since I was up on an old tractor (mid 1990s), but I got my first chance at starting it up, figuring out the end loader controls, and the backhoe controls.. End loader was easy, the backhoe a little more complicated, but it is going to be mostly trying to remember which lever does what, lol.

Now to get stuck into some basic maintenance stuff.. things like oil changes.. engine oil is pretty dirty and that is first on the list.
Next will be the section right behind the engine.. it is low, and since we have no idea what is in it, we want to drain, flush and refill so we know what we have.

After that will be the back end.. it is a little low, but not bad, so it can wait a little longer.

And after doing a bit of searching, I am still kind of unclear as to what we should be using for oils..
Am I correct in deducing that we can use either SAE 30HD or something like the Rotella 15w40 for everything? Everything being engine, gear box and rearend?
the Rotella is a little cheaper and easier to get, so if it is an option...

also got the serial number, and a few casting numbers
Serial is 1277576 - according the shop manual that came with it she is a Jan 1954 model
Casting numbers I found are P30U, P9U and 7A4 - the last one from the front end
Can anyone please confirm the dates?

P30U = December 30th 1953, P9U = December 9th 1953, 7A4 is a bit strange and could be a
replacement part 7A4 = 7th January 1964 so would not be original.

Oil wise , if it were mine I would stay well away from Rotella 15/40W, not because it
is a bad oil but it does not do well in these old engines and is certainly far too thin
for gearbox and rear axle. Ford changed the oil specifications in 1957 to HD30 or
HD20/30 in engine, gearbox and rear axle, you may find she will be noisy in the
transmission with those grades. I use 20/50W in the engine and stick with the 90W in
the transmission on my 1952 Major.

Thanks for the info, Majorman, it is greatly appreciated.

Would not surprise me if the front end is a replacement, but the other two seem to be in line with a manufacture date of Jan 54.

Hubby went looking for/at oils yesterday and was having a very hard time finding the spec-ed oils (80W or 90W) in larger quantities. May need to check with some of the tractor specific places in the area and see what they can offer & at what cost.

the HD30 for the engine should be reasonably easy, and as I said, that is top priority right now. Need to get a filter for it before we attempt tho.

Have not even looked into what type & how much the backhoe or the front loader are going to need yet.. Have manuals for both inbound, but probably wont get them for at least a week - we were waiting to see what all came with the tractor before we went buying stuff.
Did notice that the main boom cylinder on the backhoe has a little bit of a leak. nothing too serious yet, but it will need to be addressed at some point.

We did get a bunch of receipts for parts/work that was done in recent years (2016 to present), but sadly, none regarding the oils purchased & used, so we have no idea what is in it, and I am not a big fan of mixing things.. that can lead to problems.
So even tho it is a fairly large expense, not to mention time & effort, we do plan on changing it all out so we know exactly what we have and what goes where.

little video of getting the Fordson loaded up for the trip home...

https://youtu.be/RmsByQhgP6I

I did not take any pictures, or video of unloading it.. probably for the best, lol

You may be looking at Hypoid 80 or 90W, what you need is straight 90W.

yeah, called a tractor repair place that I know has dealings with older equipment on a regular basis, and the parts guy I spoke with knew what I was talking about when I said "Fordson Major".

He knew it was the British made tractor and is supposed to be blue & "orange". Even said he helped an old timer out with one locally just a couple of weeks ago - so there is another Major in the area.

There are a lot of 'old tractor' people around here.. from steam tractors right on up the line. There is a big antique steam & gas show not too far from home every year.. except this year.

Anyway... He says they have what we need in 5 gal pails for $48 & change per pail

This is my wife Ann and I on the Royal Norfolk Show Ground with "Dotty" our petrol
Dexta from New Zealand.



This is "Henriette" our 1952 E1ADKN Major at the same show. Not quite the same as
yours as she is a petrol/kerosene, yours is a E1ADDN diesel. They used the same
components with both diesel, petrol and petrol/kerosene versions with the exception
of things like the injection pump, cylinder head and manifold. We are talking just
after the war in a make-do and mend Britain, they must have got some things right as
we are still working them 70 years later.

The reason for the blue and orange is supposedly because Henry Ford saw Essex Wagons
painted in those colours and felt they were ideal colours that brightened up the
countryside and reminded people of where the tractor was built, Dagenham in Essex.

Great Pictures! thanks for sharing them!

Yeah, they are definitely bright when in their original colors! lol

not sure when it happened, but ours was repainted at some point in an awful yellow-orange color by the original owner (think Caterpillar, but more orange... about midway between the Cat yellow and the stock orange of the wheels). The guy we bought it from gave me a bunch of pictures from when he got it. He spent the next couple years stripping the nasty color off, repainting, and fixing things that needed fixing to make her functional again.

There are still a couple of things that will be needing attention, and we will take care of them as we can. One being getting all the gauges working again.. oil pressure is disconnected completely - we were told it was leaking pretty bad, so they just did away with it. Hubby would also really like to get a functional proof meter(?) on it.

At some point we want to get the rear hydraulics working as well.. with the Sherman backhoe being a fully self-contained unit, it can be taken off fairly easily - 4 pins and the PTO pump..
It is our understanding that the backhoe has always been on the tractor, from nearly day one.. so the 3pt stuff does not work.. assuming it is just gummed up and stuck from disuse. But that is a project for down the road... maybe next year. Have to clean up the old small barn that fell down and make a space to park her before winter gets here.

While searching youtube for some repair related videos, I found a short clip of a Major diesel at a local to us tractor pull.. she went 206 ft 3 inches and really did not seem to be working that hard. Very respectable distance for a 38hp old timer with no modifications.
So it seems there are at least a couple more in the area, which I find interesting.