1960 ford 801 Selecto Speed Diesel

I bought a 1960 ford 801 Selecto Speed Diesel, used it to mow all day then lost both reverses and 1 thru 4 gears. Anyone in Central Illinois works on them or has an idea of what could be wrong?

Post over on the Ford board, and good luck. There are very few guys left around who know those transmissions, but there are some.

A guy named "ZANE" on the Ford boards (usually on the N board) knows a lot about the infamous and aptly named "SOS" transmission. Factory trained on them. Arthurs Tractors in Indiana, PA 877-254-FORD fixes them. They have a test stand for the SOS so only need your transmission in order to work on it. external_link in Wilkinson, IN is now owned by Tom Terrell. Used to be Tom Armstrong. They rebuild Ford Tractors. And, there is a guy somewhere else. I think his name is Ed and I think he's in SC who has parts and knows a lot about them. I have the info somewhere and will try to find it.

Those are interesting transmissions. We had a Gold 871 demo on our farm in the spring of 1959. Had it for several days. A lot of people came over to watch and to try it out. Tractor was fully weighted with fluid in the tires front and rear as well as iron wheel weights front and rear. Power steering. It pulled a three bottom 14" plow anywhere surprisingly well. Even on our infamous red clay hills that would give a John Deere A pulling two 14" plows all it could do. I didn't trust the transmission, though. Because it was new and I'd heard some rumors about it. We didn't buy but two of my uncles and another neighbor did buy new 861s. So, the dealer sold three tractors through one demo even though we didn't buy.

Should have no park also. Band 3 is not engageing. Maybe adjustment or strut fell out.