Larry here are some pictures of the 981 I have. I hauled it home and put it in a shed and have not touched it since. The tractor has a bad piston and the cylinder head is removed. It is one of the "projects" that I just never seem to get time for.
A little history on this tractor. It is a Gold demonstrator. It was NEVER retail sold. The Freeze Dealership in Monticello Iowa keep this tractor to use on their lot. The Freeze family split the car dealership and the equipment dealership years ago. The tractor dealership went to the daughter and son-in-law Art Kromminga. The auto dealership keep the Ford 981. They had some trouble with the transmission and spent big money on it and about a year later the engine dropped a piston. The car dealership's main mechanic is an IH fellow. So he talked them into replacing the Ford 981 with an IH 574 diesel tractor. I bought the Ford 981 off of them.
The tractor was painted Ford Blue and white when Ford changed colors and would pay part of the cost to change your red/white tractor to Blue/white. In some of the pictures you can see the gold under the red and blue.
A little history on this tractor. It is a Gold demonstrator. It was NEVER retail sold. The Freeze Dealership in Monticello Iowa keep this tractor to use on their lot. The Freeze family split the car dealership and the equipment dealership years ago. The tractor dealership went to the daughter and son-in-law Art Kromminga. The auto dealership keep the Ford 981. They had some trouble with the transmission and spent big money on it and about a year later the engine dropped a piston. The car dealership's main mechanic is an IH fellow. So he talked them into replacing the Ford 981 with an IH 574 diesel tractor. I bought the Ford 981 off of them.
The tractor was painted Ford Blue and white when Ford changed colors and would pay part of the cost to change your red/white tractor to Blue/white. In some of the pictures you can see the gold under the red and blue.
