Ford 9600 Pros and Cons

What are the Pros and Cons of a 4000 Hour Ford 9600? It's on Craigslist. Paul

My biggest thing with the Fords are the lack of replaceable sleeves in the engine , when they need rebuilt they need pulled and bored , No first time in chassis rebuilding and this costs more and takes longer . The two speed is like a T/A in a I H at some point in time she will need rebuilt . when they are well they are a decent tractor.

I have to majorly disagree with tractor vet. The dual power is nothing like a torque amplifier. Yes it might need rebuilt sometime but it?s not anymore difficult than replacing a clutch. The motors are not sleeve but I had a 9600 tractor that I pulled in the farm stock and would throw a flame out of the stack nearly every time down track. When I decided to put it back to a farm tractor I had to replace the head gasket and the motor looked perfect inside and it?s still going strong. My opinion the 401 was the best motor going that era. That?s why they are in everything from the 8000 to the tw35

What i was tryen to say that it offers a shift on the go same as a T/A and yes they do fail and so does the engines and at the hours that is on this one she could varywell be ready Ya want and engine that will run upwards of 20000 hours then ya want a D 361 or a D 407 I have been doing this stuff for a long time and ya see what goes wrong on the avg. . While i was buying and selling the amount of tractors i saw sell per month was between 1500 and 2000 a month between all the sales i went to and 90 % of the Ford big tractors came thru with 3500 to 4500 HOURS on them all needed rebuilds because they had excessive blow by and a good portion of them shipped to the sales were from large Ford dealer trades and the dealers did not want to put money in a rebuild for a resale piece so they shipped them and took WHOLE SALE Some come in with the dual power having one side out and NONE of them sold under the ride and drive . when you bid on one of them and you ended up being the buyer you done bought it to love it and anything that was wrong with it was FREE . My weakness was ANY I H that needed a T/A . I would buy any and all that were called with a bad T/A because it was and easy fix and a selling point because i offered two to three years Free REPLACEMENT on the new clutch , and PPa along with the T/A and MCV pump I could do one in 20 23 hours and never break a sweat engine work gets expensive and takes up time , instead of getting one in and out in 2 days i have a whole in the shop tied up for over a week by the time ya tear it down order parts run it up to the machine shop and they do the work another trip to the machine shop to haul it back then spend half a day cleaning and a day to day and a half getting it back together getting the pump and injectors done and getting the tractor back up and running ya had between 35 and 5500 in it then set on it till the wright guy comes along and willing to pay the price . And today your not going to find a machine shop that will bore and finish hone and fit each hole for 11 bucks each . Yes you see them in Ford med. duty 's and they are cheap to buy Why because they all are needing rebuild .

My 9000 is right around 10,000 hrs. Five years ago I tore it down to check bearings. They were all still good for a couple thousand more hours, but of course I changed them anyway. The bores were shiny as chrome, but since I was running 2X fuel and advanced timing I left them that way. It had no DP when I got it so I found a used one and put new seals in it. It was showing a fair amount of wear, but a friend told me that they were good for a long time yet and it is still good after twelve more years. A negative is the cab if it has one. They are very noisy.

I cant say on the one you are looking at but I did run a repair shop for over 30 years now,, and sold Ford new in the 70's,, I can say in my shop I worked on ten times as many IH units as Ford units,, and there is plenty of both here,, main things on the Fords was clutches, hyd pumps and pto clutch repairs and injection pumps due to lack of service,, very few engine rebuilds,, the IH repairs were TA/clutches, rear end,axle, shifting problems galore, mcv pumps hitch pumps,, leaking lower 3pt arm bushings front axle steering parts,, engine in them lasted ok but were much like the Fords,, no low end torque,, I seen about the same number of over hauls on both brands there,, I would take a Ford any day over a IH heck I am flat out Not a Deere guy and I would take a Green one also any day over the IH but Ford would sure be long before a Green one,, just personal experience from repairing and operating points,, I have never seen a dual power out here ever,, not saying they do not fail just never seen one here,, I changed so many torques out I could still do one in my sleep,, a Horrible job to do on the 66 and 86 Series,, great for shop labor income though,, when I was at the Ford dealership we sold four maybe five of the Bigger models a year 9600/9700 later the TW Series,, I still know where half a dozen we sold new are today in the same family so I have to say they were not bad units,, I do not know of any IH units here bought new and still in the same family almost everyone today around here is just a loader/haying tractor,, if you worked them hard here they fell in a heap fast,, the Fords were abused and beaten by many and yet are still there,, I cant speak for any other area than here,, but here Ford does a fine job

It might have 14000 hours on it. I rebuilt my ford backhoe engine which is basically the same engine with half the cylinders. It I can't remember exactly how much it was to bore the block; maybe 8 or 10 bucks a hole. Probably a lot cheaper than buying sleeves. I bored mine 30 over. It is a great engine; VERY economical to run. My TW 35 has a LOT of power but like any engine that gets its power from a turbo and intercooler, the lugging power drops off rapidly at low RPMs. It won't lug like a 500 cubic inch M and M, but it will be a lot more economical to run. But who needs lugging power? Just hit the button for low range.