Cast Aluminium Steering wheel

[Nick]

How rare are the cast aluminium wheels?

[chriss]

Not that rare I've got one on one of my 55 majors, but I do know someone that wanted £100 for one

[AdrianNPMajor]

I've never seen one, either in the flesh or a photo. Are we talking a bare metal aluminium wheel?
Best, Adrian.

[brockwood]

Seems funny most of mine have them thou
i think they
may have come in with the Later manifold

[BarryM]

Nick,
The aluminium steering wheel was very common on the E27N but were not fitted to the New Major. If you measure the diameter it will probably be 17 inches, whereas the New Major had an 18 inch diameter steering wheel.

[super6954]

Nick,
The aluminium steering wheel was very common on the E27N but were not fitted to the New Major. If you measure the diameter it will probably be 17 inches, whereas the New Major had an 18 inch diameter steering wheel.

Hi Barry
It seems There was new majors fitted with Aluminium steering wheels back in the day My grandad had one, As i remember my dad saying they had to wrap the rim with string to stop the black oxidization staining there hands . And I have read about them being original, to just can't remember where right now , Maybe in a Condie book .
At one point I have had 4 of those wheels but fitted most of them on other tractors before the plastic repro wheels came about. They were 2 different sizes as well. I think I have both here someplace still as 1 in my collection may still have one fitted. The E27N one is smaller than the new major one, When I got the last 40 of baling done I'll go looking in the shed .
Maybe they just put them on for certain country's or for a short while. I only see the aluminium smaller ones on the E27Ns here in Canada, other than the bigger ones I swapped over.
My bigger aluminium ones came from U.K, new major tractors before I moved to Canada, as I took them off my self and shipped them .
So thats what I know about them from my experience and family connection from the day.

Regards Robert

[chriss]

I've never seen one, either in the flesh or a photo. Are we talking a bare metal aluminium wheel?
Best, Adrian.

[AdrianNPMajor]

Many thanks, Chris.
No contoured hand grips, I see. Must have been difficult to get a grip on a hot day with sweaty palms.
Best, Adrian.

[chriss]

Yes the grips are underneath but to be honest I prefer the later wheel so i don't think this will be going back on

[BarryM]

Robert,
I have been awhile chasing this up, but I have gone through 700 odd pages of Part Numbers, Supersession Lists and Parts & Accessories Catalogues. There is nothing mentioned of an aluminium steering wheel for the New Major in any of the publications. The only interesting bit to show, was that in 1955 a Steering Wheel for the E27N cost Three Pounds Eight Shillings (Trade) and a Steering Wheel for the New Major cost Three Pounds Sixteen Shillings (Trade). Some time in November/December 1970 the E27N Steering Wheel became obsolete and was replaced by the New Major Wheel. Sorry that is all I could find.

[super6954]

Robert,
I have been awhile chasing this up, but I have gone through 700 odd pages of Part Numbers, Supersession Lists and Parts & Accessories Catalogues. There is nothing mentioned of an aluminium steering wheel for the New Major in any of the publications. The only interesting bit to show, was that in 1955 a Steering Wheel for the E27N cost Three Pounds Eight Shillings (Trade) and a Steering Wheel for the New Major cost Three Pounds Sixteen Shillings (Trade). Some time in November/December 1970 the E27N Steering Wheel became obsolete and was replaced by the New Major Wheel. Sorry that is all I could find.

Hi Barry
Thanks for the reply and digging. I just did some more to. My condie e27n book vintage tractor special no 5 says they had 2 different sized aluminium wheels, a small and a larger for some export countrys. so did the AU tractors have them , none of my Canadian ones do .

I then looked in my Vintage special no 10 for new majors. There are a fair number of pictures in there of 52 tractors and a little newer. I seem to remember the spokes and rim are thinner than the bakelite wheel, the spacing between the spokes and the finger grips is wider also. This leads me to believe that those wheels have a black finish but are the aluminium wheels like the ones I have here less the black finnish, This would also tie in with what my dad remembers. That tractor was a 52 petrol my great granddad bought a few years before he retired in the mid 50's. When looking at the newer pictures the wheels look way different. If you have the books take a look and see what you think.

I think there was a shed load of export wheels left over at production start, and they used them on the new tractors for a while . Ford seemed to be good at using up old parts if you read the history of the e27n and some others . It also doesn't surprise me on the numbers not coming up. parts seemed to change and numbers didn't. I have a copy from a ford parts book for a few different style ford car and van lights here. some parts in the picture are different but nearly all the numbers for the different lens types are the same you pretty well need a picture or measurements to get the right one, over the years covered .

The real kicker in this is my 52 gas I picked up here in Canada 2 years ago, has a big aluminium wheel on. The b@@#er is I cant remember how many big wheels exactly I had here, and if I fitted that wheel or not my self . I have 2 smaller ones that I know the history of in my spares as I scrapped the 27n parts tractors this year .
From my dads account, the pictures in the book, and the tractor ages I got big steering wheels off, I'm going with a to be fair 99.9 % positive they were on early tractors from new .
Could the price difference you found be the different size of wheel, and the cost of extra material to make them .
Regards Robert

[Kim]

They must be bloody cold on bare hands in the winter! Gloves absolutely required.

[Nick]

Hi guys, the reason I asked about these wheels was, my mate has an original 52 diesel major, with the wide belts, stepped footplates, etc, etc, and it also has an aluminium wheel, which has been on it from new because the farmer who owned it before who had it from new had said it had virtually had nothing done to it at all, which I find amazing! Its the most honest, straight tractor I have ever seen, and if I get chance when im there next I will post some pictures.

I do know from the serial number that its amongst the first 1000 built by ford

[Nick]

And yes kim, I would imagine it would be absolutely brass monkeys to catch hold of on a proper winters day!

[BarryM]

Robert,
To answer your question, all E27N's in Australia had the standard size steering wheel (there were 9000 E27N's sold in Australia in 1949). However, there were six variations of the steering wheel between 1945 and 1954.

The price I quoted just reflected the difference of the Model parts. When parts were altered quite often just a letter 'A' or 'B' was added to the original part number. Parts that were pecular to Australia carried the Prefix 'A27N' or if changed in service 'A27NS'.

I have looked at Book No. 5 and I think the tractor he is referring to is on page 19. (The E27N with equal size tyres). If this is the case then it would have been Roadless and not Ford who fitted the larger steering wheel. There is a good photo of this tractor showing the oversize wheel on the front page of an old Roadless News.

Have a look at the tractor in Book No.5, on the back cover in the bottom right hand corner is one of my tractors.


Nick,
Can you give us the diameter of your mate's wheel, as it may have been fitted with a aluminium wheel from new.

[super6954]

Hi Barry
your tractor looks sharp on the back cover. One thing kinda concerns me with the Roadless comment for the big steering wheel. why would they have gone to all that trouble to produce a steering wheel about an inch bigger, to exactly the same style pattern to the fordson one. Roadless production would of been a mere drip in a pool compared to what fordson chucked out . Then that exact same wheel turns up in those pictures in book 10 of 52 type tractors sitting at the dock, and the tractor ploughing below, actually looks to have light color wheel compared to the black tyres, or the guys hair driving. and there are other pictures to with them including the resto on the bottom front cover.

The Only real conclusion i can come up with is it was fords wheel in the first place, not Roadless. How many guys actually new this larger wheel was on the 27n and never paid attention to it. I didn't know until this little issue came up, that Nick started with the wheels on new majors and what I knew about them.

Nicks friends tractor was the same year as my great granddads I know that one was right. It would actually be interesting to get the SN from Nicks friends to see how close my good gas is to it ,and also my parts one. My super and my friends sons are 200 apart, and I got 2 p6's from guys in different areas 175 apart. would be neat if these are close, as my 2 have been here all their life and the other in the U.k. . Our Belarus from England is 200 from a customers that was sold new here in canada the same year also. would be nice to find something with consecutive numbers 5000 miles apart .
Regards Robert