The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Hi,

I am new to this forum and located in Sofala, Australia and own a 1953 Major petrol / TVO and a 1962 Super Major. I have a few questions I hope someone may be able to assist me with.

The super major has a standard major hydraulic top cover ( no draft control) and has no diff lock. Were they sold without a diff lock ? I want to bring this tractor back to a standard super major with correct hydraulics and re-install the diff lock. Can anyone give advice as to the complexity of these tasks ? By my reckonning the top cover should bolt straight on although the feedpipes in the rear end will need to match. The diff lock should be just a matter of replacing the bull pinion and diff lock assembly and finding a suitable brake housing with pedal.

The major runs really well but uses a lot of fuel (just running on unleaded petrol). I notice that the petrol only major has a smaller main jet, as I guess the TVO fuel is more viscous. Is it possible to fit a smaller main jet to my carburetter to reduce fuel consumption. I have noticed that my spark plugs are sooty, indicating unburnt fuel.

I will post some pictures once I figure out how !

A great site with valuable info.

Any comments would be most welcome.

Michael.

Hi Michael,

Welcome to the board. Your Major will indeed be very thirsty, that was the nature of the beast, mine will burn 10 gallons of fuel doing a job the Petrol Dexta will do on 2! But I still would not change her.

The pure petrol version had a different manifold, pistons and liners so this makes a difference for running on just petrol but they are still thirsty.

Have you tried mixing your own TVO? I use diesel and petrol which works well and is slightly cheaper. Kerosene is another possibility or even jet fuel but you would need to add a little diesel for lubrication.

BarryM of The Fordson Tractor Club of Australia is the best person to help with the fuel, it used to be his job to make TVO.

I would suspect someone has put a FMD/Power Major rear axle on your Super as, no tractor was fitted with the old style lift as standard. You need to know what rear axle casting you have as the feed pipe to the Super lift is in a different place and fits into the rear axle casting along with the return pipe. You will also need new bull pinion shafts and disc brake housings along with the dif. itself, if you are going to return it to original spec.







Super r/h bull pinion shaft with dif. lock.

You might be better to find a complete rear axle. I saw many, laying around on farms in the Robinvale area when I was over earlier this year.

Thanks Brian.

My Major has had the intake manifold modified such that the exhaust section has been cut off and a diesel exhaust manifold has been fitted. Over here diesel is more expensive than petrol, and kerosene even more so. Would TVO reduce fuel consumption ?

My Super Major has the proper rear axle assembly, as disc brakes are fitted, and the casting codes match to 1962 along with the rest of the tractor. The top cover casting code is 1956. I suspect that who ever fitted the top cover has had to modify the feed pipes. I will know more once I remove the top cover - this week end I hope.

Leo Wignall from the Fordson Tractor Club in Australia tells me that the Super Major hydraulics were troublesome and people used to remove the top covers and replace with Power Major units. Has this been your experience ?
Leo advises me against fitting the Super top cover, but I want to get it original.

Were super Majors sold without the diff lock ?

If the rear end is Super, I should only have to replace the right hand bull pinion ?

Regards,

Michael.

We did not get problems here unless the bull pinions were breaking up. Then the metal would score the ram cylinders. Something to watch for if you are buying a second hand unit.

The tractors did more hard pulling drawbar work with you so it is possible that they gave problems with the final drive causing hydraulic failures. Another cause of axle failure was letting one wheel spin then stamping on the dif. lock pedal.

Don't think there would be too much trouble now as the hard working days for Supers are nearly over and retirement beckons.

Dif. locks were standard on all Supers so yours should have one unless that too has been modified.

By the sounds of it your Major has had the vaporiser remove from the manifold so she would not run on TVO.





Give my regards to Leo please, I loved the noise of his V8 truck.