The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Helow to everyone,

my name iw Elias and i am from Greece.
I have a FordSon SuperMajor (1961-1964) FOUR CYLINDER with diesel engine.
I had o hydraulic problem, so i decided to open the sytem.
I saw that the hydaulic piston was out off the hydraulic cylinder because of an unpin safety clip.
I want to replace the piston with a new one. Could you please give me a hint about that? (http adresses in orer to buy it from there)
Secondly i read from the e-manula that the transmition and hydraulic oil must be (SAE20-30), am i right?
I used to work with sae 80-90.
Which is the properly oil fluency?


with my regards

I'm new here also. So I don't know if posting URLs is accepted so I won't at this time. However, if you do s search for "Fordson Major" in Google, you will find dozens of places to buy parts and many of them have hydraulic parts.

On the subject of the oil viscosity ...read the post on this forum:

Fordson Major Oil Specifications. Source Ford Motor Company
http://www.fordsontractorpages.nl/phpbb ... ?f=2&t=827

It clearly states that SAE 20w30 should be used in all compartments including the hydraulics. I haven't been able to find 20w30 so I'm using SAE 15w40 at present.

I'm sure someone more senior here will help with the piston purchase. Welcome and good luck

good morning,

i have allready read it but seems to me very thick, so i made the question.
i can use 20w-50? I think that is difficult to find these oilspecs.
Please p.m the adresses(i made a search but i found only a hydraulic piston for DEXTA not for a SUPERMAJOR).


thanks a lot!

The oil that you use in your engine can also be used in your gearbox and rear axle, as a rough guide. 30W would be fine, or 20/50W. 15/40W is OK too but I have gone away from that in my engines as I find that, on the Major, the oil pressure is lower than I would like when using it. I have also found, on my Nuffield, that a leakage from the timing cover oil seal has all but disappeared since changing to 20/50W. But this is my opinion only.

Why do you need a new piston? Is it missing completely? It will not normally escape unless the linkage has been removed because it cannot get by the knock-off pin.

I would think that the only place you can get one is from a breakers. The Dexta piston on offer is not a true Dexta piston as it does not have a cup seal, it uses two sealing rings. It is the piston from the 2000/3000 tractor range, that just happens to fit. There was nothing in the later range that was the same size bore as the Super Major one.

The truth is that a friend of mine told me (4 years ago) to use sae 80 or sae 90. I hope not to injure my hydraulic pump.
Even if i used sae 80 the lift arms moved up and down fast enough but after a half an hour the movement was made slower .
In order to lift the arms i was increasing the engine rpm's

The piston is not missing but i saw scratches on it. The cylinder was ok!
My piston has only one sealing ring (made of rubber i think).
What is the cup seal?(a second ring the edge of the piston or a second sealing ring).
excuse me but i am a litle bit confused about the piston.
My piston must have one or two ceal rings?
Probably is dificult to find a new one?

with regards

If your piston is scratched it can be lightly polished with an abrasive to smooth it a little. It might be a good idea to check the teeth on the bull pinion shafts for chipping and the bottom filter for metal particles. Scratching on the cylinder and piston can sometimes be due to metal particles in the oil.






This seal is from a Major but you can see what I mean by a cup seal rather than "O" rings.

If your tractor is slow lifting when warm, suspect worn pump, if you have metal particles in the oil the pump will be very worn.