The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

I have what I was told was a 1957 Major, but I am not sure.

-There is no serial # stamped on the right front side of the engine. I can see where it should be but it seems to be blank.
-There is no serial # on the firewall, On the tag where it should be, is printed "A Ford Product Made In England Constructed Under Patent In All Principal Countries". But no serial #
-Under the seat it says "EIADKN" "994787" "P110"
-Beside the clutch linkage is stamped "P20"
-It has a Simm injection pump SP544705296
-On the engine head is tamped what looks like E3 or upside down SE

Have a look here on the Wiki, it may help. The codes you need to access the Wiki are "fordsontractorpages" and "dotty" not your usual log on details.

http://www.fordsontractorpages.nl/wiki/ ... Major.html

Try looking on the flange behind the starter, the earlier Majors had the number stamped there. If you have no number on the plate on the fire wall it could be from a later tractor.

Your casting codes you quote have a year letter missing although the one under the seat could be "P11C" or "P11D" which would be either December 11th 1959 or December 11th 1960.

Using these codes and the plate on the firewall I would guess you should have a Power Major but a Power Major should have the number stamped under Number 1 injector. It is therefore possible that she has had a new block and the number was not transferred. There should be a block casting code just above the dynamo which would help.

Also, if it is a Power Major the throttle and gauges should be under the steering wheel not just in front of the gear stick.

It is also possible that you have a Fordson Major ASP (All Spare Parts) built up from two or more tractors. That is why as many casting codes as you can find are important to help identify her.

It has a lever on the right side of the engine, top front, right behind the radiator hose, it goes into the front of the valve cover and this lever has a rod that runs back to the operator to operate...don't know what that is for.
If it had any gauges they are long gone, but to start it -it has a 2" multi-position switch lever that must first be turned on and then a lever on the left side must be pressed down to start the engine. The throttle lever is under the steering wheel and runs down the steering column
The engine is painted yellow but it has lots of blue flakes. It appears to have been painted several times so it is hard to tell if it was originally yellow but it is mostly yellow

in looking at the engine the throttle lever does not go to the injection pump, instead it goes to a lever then thru the block

That sounds like an Mark I engine. Build untill april 1957 if I'm correct.
With some casting codes you find the right age.

The engine is painted yellow but it has lots of blue flakes. It appears to have been painted several times so it is hard to tell if it was originally yellow but it is mostly yellow.
The tractor itself is mostly blue but it looks like it was painted yellow at one time. It also has a large loader with the letters "Industrial Loader" on the arms and was made by Shawnee. I don't know if it originally came with the tractor or it was added sometime later, and the loader is mostly blue now but it also was painted yellow at one time.

Time for some pictures!!!!!!

It really sounds like you have a Fordson ASP. Throttle through the block went out in 1956/57 unless the block has been replaced with a new block from a petrol lorry. Throttle under the steering wheel, long steering shaft, date codes and plate on fire wall all indicate Power Major. I would suspect you have a Power Major which has had an earlier engine fitted. You will be short of about 16 hp as the MK1 Major was around 38 hp and a Power Major was 51 hp.

The tractor started life as a Shawnee Poole Industrial Loader built onto a Fordson Power Major, a fairly common conversion back in the day, they also built dump trailers which were connected to Fordson and Ford tractors and a number of County Super Six's with a massive swan neck coupling. Very rugged and strong machines all round.

http://ts4.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.48692356 ... 3&pid=15.1

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv26 ... le/004.jpg

Diggers, Loaders and Trailers were all made by SteelFab of Cardiff, the same people who made Horndraulic Loaders and Ford Loaders plus loaders for MF, IH, David Brown et.al.

http://www.oilyhands.co.uk/Steelfab.php

Check this web site for SteelFab.

The lever going into the valve cover is a decompressor to allow the engine to be turned over, by hand, in very cold weather to break the oil lock and drag. Do not use it to spin the engine to start or operate it when the engine is running as major damage can occur to the valves and valve train components.

Except for the fenders my tractor looks similar to this one. The front end is extended similar to like that one also, and a hydraulic pump is mounted and is driven by a shaft directly from the motor. My loader looks like those in the photos too.

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv26 ... le/004.jpg

That explains why a some of my parts are different and makes finding parts difficult.

Depending on where in the world you are, parts for the tractor are not really a problem. There were many thousands of those Majors out there. What you have to remember is that a few of the parts for the engine will be different but even then, they are readily available. People like Agriline, Bertie Dunlop, Old Twenty and many others offer a range of new parts as well as second hand ones from E-Bay. There were few modifications to the tractor unit, bits were just added all around a basic tractor.

We Live in BC Canada. I have already discovered that I must pull out the part and examine and measure it first against the part I'm ordering, before I order it. The steering shaft was supposed to be 24" and it was 26'' and the type of fuel tank it goes through and where it comes out. But I guess that's the joy of owning a vintage tractor.
Thanks everyone for trying to sort this out for me.

.....Wasn't the ASP sort of cheating by the factory when they put it together? Different year parts all put to getter to make one tractor. Was the customer getting on older tractor model that had more modern parts on it or was he buying a newer improved tractor that had older obsolete parts on it?

No cheeting by the factory. ASP's are built from donated parts from other dead Fordsons with some good parts. Hopfully the ones needed to keep what you need running. Engine swaps are not uncommon. Dandy Dave!