The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

First things first: thanks for the acceptation to this amazing board.

I recently bought this nice super major. The hydraulics and the brakes needs to be repaired. The engines works well. A little leakage is seen at the pedals.

Here are some pictures:

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The engine number is something rare:
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found this date under the hydraulic cover:
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Hi Mathias, welcome to the board.

The engine number is from either a truck or industrial engine as your engine is not the original one. At some time it has been changed. The Super Major fuel lift pump was mounted on the engine block and not on the injection pump as yours is.

She is a New Performance tractor from 1963/1964 but as you do not have the correct engine number you will need to find the casting codes on the gearbox, rear axle and hydraulics plus any others you can find.The code you are looking for will start some thing like 3A15 or 4A15. This will give us the year, month and date of the part. As the parts left the foundry and were on the production line within a few days, these numbers will tell us when she was built.

The date you have on the crown wheel is for that part when it was made. They made them in batches and this could be fitted at a later date than it says. Crown wheel and pinions were often changed on NP tractors to give different ratios, 3.3, High gear or 4.4, Low. You should find a number stamped on a triangular shaped, machined area near the front of the lift and gear stick, this will tell you what ratio she was when she left the factory.

Hello Brian,

I found these 2 codes:

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makes her from july-august 1963

On the otherside of the engine I found also EBRO. Does it make sense to look for another engine, to make it back original?

Yes, she is a 1963.

The Ebro on the engine means the engine was made by the Spanish company that was part owned by Ford. After the end of production at Dagenham, the tractor production line was removed from the factory and sent to Spain where Super Majors were still built. Spare parts for Supers were sourced from the Ebro factory and sold as FoMoCo parts. Complete engines were available to dealers and blocks and cranks made by Ebro were sold by some after market suppliers as late as the early 2000's.

For me, the engine is not that important unless you are going to use it as a show machine, if you are you need to change the rear wheels as well as you have Fordson Major wheels not Super Major wheels, but Hey, just enjoy her as she is.

Hello Matthias and Brian
Welcome Matthias. Much enjoyed reading this thread.
Brian's advice is, as ever, most wise. Your tractor is over fifty years old. The fact that it has had a replacement engine fitted is all part of its individual history. Imagine the original engine failing for whatever reason. Someone thought highly enough of your tractor to source a new engine. That says it all.
Best, Adrian.

Hello Mathias,

Glad you made it to the board finaly.
What are your plans with the tractor?

As she has a replacement engine, it doesn't have the right papers to go on the road. Will see how far we go there.
Plans are as follow:
I've got the complete brakes out so far, one side was really rusty. New discs and springs are on the way.

The hydraulic cover needs to get off again, as I'm not getting enough pressure for the lift and aux output.

edit:
no luck so far:
I tried to remove the cover carefully with a engine lift, but the piece that holds the pipes broke :s

Today I tried to weld the cracks, but no luck so far. It's such a little piece.. :s

Then I mounted the hydraulic cover, but it seems I need this part of the body to have a close fit of the pipes.
Anyone any ideas?

Tomorrow I will start with the brakes, I hope that goes a little easier.

update:

I used some epoxy aluminium bounding to repair the cracks:
will see if it's strong enough..

Mathias,

If it works, please tell us what kind of stuff it is.

When it failes I'll send you a PM in Dutch, because I find it hard to write in English what I should try.

Hello Mathias
I'm loving your never-say-die attitude.
I don't know the technology you're employing, but it looks promising. At the very least it positions the pipe apertures where they need to be.
In English we have an expression 'belt and braces' [Google it!]. Having applied the belt, which brings horizontal forces into play, I'd be looking to apply the braces - some vertical support.
Do you know any steel fabricators? They'd easily be able to make you a bracket that attaches to, and transfers the vertical forces onto, the internal bull pinion housing.
As already discussed, your tractor is well worth bringing back to life. It's a Major.
Could I just express my admiration for fellow members who contribute in English when it is not their mother tongue.
Best, Adrian.

If you're feeling downhearted, don't be.
This is what I started out with - a worn engine and a gearbox with broken bearings.
You need to find a solution to your rear axle broken casting. Solve that, as I now believe you can, then the rest is doable.
You'll then have a Major you can be proud of.
Best, Adrian.

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AdrianNPMajor wrote:Hello Mathias
I'm loving your never-say-die attitude.
I don't know the technology you're employing, but it looks promising. At the very least it positions the pipe apertures where they need to be.
In English we have an expression 'belt and braces' [Google it!]. Having applied the belt, which brings horizontal forces into play, I'd be looking to apply the braces - some vertical support.
Do you know any steel fabricators? They'd easily be able to make you a bracket that attaches to, and transfers the vertical forces onto, the internal bull pinion housing.
As already discussed, your tractor is well worth bringing back to life. It's a Major.
Could I just express my admiration for fellow members who contribute in English when it is not their mother tongue.
Best, Adrian.

Adrian,
thanks for the inspiring words.

I put some extra reinforcement around the inside of the casting. If I manage to put the top back on without breaking anything, I think it hopefully works.
I'm still looking around for steel fabricators at reasonable prices. I'm currently looking for someone to repair some teeth of the bull pinions. The left side has 1 chipped tooth, The right one has about 5 chipped teeth. They told me that repairing is useless and making a new one would cost a lot. Tomorrow I'm going to the show in Panningen, maybe I can find some spares there.

It's still doable, but it gets harder, and you have to ask yourself if it wouldn't be better to carry your knowledge and enthusiasm to another tractor.
Someone in the past stamped on the differential lock pedal when one of the rear wheels began to spin.
Good luck.
Adrian

Hi, I'm with Adrian on this I think tractor fighting you so hard. Maybe think of looking for a more original starting point she still worth a lot In useful parts or keep for next project but don't chuck good money at it this is only my opinion, don't let me put you off

nah, it will work.
Today the lift went back up and it's working. I can get the pressure up to around 160bar. Lowering is also working very well, including the drop valve restrictor.

Stick with it Having overcome many hurdles with my Major, sometimes it feels like two steps forward one step back For example, the rear half shaft seal (there is a discussion I started somewhere on this) is now leaking once more where the cork seal butts up against the trumpet casting. This is falling onto my shiny new orange wheels which, after discussion, I went against what I like (grey/white wheels) and went with the correct orange (well it's not strictly correct as it's AEC orange)
I now intend to investigate the differential as I'm convinced there's something up with it, it seems to send drive to both wheels when I used the brakes (L/R) when struggling ploughing in the slurry Maize is going in you see.

easy.start wrote:Stick with it Having overcome many hurdles with my Major, sometimes it feels like two steps forward one step back For example, the rear half shaft seal (there is a discussion I started somewhere on this) is now leaking once more where the cork seal butts up against the trumpet casting. This is falling onto my shiny new orange wheels which, after discussion, I went against what I like (grey/white wheels) and went with the correct orange (well it's not strictly correct as it's AEC orange)
I now intend to investigate the differential as I'm convinced there's something up with it, it seems to send drive to both wheels when I used the brakes (L/R) when struggling ploughing in the slurry Maize is going in you see.

know the feeling, but 2 steps forward and one step back is still some progress. As long as the steps are equal
post a picture of your tractor, maybe that can help.

Still working on mine, hope to do some ploughing the in the coming days.

I'm in the foreground on the 6 cylinder Major. My friend is on the 4 cylinder in the background. Both these tractors are 1955 vintage!

Both of us using Ford Ransomes 2 furrow ploughs fitted with Kristeel Epic boards. I'm doing a much better job here than on the slurry and grass I was ploughing last weekend!