The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Just found this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTjqmnf ... rdTractors
looks like it was an experiment, as all the bits seem to fit like that and not have lots of modifications (tinwork excluded).
Sandy

Never realised dextas had the same bellhousing bolt pattern as a major, every day is a school day!

Billy26F5 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 02, 2021 3:16 pm

looks like it was an experiment, as all the bits seem to fit like that and not have lots of modifications (tinwork excluded).

I said that because Dexta bell housings don't fit a Major engine, this part has been made specially, and there are enough special parts to make me think that this experiment could have been a Ford one (although I don't know of that being mentioned in any book).
Sandy

Looks like a major bell housing mated to a dexta gearbox, definitely a colour difference

It can't be a Major bell housing because the clutch cross shaft is up above the on a Major and below the input shaft on a Dexta, also the general shape is quite different to what this tractor has in both cases.
Sandy

Hi,

Nice tractor. Definitely not a dexta bell housing, the bulge for the starter gear is not there on the right hand side.

Don’t think it’s a major bell housing either. No place to fit the frame channels to.

Some handy guy has been fabricating something I suppose. Never read in literature about ford experiments in this direction and prototypes didn’t usually survive.

They thought the other way round in the late fifties. Ford had early in dexta development the idea to fit a major with a shortened engine, like nuffield did, and smaller wheels. But improving the ford N series tractor was what they did in the end. And I think that was a good decision.

I wonder how much I would like a dexta with a 590E in.

Just found out it was sold at HJ Pugh auction in herefordshire in 2020 for £4400

I think there's a member here with a possible prototype Super Major. I know that the early Dexta proposals were of a 3 cylinder Major, but it was the sales force that wanted a Fergie look alike, so they then based it on the 8N. If the owner of this Dexta has lots of Major's it will shrink his engine spares (assuming all the engines are the same design, not for example a mk1 and 3 mk3's).
I think a six in a Dexta would be a bit ambitious, an easier one to fit would be a P6, which is much more similar to the std. F3. I think having big engines in a Dexta defeats the point of it being light, as I would guess a six cylinder Dexta to be quite close weight wise to the simplest Major (no hydraulics, PTO or extra ballast and pressed front wheels). I could be quite wrong though.
Quite a lot more expensive than I expected it to be (although I find current prices ridiculous).
Sandy

I agree about defeating the object of having a lightweight tractor by adding a big engine. I assume the dexta was fords answer to the MF35, both of which seemed perfectly adequate hp wise compared to their size. It does seem a bit pricey, although in the last 18 months dexta prices seem to be falling and majors are going up in value. 10 years ago i could have bought 3 majors for the price of 1 dexta, they seem to be levelling out now

The Dexta was supposed to be out in Fergie days, but it ended up not appearing until the MF35 was also around.
Sandy

Hi,

To prevent being mis understood. I thought about a fun conversion to a 6 cylinder. Building from scratch. For real live the dexta with its original engine is quite close to perfect.

In real live I only want tractors cars etc to be fully original.

Back to topic; the Ford Diesel engines where designed to some sort of sae standard for the bell housing, or weren’t they?

Hi Emiel
i wasn't meaning your conversion idea, a 6 cylinder dexta would be a good fun project. I always wanted to put a Gardner 2 stroke diesel engine in a major, thought it might be interesting! The bell housing on the dexta has to be either a ford project as Sandy says, or from something else using the 4d engine. Surely it would be too much trouble to cast a one-off bell housing just to put a major engine in a dexta?