Ford 900?

[Matt Thomas]

Ran across a Ford 900 and have question or two since my familiarity with Fords stops with anything newer than an NAA. 1) Were all 900 considered a "high crop" with a bull gear set up in the rear? 2) This one has a wide front made by Schwartz and the model on that says 960. Common? 3) The serial number says 950 but the nose cone says 900. Serial number indicates 1955. Sound right? 4) Did Ford make any of these with a propane fuel system? Thanks in advance for any help that can be provided.

 

[awhtx]

1) The 900 is considered a Row Crop and all of them have the gear reduction drives on the rear axle. The High Crop tractors were a special option and they had extended front spindles and extra large diameter rear tires to raise the tractor even higher.
2)The standard front axle was the 2 wheel narrow. There was an optional single wheel front and a 2 wheel wide front. The Schwartz (and others) were aftermarket wide front axles.
3)All nose emblems said 900 (series) but there were 2 models- the 950 with a 5 speed and trans driven PTO and the 960 with the 5 speed and a Live PTO. According to the Owner's Manual the 4 speed was not available in the 900 (940).
4)In 1957 the Propane system became available on the last of the 600,700,800 & 900 series tractors. It continued on into the 601,701,801 & 901 series that were introduced in late 1957 as 1958 models.

 

[souNdguy]

Yes.. 9xx had the bull gears / gear reduction boxes.

Now.. you said you say a 960 and a 950.. which is it?

960 is 5spd with live pto via 2-stage clutch.. -VERY- desireable.

950 is 5spd, with non live pto. Better than a 4spd.. etc.

the '00' series ran from 55 thru 57.. so 55 is a valid year.

As far as i know.. LPG was available 57+.

soundguy

 

[paul]

Yup.

The wide front is good, I have one.

960 is real good.

950 is pretty good - lose the live pto, which makes snow blowing, tilling, bush hogging less fun.

I have a 960 with the Schwartz wide front. Was the go to tractor for a lot of years when dad was farming. We actually had 2, a narrow front 960 at the same time, for cultivating. Tranny got weak & dad traded that one off.

--->Paul

 

[Matt Thomas]

The model number is part of my wondering. The WFE had a model designator of 960. The serial number is not perfectly clear but it LOOKS like it says 950. I know the rest of the number was 42756....which I think puts it in 1955 and makes the propane NON-factory. I am guessing it was added from a '57 or later model because it looks very factory except for the hood modification. Definitely a 5 spd tranny but I was not able to start it so I do not know about the PTO/2-stage clutch...is there a way to know without trying it running?

 

[awhtx]

Crawl under the transmission, remove the 3" square plate with the hole in the center and shine a flashlight up in towards the clutch. If this is what you see it has the 2 stage clutch and live pto, thus a 960.

 

[souNdguy]

another thing you can do is to put it in any forward gear, and engage pto.. have someone set on it and modulate the clutch so you can just get her to roll..( drivetrain disconnected ) see if the pto shaft will spin by hand.. if it will.. it's non live pto, and clutched at the same time as the drivetrain.. if the pto won't spin. she's likely live pto.

soundguy

 

[paul]

Did you get that reversed in your description?

Or am I just brain-dead after cutting up the tree in the rain that blew across the driveway & then replacing the spring on the garage door that busted last nite but now I see the old spring shot over & busted the angle iron supporting the door so it is flexing & about to bust so that brace needs replacing but the stores are closed & I am too cold & wet to care....

--->Paul

 

[john_Bud]

(quoted from post at 06:53:46 03/24/09)

2) This one has a wide front made by Schwartz [b:fd3f2f61a0]and the model on that[/b:fd3f2f61a0] says 960. Common?

Now I could be reading it wrong, but I assumed that the Schwartz wide front was model 960 and the tractor was model 950.

jb

 

[Ultradog MN]

Pay more attention to what it says on the tranny and less to what it says on the nose cone. Nosecone is much easier to change over the years.
All 900 series tractors did have a second reduction gear on the outside of the axles wich raised them a couple of inches over their utility counterparts - the 800 series, and had unique 3 point lift parts as well.
Shwartz would have been Ford's equal back in the day but would not have the value of an OEM WFE in today's market. Would be an great tractor to own - eat an NAA's lunch too.

 

[souNdguy]

Naa.. i think it's pretty straightforward.

if you press the clutch enough to get the machine to roll, and the pto will move as well.. she's non live, pto will move with the wheels as you roll her... could put a pipe wrench on pto and move the tractor by spinning the pto by hand.

if she's live pto, pressing the clutch just enough to disconnect the drivetrain will still leave the pto coupled to the engine.. and thus she won't spin.

remember.. onthe 2 stage clutch, pto stage stays locked to the engine while the drivetrain gets clutched at the first level of the pedal going down...

soundguy

 

[paul]

Ok. Got that. Don't think I quite understood the first time around, something in there got criss-crossed to me.

--->Paul

 

[Larry NCKS]

My goodness! We can sure make simple things complicated on this forum!

We surely didn't read the OP carefully on this one.

 

[souNdguy]

That's one of the downsides to text only communication! .. no arms moving and facial expressions.

soundguy

 

[Matt Thomas]

Thanks for all the replies. IF...big IF...I wind up with this tractor, it will not be worked much likely. I'd love to be in the position to actually work these old things but life has not let me stay on the farm....had to move to town so all I can do is restore and play with them. Current stable; 53 NAA, 53 IH super M, 59 IH 650d, 55 Cat d6 9u, PowerKing 2414.

 

[Matt Thomas]

Thought I'd update with what I found out. According to Pripp's book on Fords, the serial numbers listed for 950's and 960's puts this one in 1958....not 1955. The range for the early 900 series had the same number shown as 1955...my mistake in not knowing how to read. This one is definitely a 950 LPG converted to wide front aftermarket Shwartz. Blown head gasket and pretty rough sheet metal. Feller wants $3500. Think I'll keep looking.

 

[Larry NCKS]

Ford didn't make a 900 in 1958. They were in the 901 series by then. Sorry, but you're back to confusion.

 

[Matt Thomas]

Hmmm. When did they start calling them Workmaster and Powermaster tractors?

 

[Larry NCKS]

(quoted from post at 08:40:47 03/27/09) Hmmm. When did they start calling them Workmaster and Powermaster tractors?

01 Series, 1958 model

 

[Matt Thomas]

This thing gets stranger and stranger. I know sheetmetal can be changed but it says Powermaster and the serial says 950...and it has LPG. The book says that's possible, but comments here lead me to think otherwise. I am beginning to think this thing was put together from parts.

 

[Larry NCKS]

Possibly it was an SOS and the 950 transmission was swapped in. The SN and model number would have gone with the original transmission if that is so.