Lost Serial Number Questions/Ideas

[Deere7520]

I recently bought a 1970's John Deere 7520 at an auction. This tractor had both the serial tags removed from the rear axle and the engine. I would like to identify the year and some other information about this tractor. I talked with John Deere and they said I need one of those two numbers to find get the full serial number. When I shine a light where the engine serial number was I can faintly see some numbers/letters. Would these numbers have been stamped on the aluminum plate then installed on the tractor or would hey have been stamped after installed on the tractor? I can't imagine just the friction from vibration would have made part of a serial number visible. Has anyone else had luck finding a serial number this way. Does anyone have any tips for how to recover a serial number if I can't get the numbers to show this way.
Thanks

 

[Mike Aylward]

The tractor sounds like it has been stolen at some point. Someone knew the numbers could be traced and removed both of them. It would be very, very unlikely for both numbers to "fall off". Mike

 

[tim s]

They were stamped before they were installed, they were only made for 3 years so as far as ordering parts that won't matter much...as far as History on it can you back track the ownership?

 

[Deere7520]

That was one of my first thoughts also that it may have been stolen. I also thought it may have gone through a salvage yard. However the owner at the auction provided the John Deere dealer that he had bought it from. I talked to that dealer and they have the records of it selling but don't have serial numbers on the sales form and don't have any information of where it came from since their dealer had changed hands since then.

 

[tim s]

It's odd that a dealer didn't have the serial numbers on the order,or some explanation on why not.

 

[jd b puller]

If the dealer has the selling records, they should have an owner name. It might be possible for someone to search by owners name.

This is probably one of those... "don't ask, don't tell" type issues. If it's stolen and it's been reported as stolen and you now have a stolen tractor, most likely you won't have that problem much longer.

 

[Mike Aylward]

If it hasn't been stolen the numbers were taken off as to avoid a repossession, etc. Funny stuff going on here, I would guess. Mike

 

[Deere7520]

I could see where it would have been up for reposession and this would have made it hard to track. I just can"t imagine a tractor of this size being stolen and then running through a John Deere dealer. I thought that the dealer should have been able to come up with a previous owner or something.

 

[Loren NC]

This is a long stretch but not an impossibility. I recently encountered a woman who is obsessively afraid of all labels and removed them from everything she had. "They" can track you through labels, so she removed them from her tools, her appliances, her A/C unit ....everything. Maybe the prior owner of this tractor just had a bit of a problem seeing labels on anything. Like I said, it is a long stretch!