The rest of the story on my 961

ole fred

Member
If you folks remember, I bought a 961 at auction in late May.

Here's the thread about that tractor. There are links to the actual auction and pictures.


So, to finish the story.............I tore the engine completely down. The pistons and sleeves were like new. None of the bearings showed any wear except number four rod which was scored badly. I had the crank ground and it cleaned up at .010 under. So far, so good. Then I found the rod had to be resized as it was out of round from the hammering of the scored rod journal. I was going to grind the valves,, but decided I'd better get the head checked for flatness and cracks. Guess what. Both were bad. #3 was cracked in the middle of the combustion chamber and the exhaust valve was burned bad. (In my original post, I said the head gasket was blown between 3 & 4. Actually, it was between 2 & 3.) I found a good uncracked head for $350. I had it surface ground and had the shop go ahead and grind the valves as he already had it in his shop. It turned out that my cracked head had new valves and guides and the "new" head needed new valve guides. He just swapped them and it turned out that the #3 exhaust valve on my cracked head had a big chunk out of it. He used a good one from the "new" head and every thing was ready to go. (It has good oil pressure - 60+ cold and will hold about 35 idling hot. Suits me. )

I put the engine back on the transmission, side rails, and the front "what ever you call it" that the pedestal is hooked to. We discussed the lower thrust bearing for the pedestal in the original post and I decided now was the time to check into that. Guess what? The bearing was as good as new. I greased it up good and buttoned up the front end. Oh yeah, I packed the wheel bearings as it was handy at the time.

Next came the hood and stuff. I replace the fuel gauge with an ammeter as I like to see what the alternator is doing. This one has been converted to 12 volt with a Delco 10SI. I'm ok with that as I'm not into the high end collecting stuff.

Soooo....... I'm into this tractor for $3089.97. I'm satisfied. It's a unique tractor as a row crop with a narrow front end. It was quite a tractor when new. It has the "live" PTO, five speed transmission, power steering with a remote hydraulic hookup. It has been repainted and it looks like they stripped the sheet metal. The paint job isn't good, but it isn't that bad either. Guessing from it's fading, it was done years ago. Oh yeah, the back tires are in really good shape with good tread and little to no cracking.

But.......I'm wondering who overhauled this thing the last time. It seems obvious to me that they put in new pistons and sleeves, bearings, valve guides and valves. All with a bad rod journal and I'm guessing with a cracked head. They may have worked on the three point system as it will hold up the three bottom plow more or less indefinitely. That is unusual.

As I mentioned in the original post, I have a copy of the check that was used to buy the tractor, but can't read the name on it. I'm trying to track down the owner and have couple of leads, but so far, I haven't found him.

Oh yeah, the icing on the cake ------- it has a full set of pie/segment rear wheel weights. They seem to be asking about $750 for these. I'm in the process of cleaning up and painting the rusty ones now - one a day. I also have an extra set of "center sprockets" and a friend has a full set of the special bolts that are needed to fasten them to the rear hubs.

Nuff for now.
 
One more thing - when I got this tractor, the throttle didn't work correctly. If you pulled the throttle handle down slowly, you got nothing until it was most of the way down. Then the rpm's went to full throttle until the governor caught it and slowed it down.
The problem was - and I found this out after I tore it down - they had apparently replaced the bushings in the governor/timing cover and not properly aligned them. The cross shaft that the fork was on was binding. It is a 1/2" shaft, so a half inch drill bit cured this easily.
Now it works perfectly. It is extremely sensitive and better that either my 851 or 641.
 
Sure, here ya go, but it looks about the same is it did when I got it. It's just cleaned up a little bit.

One more thing: The clutch doesn't seem near as "tight" as the ones without the double clutch. It won't slip though. At least not now.

I was out pulling the three bottom Ford 101 that I bought with the tractor and I hooked a root and up came the front end to about a 45 degree angle and killed the motor. I guess the clutch is at least that good. This all happened so fast that I couldn't get my foot on the clutch before it stopped.

Another thing: are the 961's geared the same as the 851's? It sure seems faster, but I have checked into it much. Also, you sure have to turn the steering wheel a bunch to turn a corner. A steering knob sure comes in handy, and of course, it will turn shorter because of the narrow front end.
 

Attachments

  • MVC-181X.JPG
    MVC-181X.JPG
    172.8 KB · Views: 47
Did you have it in draft mode when you were pulling that plow? If so, and it was working properly, the arms should have raised due to the increased draft when it snagged the root.
 
Yup, the draft control was working as it should. The root just won the battle.

No biggie, I pushed in the clutch and the front end came down hard, I hit the starter and it started right back up. I had to back up a little to get out from under the root, but then I went on plowing.

I'm plowing around the outside of the fields to establish where the edge is. With this new huge equipment, it seems the drivers can't judge the edge of the field and the side ditches, ditch banks and fence rows just keep getting wider and the fields keep getting smaller.
 
Just another point, this plowing I'm doing is really hard. The ground is bone dry and hasn't been frozen deep for several years now. Also, it is in pretty much sod/weeds/grass that hasn't been moved for years.
Anyway, I tried using the same 101 plow on the 851. It wouldn't even begin to pull it. The wheels would just spin and dig a hole. The 900 pounds of weight on the 961 made all the difference in the world.
 
Yup, the draft control was working as it should. The root just won the battle.

No biggie, I pushed in the clutch and the front end came down hard, I hit the starter and it started right back up. I had to back up a little to get out from under the root, but then I went on plowing.

I'm plowing around the outside of the fields to establish where the edge is. With this new huge equipment, it seems the drivers can't judge the edge of the field and the side ditches, ditch banks and fence rows just keep getting wider and the fields keep getting smaller.
Even with old small equipment the edges keep growing in as the bushes grow towards the sun. There is no replacement for rotary mowing and cutting branches back. I do some every year and can usually make it to a given field every third year.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top