Ford, 2.9 litre, injection, RWD........but not what you think!

[Blake's Den]

I've recently started my first foray into blue oval ownership. The stats are as per the title, but what is it? A Sierra, a Granada, a Scorpio? Nope it is something completely different.......It is a Ford 3000 tractor from 1965.

So yes, its a 2.9 litre, three cylinder, direct injection diesel engine. Rear wheel drive with (I think) a three speed gearbox and a two speed transfer case. For those who know their tractors, this a 'pre force' model and dates from the summer of 1965. Production started in spring 1965 so it is a very early model. I haven't been able to locate the serial number yet, the whole machine is covered in 40 years of grease, oil, diesel, straw, hay, cow muck, pig muck and rat muck. A date with the power washer is in order.

I've also got a Quicke front loader to go on this which came with the deal.

The tractor hasn't really been used for the last 10 years and for about 10 years before that it was used solely to power a PTO driven power washer. It was parked up in a shed (a real barn find!) with a damaged front wheel, apparantly it was driven in there with a flat tyre and the wheel ended up getting destroyed. So the first job was to swap this over with a 'new' wheel and tyre. Here is the video:

The next job is to get it running. I have heard it run before but that must have been about 15 years ago. Being an old school diesel it should fire up straight away.

If you like watching videos that are out of sequence then check out this video from earlier in the year when I recovered the tractor back to my home. I have already posted this in my Land Rover Defender thread but for completeness I'm posting it here now.

And sorry for the click bait forum post title!

[dozeydustman]

These are incredibly simple and unbreakable. Before I moved to Sussex I used to cut the cricket and rugby pitches for my sports club with the later 3600 and a selection of apparatus on the 3-point. If you need any parts and fluids for it use agriline.

If you plan on using the 3-point hitch check the hydraulic pump - it’s at the front of the tractor and if it’s an original x000 series it looks like a starter motor with pipes running to and from. Once the seals go on them they’re a bugger to repair so I would recommend changing to a x610 series hydraulic pump which has a filter and requires a section of hose from the main reservoir line to the pump itself, but never seem to fail - won’t win prizes for originality but if it’s going to be a working machine it’s a great help.

Good luck with it!

[Blake's Den]

13 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

These are incredibly simple and unbreakable. Before I moved to Sussex I used to cut the cricket and rugby pitches for my sports club with the later 3600 and a selection of apparatus on the 3-point. If you need any parts and fluids for it use agriline.

If you plan on using the 3-point hitch check the hydraulic pump - it’s at the front of the tractor and if it’s an original x000 series it looks like a starter motor with pipes running to and from. Once the seals go on them they’re a bugger to repair so I would recommend changing to a x610 series hydraulic pump which has a filter and requires a section of hose from the main reservoir line to the pump itself, but never seem to fail - won’t win prizes for originality but if it’s going to be a working machine it’s a great help.

Good luck with it!

Thanks for the info. Yes I am planning on using the hydraulics for a log splitter. I've also got a front end loader that I'm going to fit to it. The hydraulics were working fine the last time it was used......

[Blake's Den]

More progress has been made on the old Ford. 

It is alive! In actually started up fairly easily once I had a good battery on it. I was expecting it to fire up as I knew that it was working when parked and wasn't run out of diesel.

It drives backward and forwards too. The brakes work in the same way that brakes work on any neglected old tractor - that is they don't work at all! I think that they are actually binding a bit. It uses rod opperated external drums so it should be easy enough to free up. I also need to look at the charging system as it is not charging. It has a dynamo on it and it appears to be the wrong one as it has no tacho drive. It also came with a spare control box which suggests there may have been problems in the past.

The steering is very heavy with no power assistance. I noticed that the front wheel that I didn't replace is rubbing against the king pin. The wheel is well bent and you can see it wobble when you move forwards. I need to swap that wheel out and give the steering system a good oil and grease.

Overall I'm happy with it. A bit of fettling then I can put it into use.

[Blake's Den]

A bit more progress has been made. 

In the latest video I decided to wash the tractor. I'm guessing its 40 years since it was last done! Whilst I did not get it remotely clean I did discover that the fuel filters have fuel bowls at the bottom and the diesel pump is silver and not black. 

I've got three big jobs that I need to tackle next:

1. Sort out the charging system. It runs a dynamo but currently isn't charging the battery. I need to investigate the wiring and control box, it should be an easy fix (I hope).
2. Replace one of the rear inner tubes. This has the potential to be a pain of a job, I might get someone in for this.
3. Make the brakes work. They are rod opperated drums on the rear axle so there isn't much to go wrong. A quick look has revealed some siezed linkages. It also has a handbrake which operates on the transmission but this is stuck in the off position.

After that, I can get the loader on and start using it to tidy up the place.

In  other news - I now have had sufficient watch hours to become a YouTube partner! That means that I get paid for the adverts that the viewers watch and also it unlocks some additional features such as channel memberships. Whilst I've never planned to be the next HubNut or Grand Thridt Auto, it is rewarding to see my channel grow. Everything that I have recorded is stuff that I needed to do anyway so it isn't really a lot of effort to make the videos. Onwards and upwards!

[EyesWeldedShut]

I 'learned' to drive on a 3000 with no brakes which was fun*.
If you get the loader fitted with an appropriate bucket it makes a fantastic emergency brake - just don't use it when you are rolling backwards downhill or when you have silage forks fitted and you are rolling forwards (ask me how I know.....). 
Replace one of the rear inner tubes. This has the potential to be a pain of a job, I might get someone in for this.

Get the agri tyre fitters in - they'll jack the back end up, stick a fancy bead breaker thing on the rim and pull the inner tube and/or tyre in a jiffy. Rim stays on the tractor. Much easier than faffing around with the usual farmyard tools (JCB, steel fencing bars, angle iron, etc etc).

[Blake's Den]

11 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

I 'learned' to drive on a 3000 with no brakes which was fun*.
If you get the loader fitted with an appropriate bucket it makes a fantastic emergency brake - just don't use it when you are rolling backwards downhill or when you have silage forks fitted and you are rolling forwards (ask me how I know.....). 
Replace one of the rear inner tubes. This has the potential to be a pain of a job, I might get someone in for this.

Get the agri tyre fitters in - they'll jack the back end up, stick a fancy bead breaker thing on the rim and pull the inner tube and/or tyre in a jiffy. Rim stays on the tractor. Much easier than faffing around with the usual farmyard tools (JCB, steel fencing bars, angle iron, etc etc).

Thanks for the advice! Yes the bucket does have silage fork tines on it, I'll be careful!

As for the inner tube, I did fancy giving it a go myself as I have never done one before. But I already know that getting someone in to do it would be much easier  

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

13 minutes ago, Blake's Den said:

Thanks for the advice! Yes the bucket does have silage fork tines on it, I'll be careful!

Like many things in life - if you remember to keep it at a jaunty. upward angle - you'll be fine  Mine just got a little droopy

[Blake's Den]

A bit of a long video this one so you might want to grab tea and biscuits before you press play!

In short  the battery was not charging. I have now got it charging but I think that the positive and negative battery leads are the wrong way round.

From the factory this should be negative earth. I have two cables, one black which I assume is negative and one green which I assume is positive. The green cable however is an earth. A previous owner could have swapped this the positive earth for whatever reason or it may be the case that someone just wired it up wrong! 

[Blake's Den]

Some more work on the Ford. I actually filmed this a few months ago but for various reasons I have only got around to uploading the video this weekend. 

The Lucas C40 dynamo had seen better days so I decided to give it a bit of a rebuild. It is amazing how many British vehicles use this dynamo, in fatc I have the exact same one on my Turner Ranger which runs a 1098cc A-series engine.

After the rebuild the charging light went out so I think that we are back in business. Although the only thing on the tractor which draws power is the starter motot, I don't even have any lights!

 

[Blake's Den]

A bit more progress with the old Ford. I want to put it to work soon so I have been spending some time fixing the essentials. First up was the tye that keeps going flat. I've added some tyre goo and it now lasts for about 18 hours as opposed to the 20 minutes that it lasted for previosuly. I'll call that a win!

The plan was to fit some 'new' rear wheels but the wheel nuts wont budge at all. I think that I'll need to get a mobile tractor tyre compnay in to get them off. They'll no doubt have a 3/4 inch drive breaker bar which is about 2m long....

[dozeydustman]

11 minutes ago, Blake's Den said:

The plan was to fit some 'new' rear wheels but the wheel nuts wont budge at all.

Some old plant and commercials had left-handed threads on the left hand side. I can't remember if these Ford thousands were or not though!

[Blake's Den]

9 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

Some old plant and commercials had left-handed threads on the left hand side. I can't remember if these Ford thousands were or not though!

That's a good point! I'll have to check through the user manual and see what it says. I suspect that they are just seized solid 

[dozeydustman]

32 minutes ago, Blake's Den said:

That's a good point! I'll have to check through the user manual and see what it says. I suspect that they are just seized solid 

I only ever had to change a tyre on the right front of the gang mowing setup 3000 I used to use, that one was a normal thread.

[EyesWeldedShut]

34 minutes ago, Blake's Den said:

That's a good point! I'll have to check through the user manual and see what it says. I suspect that they are just seized solid 

I worked with a 3000, 5000, 5600 (new, with quite cab!) and a 6600 (powerrrr!) back in the day and they all had lefty-loosey wheel nuts. When the 5000 needed shoes - we got a wheel off with a wall socket, scaffolding pole and two teenagers hanging off the end. (socket end supported on some railway sleeper cutoffs). Heat, fluid & FBH were also involved (no air tools). 
The 3000 never had any brakes worth a damn so I reckon the previous owners had never pulled the rear wheels off that, ever, it never went out our yard much - bit of hay bobbing maybe.

[Blake's Den]

More progress on the old Ford. The charging system was proving to be very problematic. Despite new brushes in the dynamo and a new regulator box it just wouldn't charge the battery. I tested the dynamo as a motor and it worked fine plus a test of the wiring loom revealed now high impedance circuits or short circuits. So that got me thinking, will an alternator from a mini fit a Ford 3000? It turns out it will!

I suspected that it would. My Turner Ranger has a A-series engine with a Lucas C40 dynamo. The tractor also used a C40 dynamo and I know thta it is easyish to add an alternator to an A-series engine.
I'm now getting 13.5v plus at the battery. Still not super high but better than 12.5v that I was getting before. I suspect that the pully is to small for the engine revs but it should be fine for me. I have no electrical load on the tractor other than the starter motor.

[Blake's Den]

Now that my battery is full of volts and ampres I've turned my attention to other issues on the tractor in order to make it more usable. The steering is very heavy, I remember that when I first got it running again it felt like it was almost locked up. The first step was to check the basisc, grease the swivel joints and make sure that there was some oil in the steering box. I think that it has helped a bit but its still not right, the steering effort is very inconsistent.

Of course the steering is never going to be super light. It is an old tractor that moves slow with wide front wheels and no hydraulic assistance. Hopefully a bit more use will work the grease into the places that it needs to be.

 

[Blake's Den]

I went to use the old Ford the other day and the starter would not engage. I remember it being a bit dicky the last time a used it and it required a firm hit with a hammer to make it engage. No amount of hammering would get it to work this time sadly.

Removing the starter was fairly straightforward except for one hidden bolt. I needed to use all of my 3/8 inch extensions and a UK to get it out. Luckily the starter wasn't too bad, just a bit corroded and gunked up. After some lubrication with graphite it was good to go.

In other news - thanks to some excellent advice from @LightBulbFun I now have the V5C and original registration number 🙂

[Blake's Den]

A bit of an update on the old Ford.

Thanks to advice from @LightBulbFun I was able to use the V5 last issued in 1989 to get a new V5C. I was also to confirm the registation number, the number plate had fallen off a long, long time ago. I got a cheapo black and white plate knocked up and fabircated up a bracket to mount it behind the rear seat. In the fullness of time I will change it to a more period correct plate. I have a stashed of the old style 3D number plate letters but I didn't have all of the letters for MLG184C.

I've also had it confirmed through the Ford and Fordson association that this is a very early Ford 3000.  The stamp on the gearbox suggests that it was the 62nd built at the Ford plant in Basildon. I don't think that this makes it any more valuable but it is good to know. Apparantly the tinwork is period correct too with bonnet vents and a high instrumnet binnacle which sits quite close to the steering wheel. These were changed about two years into production with the deletion of the vents and more clearance to the steering wheel.

I put the tractor to work doing some topping (like lawn mowing but on a bigger scale). It did it fine with no problems at all other than covering my arms with some fine oild droplets out of the exhaust! I have also managed to fit a new levelling box to the rear to help get implements level.

The next job is to get the front loader fitted.

[Blake's Den]

When I bought the Ford it came with a front loader. I have now successfully joined the two together:

Not without problems of course. The hydraulic flexi lines were shot so I had some new ones made up. When I fitted those I found a leak on the hydraulic hard line. I tried pacthing that up but in the end I replaced the whole line with another flexi. Finally after getting it to go up and down a couple of types the ram seals shat themselves and started leaking.  So I now have those to fix!

The loader should be useful for picking things up and moving them around. For example, I have a back up generator that I want to install, it is currently in my garage (in bits!) and it would be impossible to put it where I want to put it without using some mechanical help.

 

[Blake's Den]

After fitting the loader the seals surprisingly gave up the ghost and started leaking oil everywhere.  You can still buy them from Quicke but £120 per side is a bit rich. I stripped the end caps down and measured up the seals so that I could buy generic. I bought three sets of seals for over 50% less what of what Quicke wanted for one set. Quite a saving indeed.

Now to pick some things up and not tip it over.....