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Ford Tractor – Sterling, PA

May 31st, 2008
by fadingad.

Ford Tractor - Sterling, PA
© Frank H. Jump

Posted in: Farm Equipment, NEPA, Photography, Science Education, Sterling PA.

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10 Comments

  1. logan says:
    October 7, 2008 at 12:32 am

    my g-pa has one of these tractors and he passed away and i cant figure out how to crank start it or find where to do it. do yoiu know?

  2. fadingad says:
    October 7, 2008 at 3:11 am

    I’m not mechanically inclined but perhaps someone will respond to your request.

  3. Ryan Sanford says:
    September 21, 2009 at 6:31 am

    My dad has a tractor identical to this old ford but I can’t find the year or model#. I anybody has that info. please reply.

  4. Jim Fair says:
    June 7, 2010 at 8:57 pm

    That is a Ford-Ferguson 8N, judging by the red colour on the under-belly. If it has four forward speeds, it will be an 8N; if it has only three forward gears, it will be a 9N, which is the older model. These tractors were made from about early forties toearly sixties. Both models have battery-powered starters, so you need a good battery. We used to crank ours because the generator didn’t work, and so the battery was always just about dead. The crank is very simple, and you could make one by bending a piece of 5/8 inch round stock, drilling through the business end, and driving in a steel pin so it extends out on each side 5/16 inch or so, to engage the fingers on the front pulley, on the crankshaft. You insert the crank through a hole at the front under the radiator. You still need a battery, though, with enough juice to fire the spark plugs, and it has to be ready to run, (gas, oil, good plugs, points, condensor, rotor, and sparkplug wires, and coil.) Just don’t hook your thumb around the crank handle when you go to turn the engine over. Keep your thumb off the crank and along-side your index finger. That way, if it kicks back, it won’t grab your thumb and break your wrist. Remember, if you try this, you do it at your own risk. I say get a good battery. You need one anyway, and IT IS SAFER. Don’t always do things the way they did in Saskatchewan in the Dirty Thirties. If you have an old grey Ford tractor, look after it well, change the oil and filtres often, keep anti-freeze in the coolant, and it should run for the next hundred and fifty years. (They’ve been running now for about fifty years.) Good tractors.

  5. Jim Fair says:
    June 7, 2010 at 10:48 pm

    If you meant “Where is the starter button?”, sit in the tractor seat, and look down by the gearshift lever. There is a button there that looks like a headlight dimmer switch on an 1970’s car. Push down on that with your thumb to activate the starter motor.

  6. Jim Fair says:
    June 7, 2010 at 10:50 pm

    P.S.: You have to turn the key on as well.

  7. bob says:
    September 28, 2010 at 4:15 am

    battery grounded on side of housing everythig went dead is there some sort of fuse box need help

    1. fadingad says:
      September 29, 2010 at 3:05 pm

      sorry bob- try a tractor blog. can’t help you here. good luck

  8. Ford Dealers In Scranton Pa | FordPhotosBlog.com says:
    March 11, 2011 at 8:01 am

    […] Ford Tractor – Sterling, PA fadingad.com […]

  9. jaime salvador quiñones rodriguez says:
    March 18, 2012 at 1:58 am

    tengo un tractor ford n8,quiero hacerlo funcionar,nesecito saber de alguna tienda que se encuentre en texas,cerca de la frontera con mexico,podrian ayudarme,por favor.