whats up with the six

1.) My 686's brakes work fine and stop real good. Did you ever overhall the brakes and make sure everything is still their and working. I'll bet someone tried to adjust the brakes and broke off the adjuster or took them apart and lost the steel balls inside. It could be that after 25 years the brake disc's are simply worn out and need to be replaced.

2.) regarding the T/A, your correct it's an old design that originally came out with the SMTA. It works great in the field but freewheeling on the low side is a problem when towing a trailer. Also if the T/A clutch burns out the tractor will allways be in low.

3.) Wheel clamps are a problem. If you go out and get 4 new clamps with the cast in key and 8 new bolts you'll see a big improvement. Also use a 10' pipe on the end of a IH lug wrench to tighten. Don't worry its hard to snap 3/4" grade 8 bolts and if you do they should have been replaced anyway. If you strip the cast clamp then they should have been replaced.

4.) The D-312 engine was one of the best and in the same extended family as the 414/436/466 just smaller. The overall design, injection pump, oil filters,and water pump are all the same. Only problem was the wet sleve engine design that was later fixed with the DCA4 coolant additive and water filter. This problem wasn't limited to IH but all brands of wet sleve engines.

What was IH thinking when they came out with this tractor - survival. They were really starting to feel the profit crunch in the late 70's and didn't have the $$$ to bring out some of their inovative designs.

The original design dates back to the 1930's model "M" with a lot of improvements. If IH put in a shift-on-the-go transmission like John Deere and more gears especially in the prime tillage range it would have been an outstanding tractor instead it's a good tractor. The 3 point lift capacity on this tractor is in the 6,000 plus range - NH's new TL80A (about the same HP) can only lift 5,600 lbs. The hyd system is also rated at 23 GPM better than some newer tractors. Row crop visability is also better than NH's TL80A.

If this tractor came out in 1950 it would have been inovative. In the 1970' it was a good tractor with an old design.

Yes, someone should have warned you in advance.

You'd better get rid of it. Take a loss if you have too; just dump it so that you don't have to put up with this aggravation. Get away from it as soon as possible.

No one should have to go thru this kind of stress. :>)

Allan

656, 666 and 686 in good order can not be matched by any 60 hp tractor on the market, even to this current day. I know of several of these tractors going over the 10,000 hour mark with almost no repair bills. Fuel efficiency was top notch on both light and heavy work. I owned one of them, truly the most efficient tractors ever built. I also owned 15 other Farmalls, all bought new by my dad, my neighbor or myself.

All I can say is; your ignorance is showing.

Your 'newest' tractor is still at least 25 years old as Hugh says.

If the brakes are not up to par, it is your tractor that needs repair, not the design from IH.

They just are not a very big tractor (something like 64 horsepower @ 8500lbs?), they fall into the smaller of the chassis designs and they sure don't demand the implementation of power brakes.

Now if ya wanna compare a 686 to that precious 2020, you are going to be surprised because the 2020 cannot carry the 686's lunch-box; power brakes or no power brakes.

Allan

You speak of being nervous on new electronic gadgetry, quite agree with you on that one. Computer was going to tell us what was wrong before man's eye would ever see it. It doesn't work. I am 62 and have yet to see my idea of the perfect tractor. While I say this I don't know as I've ever seen a tractor that didn't have at least one feature I liked. That is from the 8-10 American manufacturers around in the 60s.

A lot of gadgetry of all nature on modern tractors is very nice, but can one make money using it?