H Questions

Bought one at a sale in Okla today for $400. Couldnt read the SN so as to date it. Tin is great other than a dummy cut out a piece and installed an altinator. It dosent have the hand crank, or the belt pulley attachment. Has one bad front and back tire, but I have those here at home. Wheels are GOOD It has the air cleaner without the glass jar. Does that date it? I have a 1941 M that my dad bought from my uncles sale in 1965 for $500. It has the cleaner jar. I cant imagine somebody putting that on if it didnt come out with it, but you never know. Dad had a 48 H back in the mid 50s, but I dont remember what it had

The engine # will be the same as the tractor serial # on a H. Stamped in block above ignition unit. May have to do some cleaning to read it. Also depends on it being the original engine block. If not date codes will give some idea of year.

The precleaners were accessories/options and can be found either as delived or as replaced by an owner. JimN

Collector-Pre Cleaner with jar was a option on all the letter series Farmalls.

Adding upgrades was a fact of life when farming. For example in dusty conditions we were always looking for better ways to get clean air to the engines. We also improving the seats and adding control handle extenisions and dipsticks to check engine oil instead of those stupid petcocks. After-market upgrades were a big business(M&W Gear Co. and others.) The bottom line is that many inovations that showed up on new models started on the farm and the ideas were picked up by the corportations. My old tractors are still working and I am still adding your dreaded upgrades to make my tractors more useful. Arman

Another thing I remembered. On the dash around the light knob was the letters on the decal L B H D but I dont remember the order threy were printed on it. I guess that L & D mean less light than B & H, but I know I could be wrong. My Cub just has O< D< & B, Off, Dim, & bright.. What does H B L D mean??

The air cleaner without the jar was standard equipment, for your H it should be the one with the mesh sort of cupping formed around the intake dome bottom, later H's had the mesh flat and flush with the dome flange bottom and the dome itself was smaller. The much desired collector/precleaner (glass jar)type were actually an extra cost option. The letters on the light switch decal mean B-bright lights, D-dim lights, H-high charge rate, L-low charge rate. As I recall the decal is positioned to the left of the switch knob with the letters sort of like this;
B
D
H
L
I can't guarentee this is right, my H is 3 miles away in winter storage. I'm relying on my 74 yr. old memory.

I'm sitting here trembling with joy as I look at an original "The Farmall System of Farming - Farmalls H and M" that I probably picked up at a local dealer when I was what they now like to call a pre-adolescent--probably about 1942, to judge by the tractors (none has the starter up on the steering column--I think that change took place in about 1943, but this is only a hunch). Pages 6 and 7 list all the "Special Equipment." Pictured are starting motor and battery, lights, belt pulley, power take-off, adjustable drawbar, swinging drawbar, Lift-All, wide front axle, single front wheels (steel and rubber), adjustable tread front wheels (steel and rubber), high skid rings for steel, heavy-duty steel wheels, extension rims, road rims, channel-rim wheels, muffler, spark arrester AND the "Collector Precleaner....recommended as added protection when working under excessively dusty conditions." I can't remember much EXCEPT excessively dusty conditions, so I guess we shoulda had one of these. Well, I think we got around it by changing the oil in the regular air cleaner about once every five years.
Imagine having to order all that extra stuff on a new tractor today!