Farmall A Radiator Drain

I have an old Farmall A that has a big unthreaded hole (about 3/8" diameter) where it looks like it should have a radiator drain plug. Does anyone know what the Farmall A is supposed to have for a drain plug, and where I might be able to get one?
Thanks

The drain for the A was on the underside of the lower inlet to the motor (the cst piece the lower hose fits to). It was made for 3/8" pipe thread goods. The original plug had what I call Mickey Mouse ears on it, rather like a wing nut. You could replace it with a standard square-head 3/8" NPT pipe plug (a common hardware item) or try around salvage outfits like Bates to see if you can run down an original.

Something like this came up over on Tractor Talk earlier today and I got looking through the parts books. They're of diffrent editions so I don't know if the differences were strictly between models or between years. In my books anyway, Bs and Cs ran a 3/8" pipe nipple from the bottom of the inlet down through a hole in the front casting with a cap instead of a plug (same mouse ears ont he cap) so that it drained directly to the ground. I don't have a tractor with just the plug but can say that I think the nipple and cap, if you could do it, would be a lot easier to get to. You may want to scout that out and consider it as long as you're looking at an open hole.

HTH

Thank you for the info. Will try the pipe nipple and cap.

You're welcome!

I've gotten back into my A/B parts book. For the A it shows a plug for the A. For the Bs and BNs it shows a 45-degree street elbow (male one end, female on the other) that runs down and to the left from the inlet casting, and then the vertical nipple and cap. The front castings are different between the two tractors and maybe that's the reason for it.

Still, there will be a hole somewhere in the bottom of your casting for the coolant to drain after it comes out from the plug. If the B/BN setup doesn't line up with or reach the hole you have, there MIGHT be room to start with a 45 or 90 street elbow and use a second 45 or 90 regular elbow with a shorter nipple between them (again, all common hardware items) to reach the hole before going vertical with a shorter nipple down to the cap.

My apologies for being so vague and rambling on. The nearest A I can get to is my neighbor's but it's a matter just now of fifty yards of three-foot-deep snow, with a six-foot snowpile about halfway through that to get over for a look. And it will be of limited use at the moment because the motor is out of it so i can't eyeball/gauge the alignment between the drain on the inlet and the hole through the front casting . . . 8^(

Sorry, too, if I've just confused the issue. Please don't hesitate to come back for clarification and let us know how you make out.

The difference in the drains is to deal with the difference in the housings. The B and C housings are squared off for the front implement mounting pads. The 45 elbow, long nipple and cap reach down to a drain hole out the bottom.

The bottom of the A housing runs at an angle. The access hole through the housing is directly in line with the hole in the engine's inlet elbow. A plug directly into the elbow is easily reached. I couldn't say for sure without looking at a tractor, but as I recall a pipe of much length in the drain could be hit by the front axle.

Thanks for jumping in, Jim. Could you tell I was thrashing??? '8^) I'm feeling like JimN here, and will be ponderin' on it half the night. Likely will run over and have a look at Neighbor Dave's A in the morning.

For the meantime, I just took a look at the drawings for the A chassis, and suspect you're right on the money. I hadn't thought of the axle being set back so far (as compared to the way it sits out front on my SuperC). I know that if the nipple were any longer on my BN, the tires would come into play.

If the plug is easy enough to get to, Doug could go that route, keeping things simple, and get his cooling system filled.

Again, thanks!