Leader Farm tractor

Ronnie Knox · Jun 15, 2009

My friend showed me a tractor he has in the woods in the back of his house. It has a flathead 4 cylinder engine similiar to a 8N Ford. The tractor has LEADER on the side amd at the bottom in the front it had made in sometown in Ohio. I can't remember the town. I know with all i see on yesterdays tractor there is someone out there who can tell me something about this tractor.

Bob M · Jun 15, 2009

Ronnie - Leader tractors were built from shortly after WWII until 1952 or so. Their plant was in Chagrin Falls, OH.

The tractors somewhat resembled the Massey Pony, Allis-Chalmers C, John Deere M, etc. of the same era.

I believe the Leader was an "assembled" tractor. Major components like the engine, transmission, axles, etc were purchased from others then assembled into a finished tractor.

The few Leaders I've seen have all been powered by 4 cylinder Hercules flathead engines.

El Toro · Jun 15, 2009

Here's a picture of a Leader tractor. It's suppoed to pull a 2-12-inch plow and has a belt pulley & a pto. Were made in Chagrin Falls, OH
Hal

Ronnie Knox · Jun 15, 2009

Thanks a lot Bob, i can tell my friend about his tractor. The owner of my Farmall M had welded the pto lever to the shaft that sticks out. I took a grinder and cut it flush. I took it to this friend to put a bolt in so i can changed the seal when it needs it. This is the friend that's got the Leader. He said at one time he had it running and heard a clunks in high gear. Would you know of someone who has what he needs to remedy this clunk in the transmission?

Bob M · Jun 15, 2009

Ronnie - Most likely transmission was supplied by someone like Bendix or maybe Ford. Suggest cleaning the outside and looking for a mfr and model number.

Or simply open it up for a peek inside. Most likely it's a 3 speed car transmission and is pretty simple internally. Might get lucky and find it's just a bad bearing or something. (The Leader's 20 or so horsepower motor didn't put out enough power to really strain a car tranny...!)

KEB1 · Jun 16, 2009

Ronnie,

I have a 1949 model D, the only one I've ever seen except for a few pictures on this site. There isn't much information available out there.

The engine is a Hercules IXB. I heard somewhere that the transmission gears are from a Chevy truck, although I can't verify this. Troubleshooting a "clunk" in the transmission can be really difficult without a lot more information.

They're an interesting tractor. Mine has live hydraulics and a 3-point hitch with down pressure, both of which appear to be factory. Neither of these was very common in the 1940's.

I also understand from the guy I got mine from that the PTO shaft runs at the same speed as the engine insead of 540 RPM. I haven't checked to confirm this.

There is an on-line Leader tractor club, but it doesn't seem to be very active.

Keith

Leader Farm tractor

Ronnie Knox

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Bob M

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El Toro

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Ronnie Knox

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Bob M

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KEB1

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