Farmall B manual selection

I will be starting restoring a Farmall B my brother has had sitting in the wood by his house in Texas. I remember driving these when I was a child in the fifties but haven't had much contact since. The serial number is 214800 and we think it was from Louisville. I have read some discussion about early and late etc. I would like to get the right set of books for this tractor and could use a little guidance as to year, serial number break for the design change from early to late, etc. It has the cultivator racks on it but no shoes. I would probably like to keep all of that intact and fill in the missing pieces to keep the cutivators on it when it is done. It looks like it will be a complete teardown since the motor is stuck now after sitting for ten years. It should be fun. Notice the tree limb growing through the steering shaft.

More and more I am thinking projects like that one are the best. You lose your shirt on the non-optional rubber and abandon all hope of seeing your cash again if you go for the optional fancy paint job...but it all kind of disappears from memory the first time it roars to life.

I did not know there were different manuals for the B. I just ordered an operators manual and the IH service manual. In restrospect, I believe there were two service manuals and life would have been easier if I had both...but then there was Scotty, Gene, Jim, Rusty and about two dozen others whose help was better than any manual.

It'll set ya back about a hundred bucks for all of them, but my little library for my BN includes

a) Owner's Manual -- for finding things like drain and level check plugs, fluid capacities, maintenance intervals . . .
b) IH Blue Ribbon Service Manual -- Covers both As and B/BNs in one book, lots of info on R&R procedures, specs and tolerances . . .
c) I&T IH-8 Manual -- covers the entire letter series, so you have to be sure you're reading about the right tractor when using it. A lot of it ripped right from the IH manuals, but coupled with the IH service manual, each one has a few useful nuggets in it that the other doesn't, it's worth having both, especially if you're going to have to get into a tractor as deep as you will on this one
d) the IH Parts Catalog -- again, it covers As, B/BNs in one book. It's great not just for getting part numbers when you need something, but also quite useful with its blow up diagrams for figuring out how one assembly or another comes apart or goes together. It's also where you'll find the differences in things that got changed. Your tractor is one of the last made, and most of the changes (things like the torque tube, the magneto shutoff mechanism, the oil filter and a few others) were made very early, most of them by about serial number 60,000 or so.

There are generally two outfits prinnting the IH manuals, JenSales and external_link. I prefer to get mine directly from Binder Books. The content is the same, but the quality of reproduction is much better and they're on sturdier, more durable paper. I'm pretty sure the I&T manual is available in the store here on YT.

With a better picture one of the folks on here might be able to identify your cultivators, and you can eventually get a manual for them, too. Most of the IH implement manuals include part numbers right in the manual, along with set-up and adjustment instructions.

Good luck with your project. My BN was in about the same shape when I started on it.

Thanks for the info. This is the best I can do for a picture until the tractor makes it to my place here in Illinois from Texas. I am looking forward to this and will undoubtably be asking some questions of this forum and do thank you in advance for the generous help. I tackled a John Deere A for my first try at restoration and received lots of help from that forum. I believe having the books is critical and it saves lots of unnecessary post asking people to help with things the books clearly go over. Thanks again, Joe

First question: I went to order the manuals and there is a serial number difference between B and BN. Just curious if there is a distinct difference in the two or if the N just means narrow front.

All factory B's had narrow fronts. The N means narrow rear! The easiest way for me to tell is to sit in the seat and look at the seat support on your right. IF it is snug against the fender you are on a BN. IF a gap between the two it's a B. Someone else can give you the exact measurements but that is how I tell at a glance.

The only manual that will be any diffeent between a B and BN would be the Owner's Manual, and the only difference between them will be in the chart for setting the width of the rear wheels, as that was the only functional difference between the two tractors. The differential shaft housings on the B are about 22" wide on each side; on the BN they're 18", making the whole tractor 8" narrower, hence the N. Either tractor came with either the two wheel narrow front or the single wheel.

They are essentially the same machine and all the other manuals cover both, along with the A. You'll see when you get into the parts catalog --the BN seat platform and pedals are the same as an A, but the B, being wider, has a wider platform, a separate support for the right side of the seat and one longer brake shaft.

All three have the same motor and transmission - the differences in them all have to do with their running gear -- A is offset wide front with a unique steering gear and different front implement mounting, B and BN are identical to each other in everything except items that relate to their width, like the seat platform and drawbar.

The A, AV, B, and BN use the same series of serial numbers. They are mixed, and there is no separation, and no record of what model had which number. The only way to tell the difference is the serial number prefix. FAA for A, FAAV for AV, FAB for B, and FABN for BN. The only other difference is that serials 200001-200829 were manufactured in Louisville, all others in Chicago. Only exception to the above is that serials 39715-48350 have an FAA prefix. This is from Guy Fay's IH data book. Serial 39715 was the first BN. Binder Books will have the latest copies of the manuals. There is little or no difference from year to year. Some items that were on the early tractors may not be mentioned in the later editions.

Looking at the pic i appears that the levers for the cult are for the exhaust lift. The hand lift assy was different in fact two types of levers were available for the hand lift cults. Yes yours was built in Louisville their serial #s started with 200,000 last ones were built early in August as ours had several cast #s late in July. The block on ours was cast on my birthday 23 July and was delivered to the dealer sometime around the 10th of August. No great changes were made after 40.