First tractor - Farmall B

Hello all. First time to post but I've been a long time "lurker" here. I grew up on a farm in Minnesota and also in Montana when we moved at age 11. Dad has a number of tractors in Mt, 560 and WD-9 are my favorites. Moved away to Missouri in early 20's to the "city life" after college. Guess I didn't loose all of my roots and had the urge to buy a tractor to restore/tinker with the past couple of years. Finally pulled the trigger yesterday. Took me 20 years to get back to the "farm" at 40 years old. My 12 year old boy went with also to get the tractor and helped load it.

Found this B Farmall and gave $300 for her. She sat for 8-10 years but all the tires aired up and are holding so far. Will need to replace the fronts. It had a guard on it when pulling a brush hog and from the size of the dents, it served its purpose well! That came off before she settled into the shop. The tank, hood and fenders are perfect. Grill is dented some. The inside of the gas tank is spotless also. Very luck find.

We went right to work to see what was wrong. The pan was already off with the cap off #1 rod. The guy said it wasn't stuck but was it was. In an hour we pulled the manifold and head off. Manifold full of water and other "stuff". Four valves were stuck in the head and #1 piston was stuck.

The shop is at my niece's house and I had to go home. Her husband kept at it and he popped out the pistons and today he tapped #1 piston out also. He said the sleeves looked to be in good shape, just need to be honed. No major rust problems. Rod bearings looked good also.

Dropped the carb in cleaner for a soak. A few taps with a hammer made all the valves loosen up in the head.

So a head job, rings, rod bearings and I need to find another connecting rod. Carb rebuild and I think we might be able to get it running pretty easy. It has the wrong seat assy on it so the serial # is gone. The only thing I have is the casting code from the torque tube - 8638 DL and on the front bolster - 8330 DC. Does that give me any idea of the year?

Sorry for the long post, pretty excited about the purchase. My Dad is probably as excited. He's 73 and still lives in Mt on the farm. He likely has one of the biggest collections of hit/miss motors (100+ I think he said all together in the shed and they all run)/early farm tools and about anything related to turn of the century farming one could find. He calls it his toy house. He's digging around to send me some parts for the B.

May have a rod for you.

then if you were a "lurker" for a long time, then you know some will be scolding you for not posting pics with your pride and joy...lol
have fun with it, what ever you do...

The serial number for the engine should be stamped on a small flat on the block just below No. 1 spark plug (front). The number should start with FAB the M may follow the FAB, or if like my Super A, follow the number. I believe that For the Farmall A, and Farmall B, the number should be the same as that of the tractor.

So where do you live now? i am located sw of IA City,Ia 17mi and hqave lots of parts for them as i have several Bs and have parted out some. Would you like a Phone # to call me

Congrats on your first tractor, don't hesitate to ask questions
there's some great guys on here with tons of knowledge and
are eager to share with others. Also welcome to the forum.
Jim.

The B is a nice tractor to work on. Good starter tractor for learning the mechanical end as it is about as uncomplicated as they get. Lots of room to work and nothing so heavy that it can't be handled easily. Be sure to talk with Gene when you want parts. I bought a lot from him and the stuff he sells is good and useable. Need pictures!

I'm not sure how to get the pics posted. I uploaded a couple but don't know for sure how to get them to show up. Any help? Once they are uploaded, do I copy/paste into the text body?

I'm in Springfield, MO. There is a guy in Republic who posted a few things on Ebay and said he's parting out a B. One thing I need also is the flywheel cover. I'll get in touch with him and see if I can make a package deal on some stuff. He's only a few miles from me.

I'll work on the pics and see if we can get the motor numbers off the block.

Matt would you believe your about 60 or so miles from me??? I have a bunch of parts on hand for your tractor. I built a BA about 2 years ago. It is the front half of a B and the back half of an A so it is a BA. I am up here at the Lake of the Ozarks and if you find you need help or info let me know. E-Mail is open

Thanks for the offers guys! Good to have help if needed. Let's see if this worked.



My son Ryan is checking everything over to make sure his new tractor is going to be a good one! Notice the brush hog guard.

Hey it needs a hood LOL. By the way my son and I just moved 2 heads off of a B the other day to get them out of the way in my shop.

Alright, got the pics to work. Here's some more:



Here's the seat that's on it. Guess they robbed it off an H. I'd rather have the right seat on it. This one compresses too much for me and isn't comfortable to sit behind the wheel with.





The manifold full of garbage. Why doesn't it turn over? LOL.



#1 piston was stuck but other three were loose.



My neice's husband Travis pushing the pistons out and their son Ethan "supervising". He's good at picking out the tools.



Got em out! Just needed a block of wood and a bigger hammer for #1.



Just need to work over the head and pick up the parts now to start going back in the other direction. If you can't tell, we've been afflicted with "Farmall Fever"!

The hood is in perfect shape. The grill is a little kicked in. Very hard to straighten or better just to find one in good shape? I've seen the die tools for the grill on ebay. Worth it?

Old, your email doesn't show on your profile. Mine is [email protected]. Drop me a line and maybe we can make a deal on some parts if you are wanting to get them out of the way. I come up that way from time to time. The tractor is actually in Elkland, just north of Marshfield at my niece's house.

Also, the rod bearings had this part number: fm hh 002Us 356306 R 16 62 H24. Are these standard bearings or .002 over? Didn't see any other markings.

Welcome aboard Matt. Looks like a project I would like.
The #'s you provided from the castings are actually part numbers.
The casting #s are three digit ending with a letter, the letter signifies the year it was casted like '4-10-letter.
If you go to 'caseih.com' you will be able to access parts coverage, use
Farmall B for the model number.
The engine is a wet sleeve, maybe you knew that, which means there are o rings at the bottom of the sleeves. Would recommend removal, clean out water jacket area and renew the seals. I don't mean to tell you how to do your project but you will be glad you did.
Enjoy and keep us posted.
Dennis

Found the serial # FAB 120432 That makes her a 1945.