What's This, Another Tractor? 1955 Ferguson TO-35

Yep, another tractor. So that makes how many? Six? I may have a problem.

This here tractor is a mid-1950s Ferguson TO-35. It's got a Continental Z134 4-cylinder gas engine, three speed transmission with a high/low auxiliary gearbox, three-point hitch, and live PTO.

I bought this tractor as a non-running project from a fellow tractor club member. A couple of weeks ago we were talking while at the local county fair club display and he mentioned he had this tractor that he wanted to sell. Hmm, I says to myself, I may be interested. I need another non-running tractor project like I need a hole in my head. But I just couldn't resist.

The good news is, it's in fairly good shape overall. The bad news is it doesn't run. And it doesn't have its serial number tag, so I can't tell what year it is. The previous owner said he thought it was a 1955. In my search online, I found how to decode the casting numbers of various parts. Most dated to early- to late-1955. November 1955 is the newest date but it is on the engine, which is a different color than the rest of the tractor, so I'm guessing it is a replacement. Two other casting dates are April 1955 so it appears to be a mid-1955 build. Two other clues to its age are the 6 volt coil and 6-volt voltage regulator, which were superseded by a 12-volt system around September of 1955. The starter and generator are unmarked, so I have to assume they are also 6 volts.

The tractor's tachometer shows 3,592.4 hours. I wonder how many acres of land this tractor has plowed. Or maybe it was just used to pull implements like wagons or hay balers. We'll never know.

That hole in the dash is where the serial number tag should be.... :-(

You can't really tell in this photo but the carburetor is not on the tractor. It came in a box when I bought the tractor. I'm not really sure why and I didn't think to ask. My mind was on the job at hand, that being the tedious task of using a come-along to winch the thing into my dump trailer. It took maybe 15 minutes but I was sweating profusely in the heat. The 700 pounds of calcium chloride in the rear tires didn't help one bit either.

While working on the tractor, I came across some areas that showed dark green paint under the grey. That's good news, as 1955 colors were dark green castings and grey sheet metal. Tractors in 1956 were grey castings and beige sheet metal, which doesn't look as good in my opinion (I should add here that a few early 1956's were green castings with beige tin but those are rare apparently). Below are a couple of photos I got from the net showing dark green castings and grey sheet metal for 1955, then grey castings and beige sheet metal for 1956.

More to come...