Help! Fell in love with a Super A

The serial number is 269499, and I'm guessing it's a '49? (Happy coincidence: I'M a '49!)

A dozen specific rube questions:
1) The tranny is noisy, though the tractor moves OK. Is some noise acceptable?
2) I have no use for the hydraulic lift (yet) but have run the levers back and forth a couple of times. Of course, it leaks onto the clutch housing. Seals, I assume?
3) How long should it be, after the clutch is pushed in, until the gears stop, so they can be engaged? (obviously no synchro here!) Is "patience" my word-of-the-day?
4) It came with a PTO unit, which I need to use for the pull-behind mower. When engaged, the unused pulley shaft leaks a LOT. A real lot. I guess a seal is in order, here?
5) The PTO leaks oil there, but when I look in the filler hole, I see thick grease. What's up? Do the PTO and the tranny share the same oil, and why then, the grease?
6) The guy spray-painted everything, including over the zerk fittings. No question here, just a *sigh*.
7) The owner's manual says to use soft water and 2 lbs. of "washing soda"??? What's up with that? Can I use modern antifreeze-type coolant?
8) Is gear-oil just gear-oil in any language? The manual says to use 90-wt. Supply houses have such like 80-90, or 70-140. Suggestions?
9) My 'owner's manual' was made on a copying machine. It's OK, but I'd rather have something more legible. I also have a 'shop manual' by IH, titled "IH-8". These references are underwhelming. Does anyone have suggestions about other or better books? Or a 'modern' book about this very-old tractor? "A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures For The Compleat Idiot", or such? (former beetle owner)
10) Any suggestions about sources of old tractor parts, and afore-mentioned-manuals, including (*ahem*) seals and gaskets? It would be cool, too, to find a crank for starting, not that I'd be a dang-enough fool to try.
11) HELP!!!
12) Thanks

But I want to thank you all for the extremely friendly welcome, both to this forum and to the world of tractorin'! I've long had need of one, (my poor dad-in-law has borne the burden), but part of the allure is the basic simplicity of the machine: only what you need, and nothing more. Part of why I loved my '71 VW beetle.

If you folks are representative of what old-machine folks are like, then I've gotten myself into a good thing. My sincere appreciation to you all. I already feel more confident, if only to know that help and encouragement are this close by.

I've lived in a farming community all my life, but have never farmed myself. I help people out once in a while and drive their tractors, and have always had access to any size tractor that I wanted to use. I have a couple implements that I bought to use with my brothers tractors, including a 9 foot snowblower and a 9 foot box scraper. Despite the availability to me, I always wanted a small loader tractor of my own to do odds and ends.

My brother bought his first antique tractor about 5 years ago, a 1938 Allis B with a Woods belly mower. Wonderful little tractor, turns sharp, mows nice, and runs beautifully. I was however disappointed with the power and in particular, the lack of adjustment in the carb.

I came across a crappy M with a Du-al loader. I had looked at it several times and said junk. It had an old truck seat on it, the grill was dented, the front end didn't work quite right (was bent), and the owner had always put USED oil in it from his other tractors (that's what he did with equipment he didn't like, but took excellent care of the ones he did). I had my thoughts on something a little better, 3 pt would be great. Live hydraulics was a must.

One day, I took a friend of mine (farmer) with me, and we looked at it. The guy wanted $600 dollars for it, he said it had sticky/leaky/burnt valves. Brian looked at me and said, if you don't buy it, I'm going to. Fine, I did. My brother, who farms the land of the guy that sold me the tractor said, don't be cheap - give him $800. I compromised, and give the guy $700.

After changing oil with NEW oil, the old girl suddenly had oil pressure (it did before, but on the low side) and it stopped missing and hissing. A new correct seat. Tear off and fix (for now) the front end, put a live pump on. New fluids around. Rewired. Pretty soon, I started to like that old girl. I have twice as much into it as I paid. But now she runs and works like it should.

That's when I became a Farmall man. Forget those popping Deeres and the gutless Allis'.

My next quest was for a Super A. I've seen them and driven them since, and love those little things. I wanted to mount a belly mower on it. They are hard to find around here, there are a few A's, but a Super is rare.

That led me to my C. I have a friend that was selling a beauty of one for his dad. Already had a nice Woods belly mower on it. We finally agreed on a price ($1700). I had yet to hear it run yet, but he said it ran nice. It was about +20F the day I went to pick it up. I don't think the engine turned over a full revolution and she was purring like it had been running all day. I haven't had time to work on it much yet, but it doesn't really need anything outside of new fluids. I'll wait until I can work her a bit before I change them. But I'm very happy with it.

My quest remains for a Super A. I've located an A that I haven't had time to look at yet. The problem is, I've run myself out of garage space, and I don't have anything for the A to do. I think I may still get it, but to just play with, and hopefully restore. As for garage space, I have plans in the back of my mind for that. I will think about it this summer with friends over a few barley pops.

So the only reply I have for you is this - If you love it, you think you can fix it, then get it. I think you may always regret it if you don't.

Two of the first items you should look at are oil level in fan hub, and lubrication within the distributor drive. People tend to forget those two and they can get a bit costly. The transmission should stop turning within 5-8 seconds of pushing clutch in. Modern day antifreeze is the way to go. A former Bettle owner shouldn't have too much trouble with those manuals. 90W gear oil yes. Another item I would do is change the oil in the hydraulics, even though you aren't using them. Take the screen out and clean and add new Hytran hydraulic oil from CaseIH. From time to time activate those hydraulic valves. Check the oil level in hydraulic regularly, that resovoir isn't very large and pump lubrication very important.

In my hometown most beetle owners that were farmers, farmed with Super A. The two ranked very close when it came to quality. Most of the Super A's have outlasted the Beetles. There are numerous parts supplies for these, just ask on here for particular items. Some sources better than others for different items. Enjoy your tractor and welcome to YT forums.