640 hydraulic controls

Hello all,

Just put $ on a 1957 Ford 640. My past experience with Fords (and tractors in general) is with a Ford 9N. This one has the added controls for an off-tractor hydraulic implement. Two "hockey stick" levers under the right side of the seat pan, the larger, outboard lever is labeled "1" and the smaller, upper and inboard lever is labeled "2". Below both is a horizontal lever. I imagine the upper lever controls the in & out lines for the rear facing lines, and the lower lever controls the forward facing connections. The lower lever I"m not so sure of.

The New Holland dealer where she sat did not know what that was, either, and, although no other signs were present, suggested the tractor had been set up for a backhoe.

I bought her for mowing, shagging firewood and plowing, but am curious just the same. I ordered a owners manual and shop manual, but am not sure if this was OEM or after-market.

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Soundguy

I"m intrigued with the thoughts of what can be done with a hydraulic top link; should I add one. Never had the ability to push down before.

Ordered a owner"s manual yesterday so I hope to be better prepared for her arrival (still making arrangements to have her hauled home).

Now.. if your machine was really a 9n.. then it didn't have the draft lever as oem. However.. it could have had a pump or top cover failure at some point in life before you used it, and an 8n hyd top cover and 8n pump was swapped into the 9n center housing. It is bolt up 100% compatible.. you just have to keep the 9n cover and pump together, and the 8n cover and pump together.. both use different intake valve linkage schemes.

Hyd toplink? Many use that as part of top-n-tilt.. with a hy sidlink as well. I guess if you do lots of custom grading work it can be handy. As for adding down pressure.. remember.. you unweight the rear wheels when you do that.. so keep it in mind.

Soundguy

Soundguy

Anyway, we grade the road in and fix the occasional divots in the strip.

I just bought 20 acres and my lawn tractor/Troy Built Horse tiller are getting pretty old for battling weeds and saplings. That"s why I went to a "real" tractor. When I had decided on a Ford I bought an 8N manual. Since then I"ve looked at 9N/2N/8N/NAA . . . and then along comes this 640 and she just batted those gray headlights with that shiny "600" emblem between them and I was smote. Now I"m thinking a post hole digger instead of my T-pole driver and a rear blade for grading and smoothing gravel for the road (that isn"t yet) to the barn (that is). One of those Catch-22"s: have the tractor now so I don"t need a better road.

Thanks for your help.

Soundguy