1963 ford 5000 sos

As to your wife wanting new, just remember money doesn't grow on trees.

In the last few years, purchasing only used or at auctions I have purchased the following: a Ford 5000 with a loader, 2 Allis D17s, a manure spreader, a hesston haybine, a MF small square baler, a bar type hay rake, a tractor powered post hole auger, a 5' tractor mounted tiller, various other small implements and attachments, and a 1965 GMC 15 yard dump truck. All for slightly more than $15k. You can get an awful lot for a little if you are patient and self-controlled. You do have to be willing to work on the equipment and learn how to know a good value when it is staring you in the face.

Christopher

If you are fortunate, it is the clip on the top cable which broke. The bottom cable is no longer serviced by CNH. I don't know why he would want to replace the shift lever assembly if only cable is broken. There should be a screw holding that assembly together, and if it is like mine, it will have a heck of a lot of torque on it. It could be tough break it off. I took it to a my CNH dealer. One of their mechanics got it loose for me, gratis.

How could it break? Metal fatigue I guess. Or perhaps snagging inside the tubing.

Now the bad news. The cheapest dealer part for just that little 22" long cable that I could find was around $329 and the highest was $435. I finally found it locally. The guy I got it from has a local reputation for working on these sos transmissions, though he is actually a retired machinist. We went down into his basement, which was filled with boxes and milk crates, etc. He picked out three different boxes which he probably hadn't touched in a decade and found it in the second box. I paid him $100 for it. I guess that is what happens with rare tractor parts, they take on great value.

While you've got that tubing off, keep the transmission covered. Depending on the gear it was in when it broke, you might have to open up the transmission cover (on the bottom) and manually move the actuator in the transmission to get the top of the lower cable out of the transmission. After you get the cables joined, you will have to do some fine tuning to get the gears in the right positions on the shift lever.

The best plan is to get a shop manual and perhaps an operators manual for this machine. I'm sure you can find them on this site or somewhere else online.

Hope this helps. Just from my experience. A rather expensive repair, considering how simple it actually is.

Christopher