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A Select-O-Speed as you describe, one owner, taken care of, and not running up heavy usage hours, ought to be worthy of consideration. I can't tell you much about the innards, but I can tell you the hours I spent on our '64 4000 with an S-O-S, it was a great utility tractor, and it had been on a NYS thruway mowing fleet before it came to our Ford dealership. We did not see a lot of those S-0-S's mostly the post '65 blue thousand series as they were new at the time with 8 spd's, and they turned out to be quite reliable.
I would think that if you were to get the service manual for that model, check the adjustments, also check the filter and fluid, and get some advice from someone who knows the innards on these, this particular one might not be a bad one to consider. Makes sure to use the correct fluid if you do go for it.
It was a shame what happened to ours, someone changed the fluid and replaced it with the wrong type, and I was the last to run it, unbeknownst to me what happened. It was worth more than the tractor to fix so it got sidelined and we had no tractor after that, for me, it was disheartening, I always kept the fields cut and looking nice, place went to pot after that, money was tight I guess. Ask on the Ford board as well, there are some fans of these who know them well. Grew up on that one, baled raked, brush hogged, plowed snow, 2 bottom and discs, side sickle bar, you name it that tractor did it, and it had the right gear for whatever you needed. Even baling, it would eat up a solid windrow no problem, and cutting was no problem, I can recall cutting some large hay fields with it, they now have homes on them. I did not know much about these then or now, way too young and I recall my father keeping up on the maintenance, and it served us well, I'd own one again, and was a great one to learn on, that other green 2010 we had was a scary thing to run on the hills, always went for the Ford everytime, just felt a lot safer on it because of the hills, plus it had the independent PTO, can recall bogging down in heavy birdox, just push in the inching clutch and let er clear out and let off and proceed forward, even all the years later, still can't get used to the 850 because of that, + it had power steering and 1 set of remotes, was a great little tractor in my book.
The stigma about them was when they first came out, was '59 or so, our mechanics at the dealership knew about them and we had a counter loaded with manuals, the place had been in business for 40+ years, there were some issues at the beginning from what they said, but once they were resolved years later, it was a good performer, many people will disagree because they were released too soon, not enough proving ground time. If you don't do the prescribed maintenance, adjustments etc, it's like anything else, we had 3 brothers who worked for us and they were old school, and knew these Fords, they were there way before we owned it, and knew those N's to 1000's inside and out, they did everything in that shop, besides all service and repairs, including the scant few S-O-S's that did come in. One of the first ones I saw them work on was a 6000 Commander, odd looking Ford, hard on the eyes too ! I remember the diagrams, way to much for a youngster to deal with. They have long since passed on, great place to have grown up though, those were the days.
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