Periodic Maintenence For Your TractorI have the Ford user's manual for my Ford 640 tractor and also the ITC manual. I think it's very important to do all the periodic maintenence in the book. Old tractors totally lack the lifetime lubricated bearings and other modern conveniences, and as a result you'll end up using a grease gun a lot. I was amazed at how a tractor goes through fluids. The oil-bath air filter uses 1.5 pints of oil every time it's changed, and it should be changed every 10 hours of operation (partly because the crud and water tends to sink to the bottom, so you can't really tell if it's clean or dirty). I don't know of a conversion kit that would convert my tractor to a paper air filter. Too bad. The engine oil is supposed to be changed every 50 hours. Possibly this is overkill, since modern oils are so much better, but tractors work in a very dirty environment and some of the dirt finds its way into the engine. Better safe than sorry. The original spec says to use single-grade 20W or 30W oil, but multi-grade oils are better. I've pretty much standardized on 15W40 diesel grade oils in all my vehicles (even though none are diesels!) because it's more than adequate for everything I have, without being so fancy that it's going to break my bank account. I don't suppose you can go far wrong with 10W30 or 10W40 or 20W50, either. The original cartridge filter spills about a quart of oil on the ground every time it's removed. I have a conversion kit that allows it to use an ordinary spin-on cartridge. I got this from the local Ford/New Holland dealer. This will make filter changes less messy and will probably provide better filtration. Also, the original cartridges don't have a bypass valve, so bad things could happen to your engine if the element got clogged. I'll install it at the next oil change. Don't neglect the grease fittings, which should get a shot of grease every 10 hours of operation. The purpose of this is to keep crud from penetrating to the interior of the fittings. The first time I greased the fittings, water, rust, and very dirty grease came out of some of them! Keeping the fittings greased only takes a few minutes. My tractor also has filters on the crankcase and head, which are supposed to be sloshed around in kerosene to clean them and then be lightly oiled. Bad things happen if these clog or if the crud on the outside works its way into the engine. I keep a coffee can about half full of kerosene for this purpose. And don't forget to check the dipsticks for the engine oil and hyraulic fluid! All this work leaves your hands disgustingly dirty. I recommend Goop hand cleaner. They must have reformulated it, since I seem to remember it stinking to high heaven when I was a kid. It's odorless now. It takes the grease right off, isn't harsh, and even works great at removing stains from your clothes! I need to find a wall dispenser for it, since it's hard to open the jar with greasy hands. In addition to all that daily/10-hour maintainence, there are longer-term tasks such as occasionally draining and refilling the transmission and rear end. I was surprised to discover that my transmission had very clean oil in it, but the differential had dirty oil, and the drain plug came out with a slurry of very fine metal particles on it! Some previous owner had skipped a lot of routine oil changes. I went through about four gallons of gear oil when changing those two sets of fluids. Gear oil isn't very expensive, but the sheer volume was impressive.
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