I grew up on these. The last one we had in Texas was a Funk conversion with a flathead 6 cylinder. They also did some with a V8. I had a couple of 9Ns and now I have an 800 that has been teetering on the side of a hill behind the house for a few years. Getting help to winch it out this summer. 8ns are a great improvement over the 9n. The reason the 8n was discontinued was because Henry Jr broke a handshake deal Henry Sr made with Harry Ferguson to use Ferguson's 3 point hydraulic lift/hitch. Harry sued and won what was at the time the largest settlement for such a case in the world. Ford had to pay a lot of money and also lost the permission to use Ferguson's design. Ford had to make changes on the hydraulic system used on the Jubilee series. which stayed the same all through the 800 series and others. Ferguson started making tractors that looked almost identical to the 8n. You can buy a kit to greatly improve the hydraulics to control implement settings. It makes a lot of things easier. There are also front buckets that use a hydraulic pump that runs off the front of the engine. If you get a front bucket make sure it is wider that the front wheels. The narrow ones are useless.
@Six Ball Interesting story over a handshake, which doesn't surprise me...I won't get started on Sr. or Ford... I was looking for one, but I have found that most of them have either been worked hard, left broken/wet out in the field to rot. The ones that have been restored, most people want a hefty penny for. In the end, a tractor doesn't lift enough weight for me. I did make a major f#@$ up on my shop...but not the end of the world. My rough terrain forklift has a 30 foot 3-stage mast. I can lift 10' on the first mast. With this in mind, I sized my shop walls to 12', and put in an 11' high sectional. As it turns out, the mast is actually ~12', so I can only get it in if I tilt the mast way forward. Not a huge issue, maybe one day I'll get a propane lift that will stay inside the shop, but I need the rough terrain to move anything around the property. I can lift stuff off my trucks and set them inside the door with the forklift (not driving inside) and then use a gantry to most anything I own. What I would really like a tractor for is the bucket, moving dirt, dozing paths...etc... The OP has a pretty clean one. Something like that would most likely go for about $5k in my area. The newer narrower tractors seem to be in vogue, especially in the vineyards.
OkiePete , it’s obvious you have done the White knuckle ride on an N . I was a young man when I got a lesson , the one I used never had brakes ever . They are dangerous , but cool as hell . V8 60 conversion , is what I always wanted to do .
I just saw my neighbor hire someone to clean 10 inches of snow from a steep driveway with an 8N . I have 2 4x4 tractors and it scares me to clean this driveway for the neighbor . I stopped the guy with the N to talk to him a minute and praise him for such dangerous work completed on the N . I ask about the brakes . He said “ none just drop the blade and hold on !” Nuts is what I say !
I replaced the axle seals on my 8N about 15 years ago. It was leaking where the axle housings attach to the main body. Those seals are notorious for leaking, too, so you might as well replace those while you've got the tractor main ch***is that far apart. The seals are dry paper and I had to soak them in water to get them to expand enough to fit over the bolt holes. When I had the axle housing off, I learned that my 8N had a beveled helical main drive gear. The tooth surfaces surprisingly had a lot of pitting and wear on them, and the gear edges had chips in them. Another reason not to overstress the drivetrain by working the axles too hard! I also ran an 8 volt battery in the tractor. That really helped on those cold mornings to get the engine started with the ring and valve wear that the tractor had.
My father bought our '48 8N in '50. It has never had brakes that worked. In about '66 he paid a Ford tractor mechanic that lived close by to fix them, maybe 8 miles. I drove it home and my father followed. The brakes worked until I got about 1/4 mile from home.
Here's an old Fordson that sits inside my old High School..... Probably restored by the students there....
When the word leaked out that Henry was planning to build tractors sleezy people copyrighted many of the names they thought he would call the division. Things like Ford Tractor Co., Tractors by Ford, Dearborn Tractors..........To avoid paying for a copyrighted name he used Fordson for Ford & Son. In WWI a deal with England provided thousands of Fordsons to help England produce more food.
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