tractor motor

Sorry I mistyped. It was the 9N as you said that came first.The 9 stands for 1939, 8 stands for 1948 although they came out in 47 really.
Early 9's have the I beams.
The coil on the distributor on the 9N/2N and early 8N were troublesome on hot days whenthey got soft and shorted out. My 8N has the 8B motor with the side distributor.

The very first 9N's had aluminum hoods as Ford could not get steel ones stamped in time. They look pretty cool when they are all polished.

Funny thing is Ford tractors have a red oval not a blue one

 

The serial number has a star or a diamond at the beginning and end that is supposed to tell you whether it has cast or steel sleeves, don't remember which is which.

 

details on these tractors gets real confusing since almost all of the parts interchanged. When I was working on these things they were 30 to 40 years old and who knows what had been swapped out on them. Farmers can be very creative. I bought one that had a Ford industrial flathead straight 6 and an over/under between the clutch and transmission. That thing tore up a lot of PTO shafts.

 

Adding to Wesley's info, the last year for these little tractors (8n) was 1952. These came with a tachometer mounted to the right of the steering box below the throttle lever.

 

Good 8N core is worth $250-$300, uses a lot of the 239 flattie parts. Although it has bigger itake and smaller ex. valves. Some guys put the 59A V8 in the tractors.

Don't "Pop" the clutch too many times, you should see how weak the crank, rods, and ****** looks in these. ;-)

 

The 9n had a beam front axle.
I learned the hardway with that stupid distributer, it would get hot and it would blow the wax all over. Then I converted to 12volt and left the problems in the past.
Talk about low gearing in first(some had the extra high/low section) I could get the front end off the ground pulling stuff that was stuck in the ground. I learned to be carefull.

 

Resurrecting the thread,

Here's two pictures of a Ford panel truck with the factory option tractor motor. I didn't take a pic of the entire truck, it was at the F100 supernationals in Knoxville, TN a few years ago.

And heres a good site explaining the year-to-year changes of the Ford N-series tractors. http://www.oldfordtractors.com/idhistory.htm

 

Yes, the first prototype Ford jeeps had 9N engines with Model A transmissions. The engines were not found to be suitable, too much rpms, and the Model A transmission was not up to snuff either. By the time jeeps were standardized, they were the Willys Pattern (Goverrnment=G, 80" wb=P, Willys pattern=W===GPW) which used the Willys Go-Devil four cylinder. Ford, of course, cast everything with the script "F".

The first GPs had the tractor engine and T84 transmission. A neighbor in my home state still has the GP his dad bought as government surplus in the 40s. He didn't even pay attention to the fact it had the Ford 9N engine. He found out when the coil called it quits and went to get a new one. He was sent to the Ford dealer when it was identified as a Ford coil.

The pickup engine that was derived from the 9N tractor has no "9" in the engine number stamping, and has a provision for a fuel pump the gravity fed tractor engine does not. Be warned if you buy a "pickup engine" that may actually be a tractor engine.