1951 Farmall Super A

This tractor came off a farm near Sigourney, Iowa. Most of its history before I acquired it is unknown except for what I have pieced together. When I bought it it did not run. I didn’t actually intend to buy this tractor at first. I was going to look at an Allis Chalmers and the seller decided to show me the Farmall that was hiding in the shed. I thought it was a Farmall Cub and I bought it because I had been wanting one. I only realized what it was when I looked up the serial number. This was my first experience around Farmall tractors. This tractor had a custom built 3 point hitch added to it at some point. It actually had a blade on it when I bought it which made it difficult to get onto the trailer. I got it home and after some work on the ignition system it fired right up. I immediately removed the makeshift brush guard that likely saved the sheet metal from being bent up and started changing fluids. In the process I discovered that the water pump was leaking and replaced that. I thought it was odd because no one mentioned a water pump in the Super A except for a few oddball tractors that were made very late during production and were actually Super A-1 tractors. I figured someone got it as an option or upgrade or that I had a very rare tractor, but more on that later. One of the rear gear boxes must have gotten water in it at some point and froze because the left side casting has been welded back together. I also discovered that the tractor had been partially converted to 12v. The generator is still a 6v generator but the battery, regulator, and ignition have been converted to 12v. A friend of mine came to look at the tractor after I got it running. He was able to point out that the front wheels are not original and that the weighted wheel center was missing on the left side and had been replaced with a stamped steel center instead. He was also able to figure out that parts of the front end were from a Farmall 100. Although I quickly realized part of the front end was custom built by a farmer in the past. The reason still eludes me but it looks like it may have been meant to raise the front by a few inches and get some more flexibility.

I mainly use this tractor for driving around and some mowing. On the first long drive I had it on I noticed the oil pressure slowly dropping and eventually the engine would start knocking. Turns out the main bearings were bad. I tore the engine down and replaced the main bearings and connecting rod bearings and it seems to have done the trick. While I had the engine apart though I realized that the casting numbers and engine serial numbers don’t match up to what the tractor should have. As far as I can tell based on the casting code the engine appears to be from an early Farmall Super C and when I replaced the bearings I was able to confirm that the pistons are the larger 3.125” pistons. So that would mean that my tractor could actually be making closer to 25hp vs the stock 16hp.