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Farmall M Serial letters?

D

David Inman

Member
A while back I saw where someone on the form asked about the letters on the M serial number tag. That got me thinking about the two we have.
One is FBK-58919X, which I make to be a 1942(it is on LP and is a 3 wheel model). The other has model label SM, with serial F-21229GJ, which I make to be a 1940 (gas, three wheel).
I'm cerious what FBK, X, F, and GJ mean. Any input?
 
FBK means it is an M, there should be a number after the x which denotes that it had an option. The most common one seems to be x1 which means gas engine with no distillate or kerosene equipment and higher compression. SM means Super M, F means made at the Farmall works rather than Louisville. GJ denotes options, I think maybe J means rockford clutch but I do not know, and I have no idea about G. The numbers mean it is a 1953 Super M if I am reading the chart correctly.
Zach
 
Ok. Makes sense. The First tractor dose read X1, making sense on a LPG tractor (though I asked once on this form and was told no LP M's where made). I pulled up the post I recalled, and there they decided that J was Rockford clutch, and C was LPG, so I'd guess G is gas.
 
Or cotton. It has two brackets left on it I think are for a cultivator, but it was bought at an auction here in AZ, so cotton makes sense too.
 
Do the rear axle housings have flanges with bolt holes at the wheel ends on the SM tractor? G indicates the tractor had a cotton picker mounting attachment at one time. Also the tractor was made in the first month of 1953 at the farmall plant as the F and serial # indicate.
Louisville SM tractors used 6 digit serial numbers.
 
I don't have GJ listed, but I do have GG listed and I have J listed for the Rockford clutch. Hal
 
Yes the SM rear axle housings have flanges with 6 bolt holes around the edge.
And is there any one source (ie book/webpage) for all this information? or is it just something that people have figured out and know?
 
There were no LPG M's made but there were many LPG conversions, that's what yours is. You will never find all this info in one place -- you just have to keep reading this forum, BUT Guy Fay's books on the letter series and hundred series, along with his data book, which includes all the suffixes etc gives most of it.
 
I'm sorry, when I said gas I was thinking of gasoline, which is what is denoted by the x1. I've never been around propane tractors much but I have heard that they are handy.
Zach
 
Your M was gas it has been converted and the super I have is a cj factory lp first ones were supers. G means cotton equip from factory.

Larry
4061.jpg
 
<a href="http://s140.photobucket.com/albums/r16/Wardner/?action=view&current=Drophousing002-1.jpg" target="_blank">
Drophousing002-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket
</a>

Your axle housing probably looks like this without the gear-drive drop-boxes.

Probably no rear PTO.

Probably a cotton picker PTO that may look like the one below. But I am no authority on cotton pickers. You should post pictures.

<a href="http://s140.photobucket.com/albums/r16/Wardner/?action=view&amp;current=CPgearbox023.jpg" target="_blank">
CPgearbox023.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket
</a>
 
As for information sources, you can't beat a parts book. Although a SM parts book won't have the Cotton Picker PTO, it will show the axle set-ups. The on-line parts book from CaseIH may have all the CP parts.

The gear-drive type CP axle housings were made to be convertible to row crop function. The drop boxes were removed and the sliding wheel centers attached to the protruding axle shafts.

There is another, as in different, flanged axle housing for the chain-drive high-crop axles but it is unlikely your tractor has those. They cannot be run without the drop boxes.
 



The cotton picker pto, as Wardner calls it, was the header drive gearbox, as we called it. It was part of the cotton picker and would be shown in the cotton picker parts book. It was not part of the tractor but was mounted on the tractor when the picker was mounted and removed from the tractor when the picker was removed from the tractor.

Harold H
 
X1 was for gasoline. Ther were no LPG M's. The LPG is a field conversion. The Super M was the first IHC with the factory option LPG.

Harold H
 
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