Ford 960 tachometer fix?

ridgeandvalley · Jul 17, 2018

Hi,

I picked up a Ford 960 last week. The hour meter showed a little over 1700 hours, but the needle on the tachometer was broken off. I did some mowing yesterday, and the hour meter seems to be working fine. Does this mean that the tachometer would also be working if I was just able to attach a new needle? If so, how difficult of a fix would that be?

Also, the previous owner threw in an old Ford front loader with a manual trip bucket. The bucket is pretty rusted out, but the loader itself looks to be in pretty good shape, and works well. What are the chances that I could find a bucket for the loader? If that's not possible, would it be worth the hassle to try to jury rig a different sized bucket to the loader? It's not something I would use often, but could come in handy at times.

Dean · Jul 17, 2018

Who knows regarding the hour meter.

OEM tachometers are MUCH MUCH better than the readily available aftermarket units. Not even in the same league.

If you have a speedometer repair shop in your area with an old guy, you will be money and hours ahead having your tachometer rebuilt.

Regarding the FEL, I had a similar situation about 15 years ago. After about 10 years of background searching for a bucket, I gave up and sold the FEL.

Dean

JMOR · Jul 17, 2018

My son cut the mounts off my old bucket & welded them on a skid steer bucket that we picked up at an auction.....but he does have the metal fab skills & equipment.

grandpa Love · Jul 17, 2018

One arm loader? I would love to
have one for my 960.
My tach is opposite yours. Hour meter doesn't work. One day ..........

ridgeandvalley · Jul 17, 2018

Not the one arm loader. I'll have to take a closer look at the tag on it to see the model number.

I've never had, or used, a FEL before. I kind of think it would be kind of handy to get up and running (have a few horses... and a bunch of horse manure to move around).

I've always used small square bales of hay because I didn't have a convenient way of moving round bales around. Does anyone know if the hydraulics on the FEL would be strong enough to lift a "normal" sized round bale? If I thought I could move round bales, I might have to start reconsidering how I put up hay.

riveroadrat · Jul 18, 2018

The needle is just pressed on the spindle, you might want to add a little super glue. You just need to put it at zero before you press it on by hand. Theyre a little fragile. The hourmeters are a little tricky to work with if you are replacing the faceplate, make that a lot tricky.

grandpa Love · Jul 18, 2018

I move round bales with a 3 point
hitch spear. 960 handles it fine.
Not sure about fel.

pinball · Jul 18, 2018

I live in Missouri. I have a trip bucket loader I took off the 960 I use. don't ever plan on using it. all worked fine when I took it off. would like to get $375 for it.

paul · Jul 18, 2018

I make 5x6 round bales, but with an old baler that doesn't pack them real tight.

I can just lift them with the 3pt on my 960. A heavy one will make it grunt, the lighter ones are just right for the 3pt.

I can't imagine getting enough oomph to lift with a loader safely on a 960. Even a light one.

Paul

ridgeandvalley · Jul 18, 2018

Good to know that the 3 point will handle round bales. I wondered if all that weight in the back might make the tractor light in the front and hard to steer. Right now I make square bales, but would kind of like the option of transitioning to round bales in the future.

On a related note, having never made or worked with round bales... do you think a 960 could run an older round baler?

Thanks for all the info. It's nice to get some input from some of you who are using the same tractor.

Ford 960 tachometer fix?

ridgeandvalley

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Dean

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JMOR

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grandpa Love

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ridgeandvalley

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riveroadrat

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grandpa Love

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pinball

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paul

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ridgeandvalley

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