1968 Ford 5000 “Luanna”

So some of you may know that I bought a 3/4 socket set recently. This is my upcoming project:












She needs some work as you can tell.

This tractor has not run in some time, about 10 years or so. The story goes that the orginal 4 cylinder seized up, so an identical 3.8 was dropped in. The tractor was run for some time before the oil pump failed, and it was replaced. The oil pump then failed again, and the tractor was parked for obvious reasons. This may be a faulty sensor or gauge, so I’ll diagnose.

Otherwise, she’s got amazing tires with the nubs still on. Transmission is free, radiator was still holding coolant and pressure, which is good. Missing the nose piece, but steiner sells them for 40 bucks. I’m going to paint her up, fix the oil issue (which is obviously the first thing to do), a quick tune up of the basics (plugs, wires, fluids, carb rebuild, lights, etc). I’m budgeting $600 to get her up and going, and then I’d like to get a snow blade and bush hog. Rest assured I will not be slowing down on WL any, she’s still on full throttle. Luanna is 3 hours from my house but my uncle was very kind and offered to trailer her down for me the next time he comes down, which is incredibly generous. I also want to thank my grandfather for gifting her to me. She’s going to be a lot of fun!

Small update but I thought I’d mention that my uncle estimates that he probably will bring it down early december-ish. Again, super nice of him and I think I’m going to give him a case of beer or three cause of the way fuel is now. He also mentioned that he’d put a gauge on the pump and it was reading 0 so I think there’s a mechanical issue at play. Depending on what another 233 would cost, I may repower the tractor. I briefly thought about a detroit swap…until I saw what they were going for. Yikes. Anywho, best not to count my chickens fore they hatch, but I just thought that might be worth a read. Thanks for stopping in!

Stopped in to visit some family yesterday and I got to say hi to her. I’m thinking that front guard would look really good with some LED light pods in it….


I can never get over how beautiful this tractor is. Flap cap is of course

More to come

Rustbucket Garage wrote:

Small update but I thought I’d mention that my uncle estimates that he probably will bring it down early december-ish. Again, super nice of him and I think I’m going to give him a case of beer or three cause of the way fuel is now. He also mentioned that he’d put a gauge on the pump and it was reading 0 so I think there’s a mechanical issue at play. Depending on what another 233 would cost, I may repower the tractor. I briefly thought about a detroit swap…until I saw what they were going for. Yikes. Anywho, best not to count my chickens fore they hatch, but I just thought that might be worth a read. Thanks for stopping in!

Little comment, I've been seeing some of them "smart" cars going for real cheap around here, saw a diesel one for 900 bucks I think, you could try grabbing one of those engines and trying to stuff that in there
(I think they are around 40hp) although they might not be quite enough power. Other option is an old civic or something like that, Obviously with either of those options you would have a lot more speed and less low end torque as well as needing to drag the ECU and all that over.

Anyway, just an idea, really cool tractor, looks like the loader might have down pressure, man do I wish someone would give me one of those

TechnoChicken wrote:

Rustbucket Garage wrote:

Small update but I thought I’d mention that my uncle estimates that he probably will bring it down early december-ish. Again, super nice of him and I think I’m going to give him a case of beer or three cause of the way fuel is now. He also mentioned that he’d put a gauge on the pump and it was reading 0 so I think there’s a mechanical issue at play. Depending on what another 233 would cost, I may repower the tractor. I briefly thought about a detroit swap…until I saw what they were going for. Yikes. Anywho, best not to count my chickens fore they hatch, but I just thought that might be worth a read. Thanks for stopping in!

Little comment, I've been seeing some of them "smart" cars going for real cheap around here, saw a diesel one for 900 bucks I think, you could try grabbing one of those engines and trying to stuff that in there
(I think they are around 40hp) although they might not be quite enough power. Other option is an old civic or something like that, Obviously with either of those options you would have a lot more speed and less low end torque as well as needing to drag the ECU and all that over.

Anyway, just an idea, really cool tractor, looks like the loader might have down pressure, man do I wish someone would give me one of those

So spoiler, I did get the tractor down here. Oil pressure cold was about 50 PSI, don’t remember what the speed was because she won’t idle. Does obviously run though, just really badly. Carb clean, plugs, and wires are in order.

Thanks for the suggestion, I think I’m going to stick with the motor in her since it seems to work fine. I’d like to diesel swap a Subaru someday so that might be something to put into play.

In other news, washed the 1/4 inch of caked on grease and dirt from her and cleaned some of the mouse house out. Stunk awful. Did find a mouse skull though which was pretty cool. She’s got power steering which is really nice and the loader has good down pressure, but something hydraulic wise or PS wise whines really loudly. Probably the loader, it hisses when I let it back down. All the fluids will be changed, as will some other odds and ends and she’s gonna be a workhorse!

Got some painting done on the headlight bezels to counteract the massive blob of rust that was forming. Paint cans were a PITA and kept clogging. Got em done though which is good. Still need to do the left hood and some other small things but I need to go out and get a wire wheel to do that as my last one is down to the center disc.

Checked the transmission fluid and holy vanilla milkshake Batman! Watered down as I’d ever seen it. Going to need to change it anyway, I’ll have to figure out where it’s coming from.

It’s been a minute lol. Been having a lot going on along side some slight health issues so I haven’t had the wherewithal to post anything.

Anyways, painted the front rims, rebuilt the carburetor, painted the loader, the hood, any really rusty spots and the light bezels. Still have to touch up a few spots.

After the carb rebuild, she runs immaculate now, save for a massive hydraulic leak from an incorrect fitting. I have the adapters though.

I need to replace the muffler as it is completely rotted out and the intake hose when I put the carb back on completely disintegrated. So that needs doing also.

Front axle needs the obligatory thrust bearings like every other 1000 series ford. Pretty sloppy. Got some shift boots on the transmission which should help with the water issue. I need to change that still, the engine has had its oil changed and a spin on filter installed. Definitely worth the 50 bucks to do.

Oil pressure is great, 50 psi cold at full throttle last I checked, should be fine. (Wouldn’t idle when I first checked)

The battery was given to me by my uncle, it’s a 1000 amp marine battery so it should last a real long time!

I made a new temporary upper grill also. I want to get the correct grill but this being a pre force/65-67 tractor they are hard to come by and expensive for the aftermarket ones. I will call some salvage yards and see if any are in stock. Bought a top link and some plug wires also so that’s next on my list, along with the much needed air hose so I can move the tractor around, and the sorely needed axle bearings. Will inspect and repack the wheel bearings at that time also.

It looks great man nice job! See you're putting it to work too! Lol. (the boat prop)

Thank ya! Yeah that was a freebie from my grandpa cause it’s all chipped up. I have plans for it

Got a new muffler put on.

Had a bit of a scare because the ignition switch got screwed up and when the key is in the off position the tractor still cranks!

Cheap fix though.

Put a new oil pressure sender in, confirms again that pressure is good. I put an AC Delco on a Ford tractor. Fight me lol.

Just gotta swap some hydraulic lines, top off the fluid and she can go to work! I took care of the trans fluid, that was very watery. New UTTF put in and good to go.

That would be a bit scary that's for sure!

My friend put a GM 1 wire alternator on an old Ford tractor, only certain people like myself can even tell. Lol

I subscribe to the school of "If it works?"

Long overdue update. Loader is completely painted and good to go, 6 brand new hydraulic lines on there, front spindles rebuilt, wheel bearings repacked, new shift boots, fresh transmission oil, and more. Made an upper grill out of scrap to fill the void for now as pre force grilles are expensive and rare in the states. Found a used one for a good price though so I’ll do that at some point. Pretty much ready to go to work. Had a bit of a scare because after a few minutes the temp gauge gets right up to the red line. It was weird because the radiator was pretty warm, but not more than it should be. Same for the hoses and block. I took a temp gauge to the radiator top, the area between the block and head, the water pump and thermostat. With the needle at the red, none were over 180. Did some research, the voltage stabilizer that controls the instrument panel is finicky and prone to giving deceptively high fuel and temperature readings. I have a leak in the carburetor at the bowl because I did not use enough gasket maker (yeah yeah I know… I bought a new gasket but it swelled up and choked the float off) so I’ll have to fix that. I’ll probably do the thermostat soon because it’s easy to do on these and it’s cheap insurance. Sometime when I have the time I’ll pull the radiator and put a new water pump in also because for 60 bucks it’s nice knowing that the 55 year old original isn’t going to spontaneously explode someday.

Also, I finally was able to get a good look at the serial plate. She’s an early ‘68 and one of the last pre force tractors Ford made which is cool. I’ve also decided that short of repainting panels that are extremely rusted or not original Im keeping the patina because she’s in excellent shape for her age. That’s all for now! Also sorry for the upside down pictures, I have no idea why.

Fixed your pictures. Man that thing looks good.

Why thank ya! She cleaned up real good. Hoping to put her to work soon, I have some brush hogging to get done and the driveway needs grading bad.

And fore anybody gets too worried, I haven’t forgotten WL. She’s going to get the transmission bearings pressed out next week and we’ll get her all buttoned up again.

Having some weird ignition problems as of late. Power coming out of the points fine, coil is new as are the points and condenser, cap and rotor, wires and plugs. Seems to be intermittent spark at the plugs for some reason. Sometimes she’ll run and then die, other times no start at all. Weird.

Almost seems like a timing issue but I haven’t messed with it at all so I don’t think it’s an issue. Thoughts? Distributors and me don’t get along much.

It may sound weird, with my 9N I had a starter solenoid go bad causing it not to spark.  It would turn the starter over but no spark.  I fought it for months. Finally the starter became intermittent on me, replaced the solenoid and "Bam!" it was all good again complete with spark? Not sure really why it messed with spark unless it was grounding out the + current in it somehow.

But back to your issue, maybe you need to pop the cap and see if the rotor has build-up. No oil or water under the cap.

Yeah I thought the same. New solenoid, cap, rotor, wiring, everything except the actual distributor has been replaced. It’s really weird to me. Points gapped, not touching the wall, condenser is but that is normal because that’s exactly how it’s supposed to sit I guess.

I almost wonder if it’s an issue in the distributor and the timing is getting more advanced or retarded because it’s messed up. Not sure how I’d test it.

Check it in the black of night so if there is any external voltage leakage you'll be able to see it, a spray bottle of water can help presuade them to show themselves as well. I'd guess it would have a mechanical advance, vacuum controlled is that right? Either way you'll want to diasable the advance to make sure the base timing is on. The advance will only change when spark happens so I'd say the advance is ruled out as cause of intermittent spark.

Intermittent spark to me could be caused by (as @MightyRaze mentioned) the coil or the condensor, even though it's new that doesn't mean squat to me as I've gotten bad parts right out of the box but condensors usually break down when hot... did you bench test and charge the condensor before installing it? If not, a quick search online will teach you how.

The points need to be adjusted properly so spark is timed correctly as well but I'd doubt that would cause intermittent spark unless they're "right on the edge" so to speak. There are 2 main different types of coils if we're talking about the canister style which I'll assume you have... externally resisted in which case you'll have a large ceramic resistor somewhere inline and then there's internally resisted in which case you will not because it's built inside. They can't be swapped for one another.

Caps and rotors do wear and can build corrosion, if they're pitted/burnt looking they're probably toast but it couldn't hurt to give them a quick clean up with sandpaper.

Seems odd it worked fine and now you have an issue, I'd swap old parts back over one at a time until I hopefully found the issue, if not you'll still be at square one unfortunately...

Sorry for the rant! Lol

I've gotten a bad "new" condenser before. Maybe start with that it you try your old parts first like @Brianator said.

Can’t quite do that now as the starter needed some loving so I’m cleaning that out. Anybody know if the dealers stock electrical smoke? Mine all leaked out, need to top it off.

I did find the vacuum line to the distributor was loose and the line was trashed so I plugged it off. Once the starter’s working again (gotta re solder a brush) and it should hopefully start or at least spin over. I went to hobo feet and bought a spark tester and a timing light so we should be able to get some more definitive answers here hopefully.

Keeps me out of trouble, right?

They should, here's a part number for you to work with. Lol


The vacuum line on the dizzy should just be for the advance so no big deal there to start it but I have to ask... what the heck have you been up to? I thought that when you got it that overall it was starting and running and just needed a few kinks worked out... maybe I'm mis-remembering?

That’s a great question. It’s been weird in that the more it was ran the worse it was running- whole new ignition system short of the distributor. Timing hasn’t been messed with since I got it so I doubt that’s an issue, but it seems like every time I’d go to start it it’d start harder and miss more every time-sometimes  it would clear up and run decent for a few minutes but then it’d get worse again. Perplexing, I gapped the points to .25 thou, plug wires are all tight, new coil, condenser and points are new, plugs are new as are the wires, just seems like no matter what I did I couldn’t fix the miss. Hence why I’m leaning towards the vacuum advance, if that doesn’t fix the issue I’m going to check spark and then check the float level and fuel pump.

Joy, thy name be diesel lol


I decided to go back to school and get my civil engineering degree so I’ve been in college a lot which has absorbed a good chunk of time also, hence my “drop off the face of the earth” tendencies as of late.

I got the starter all repaired. I need to find the shim for it and it can go back together. Got a bit high on the solder and the zinc flux fumes but evidently I lived. Little sketchy as soldering with a propane torch can very easily ignite gaskets that allegedly may or may not be made of card stock. No senseless accusations now, I have my rights :p

Progress! Slowly but surely, we’re getting there.