You Get What You Pay For
Model Year: 1966
Bought my used 4000 via private sale for under 4K CDN, dodgy tires, but it had a loader and remote and I needed something to run a 3pt hitch backhoe. It looked like it had been split, most wiring was disconnected, steering wheel was loose, etc., but the current owner didn't know why. It had good compression, started well, had a bit of a grinding noise in rear, but as I wasn't doing field work with no concern. Changed the oil and put some Lucas oil conditioner in it for the drive home 40+mins, no issues except it popped out of gear in high range on down hills, terrifying the first time in traffic, mercifully the brakes worked. Used it as is for a year without a problem, very slow hydraulics, as advertised, but the loader worked well. I drained and replaced the hyd oil (hy-trans) but it needed very little maintenance. Felt it was a keeper so I invested 2K+ on tires (18.9 28 rear and a good set of 8 ply 3 ribs on the front). This summer, I fired it up to boost a combine and the engine started to make a severe knock like a piston wasn't firing. Shut it down started it again same thing. Checked the injectors, all getting fuel, called my guy. Turns out a valve seat had popped out and I needed an engine job. I parked it until the winter and had our local tractor mechanic work on it as a winter project. Did a complete engine rebuild and found out that the clutch had been replaced (reason for tractor being split we assumed). Took the time to replace all the wiring myself (most had been fried, looks like a mouse behind the instrument cluster had chewed a wire and shorted it). As well, took the tin work off and repainted it. Too bad I hadn't the opportunity to repaint the loader, as it looked good until it went back on (bit of a dress on a donkey). At the end of the day my initial 3.5K investment, plus 2.5K for tires and 3K for the engine job plus all the bits and pieces I put on it makes it almost a 10K tractor, wondering if I shouldn't have spent 10K in the first place, but as my neighbor said, you know what you have now and you could have just as easily spent 10 and still had to do an engine job.
Pros: Reliability.
Cons: Slow hydraulics.
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