Tractor heritage, news and features

Restoring an 80s Classic

The 6610 model was first launched by Ford in 1981 and was the replacement for the highly regarded 6600 model. The four-cylinder engine produced 86hp and a new column change gearshift was introduced for the 10 Series, which gave a less cluttered floor area but did give some operators a bit of a shock as its use was not immediately intuitive! The new Synchroshift gearbox was a great advance though, offering a synchro box in a Ford tractor for the first time and coming with the option of Dual Power.

Available

The 6610 was available in either two or four-wheel drive form as were all the tractors in the new Series 10 line-up, something that was a bit of a blow to the conversion specialists such as Roadless and County. Brian's particular 6610 is not equipped with Dual Power having the standard 8x4 synchro box and was first registered in 1983 when it was sold by Suffolk dealers Wiggs of Barnby to Montague Farms of Barsham, just down the road.

The tractor did not work particularly hard at its first home being used mainly for light duties such as spraying, fertiliser spreading and rolling. The 6610's owners retired in 1998 and a nearby landowner bought the 6610 at the retirement sale but did not use the tractor for a great deal of work. In fact only two hours had been put on the clock during the course of seven years!

Eventually it was decided to sell the tractor and the owner asked his neighbour if he would like to buy it or knew someone who would.

That neighbour was Brian Barker and that is how the 6610 came into his possession working on his stock farm only a stone’s throw away from its original home.

Brian at that time wasn’t actively looking for another tractor but thought that the 6610 would be a better machine on his yard scraper than his existing Ford Force 4000.

The 6610’s main advantage over the 4000 being that it was equipped with a stereo and heater. Brian also had another reason as he has been a fan of the ‘bubble-cab’ Ford tractors since he grew up with them back in his home county of Derbyshire. He really liked the Ford 6600 model and has often had deep regrets about selling two of them several years earlier.

Finding a good 6600 at the right price however, had proved to be somewhat difficult. After purchasing the 6610 it found a new home being used initially on the yard scraper keeping the cattle yards and pig pens clean and tidy.

Restoration project

Since buying the tractor Brian had always thought it was too good to just rot away on the scraper and so with the acquisition of an old International Harvester B275 to take over scraper duties, Brian started the restoration of his 6610 in December 2007.

Although in pretty decent original condition, Brian could not bear looking at the rust on the bonnet and wheels so the decision was taken to go down the full restoration route. The engine was breathing heavily with a lot of blue smoke when under load so a full strip down and engine rebuild was in order.

Brian had only just started to convert an old cattle shed into a workshop and so the first problem was getting the tractor into the shed through a doorway that only left half an inch to spare either side of the wings. After being carefully squeezed into position the front axle, wheels, bonnet, battery tray and alternator guard were removed and swiftly shot-blasted and primed free of charge courtesy of a good friend of Brian’s – a considerable initial cost saving.

Next came the engine strip down. The engine was re-bored in-between Christmas and New Year, which took a bit of arm-twisting due to the holiday, but the exchange of a few pound notes made all the difference and allowed Brian to continue work on the project during an otherwise very quiet period of the year.

The engine was re-bored to plus 20 with oversize pistons being fitted to compensate for the re-bore. Brian considered it to be worth re-boring the engine as there was no corrosion in the water jacket and it had never been stripped down before.

The big ends, main shims and bearings were also renewed – there was nothing wrong with the old ones but while the engine was stripped out it seemed a good idea to change these as well, saving time in the future. A new oil pump and core plugs were also fitted and the injectors serviced. As Brian did not want to have problems in the future with breakdowns and having to strip the engine down again the head was planed, new valves fitted and seated just to “make the job a good 'un” said Brian.

New clutch

A new clutch was also fitted and all the steering components were replaced such as the joints, bearings, bushes, etc. Brian found that spare parts firm Vapormatic were ideal for supplying items such as these and used the firm for many different spares throughout the project as they were so helpful with advice.

After the engine and front axle were all reassembled the doors were removed from the cab as well as the steps, lights and other easily detachable components which were cleaned up and prepared for the first undercoat. All the wheels and under the wings were zinc coated ready for the first primer to be applied to the whole tractor, then after a few days the second coat of primer was applied.

After a long winter, a really nice weekend in March proved the stimulus for Brian to start applying the first topcoat of paint, what a job it proved to be. After undertaking many hours of work to mask all the glass, rubbers and everything else on the tractor that was not supposed to be blue, it took a whole day to paint the tractor including the inside of the cab.

The next job was to apply the tyres back to the wheels including two brand new front ones. The 6610 was originally on 7.50/16 rubber but Brian quite fancied 11.5/15 which gives the tractor a more purposeful look. The tractor was then left for a fortnight for the paint to set and harden, the length of time being longer than expected due to the very cold spring of 2008.

Once Brian was sure the paintwork was set, the tractor was slowly reassembled with the doors, bonnet, wheels, etc coming together as the tractor began to take shape once again. A new weight frame was constructed with an extra set of headlights built into it.

Things were now looking good but the engine had never been run up since its rebuild and Brian still had no idea if it would even run! Nevertheless final cosmetic touches were made to the tractor with new decals for the bonnet and the repainting of the ‘FORD’ decal on the front of the cab roof.

All new filters were fitted, new oils throughout the tractor, new check chains for the linkage arms, a new transmission tunnel cover in the cab and a second-hand Ford top link completed the makeover. Now all that was left was the unknown quantity of whether or not the engine would run.

Back to work

After bleeding the fuel system the key was turned and the engine ran – but only for about ten seconds. Fuel starvation was the apparent problem so the bleeding process was repeated and it soon became obvious that a couple of fuel pipes had not been tightened enough. With this problem sorted away she went, the engine giving a very nice, crisp note, sounding not unlike a brand new Ford tractor of the period.

After being run for a while the engine was checked over to make sure there were no oil, fuel or water leaks. Unfortunately one was discovered on the diesel lift pump however a new rubber grommet soon solved that problem.

With the mechanics sorted, a new stereo system was fitted to make up for the decibels taken away by the quiet Q cab, and away she went.

Once finished, the gleaming 6610 did not really see any hard work for a couple of months until silage time came around. You would think that Brian would give the tractor some easy mowing or rowing up work to bed her in, but no it was straight in at the deep end attached to his trailed Claas Jaguar 51 forager.

Usually the farm’s bigger tractors are used to power the forager but Brian wanted to run the engine in well as he strongly believes that idling a virtually good as new engine could cause glazing of the bores – so he gave the 6610 some real work.

Since that first silage season the Ford 6610 has been put to work on many more tasks, more than Brian had originally intended, as that year the farm’s two-year-old McCormick CX105 was out of action for most of the season due to a serious fault.

This meant that the 6610 had to take on a main line role and was even used to power the farm’s Welger RP435 high capacity round baler.

Carting grain with a Fraser 14-ton trailer proved interesting as Brian found it difficult keeping the 6610’s front wheels on the ground!

Bale carting

After a spot of bale carting the 6610 was next employed on autumn cultivation work with a 3.5m FarmForce press with tines and levelling flaps coupled up to a Cambridge roll. This set up usually requires at least a 120hp tractor but the 86hp 6610 took it in its stride, despite the needle on the temperature guide being very high by the end of a long working day. After pressing, the 6610 went straight onto a Lely power harrow – working in front of a McCormick MTX150 and combination drill.

The Ford was working complete with dual wheels, which did end up scratching the paintwork much to Brian’s annoyance. This was nothing however, compared to the tractor's spell on the farm’s McConnell hedge cutter which really put the paint finish in jeopardy. Brian was very careful though and the tractor made it through unscathed.

So what does the future hold for this Ford 6610? Well hopefully the workload will decrease for the 25-year-old machine. During the winter of 2009 Brian took the tractor into the workshop to touch up the dual wheel cleats and other minor jobs, but otherwise the 6610 looks set to carry on working at Granary Farm for many years to come.

Brian concludes: “The modern machines are efficient but the older classic tractors are easier to work on and can usually be fixed in the farm workshop – without the need for a dealer’s laptop!”

Words & Pictures Jonathan Whitlam