# ford 7740 16 speed ?



## greenfield (Dec 28, 2011)

looking at a 7740 ford with front assist . pretty sure fords this size are good but am thinking power shift trans may be a problem . looking on line have seen many of this model scrapped/for parts and am thinking its quite new for that 1995 . any comment on this machine ?


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## aawhite (Jan 16, 2012)

I would want to know who had it before. We see a lot of those tractors in Kansas owned by state/county maintenance departments running brush cutter, side arm mowers, etc., and they abuse the hell out of them. Could be where the parts tractors are coming from.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Is it an sle? The powershift was the sle model and is mechanically good for 10-15k hours. There will be wiring problems in that time though.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

The blue tops have much better wiring than the older white tops. Some old ones ran wiring and solenoids inside the transmission I think.


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## greenfield (Dec 28, 2011)

I think that it is the sle model


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## greenfield (Dec 28, 2011)

oh yes one had 13000 hr other 7000 but had some trans issues although could still drive / work


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## Wethay (Jul 17, 2015)

Worked on municipality owned 7740. Easy to describe, money pit. These were old enough that if the batteries went dead the transmission forgot clutch calibrations. It would still drive but one shift would be so soft that you would wonder if it ever was going to go and then the next one would leave absolutely no doubt when it engaged. Replaced several hydraulic pump/ charge pump/ power steering pump units at 2500 +/- hrs. Operators would sit in A/C and not get out to check for hidden obstructions. Crash, crunch, bang were not a stop and look event. If somebody else was scheduled to run it tomorrow nothing was wrong with it at the end of the day. Might have a flat tire that's been driven on, broken or missing pieces, an engine or a transmission problem with drag marks leading to the parking spot but it was working fine last night.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Sounds like the operators. 7740 is a well respected model.



Wethay said:


> Worked on municipality owned 7740. Easy to describe, money pit. These were old enough that if the batteries went dead the transmission forgot clutch calibrations. It would still drive but one shift would be so soft that you would wonder if it ever was going to go and then the next one would leave absolutely no doubt when it engaged. Replaced several hydraulic pump/ charge pump/ power steering pump units at 2500 +/- hrs. Operators would sit in A/C and not get out to check for hidden obstructions. Crash, crunch, bang were not a stop and look event. If somebody else was scheduled to run it tomorrow nothing was wrong with it at the end of the day. Might have a flat tire that's been driven on, broken or missing pieces, an engine or a transmission problem with drag marks leading to the parking spot but it was working fine last night.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

A little review guide for the 40 series is attached.

Edit Hmm, can't get it to work.

View attachment Farmers Journal_ Second-hand guide- New Holland 7840_ Ford's big hit for the 90s - 15 February...pdf


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

My cousin has a 1994 model. Used to share it with him. Great tractor. No problems at all since 1994. Better for him then his much newer NHs. Not a money pit here. Great baling tractor. Sized just right.


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## Wethay (Jul 17, 2015)

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I haven't even touched a 7740 that was privately owned. IMHO a municipality owned tractor is something to be leery of regardless of paint color. Of course take that for what it's worth and if you took the time to read all four sentences you have over paid.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

It's not ALL the county/municipal guy's faults... but yeah, like buying cop or rental cars, one must be careful... Even if you have a good operator, he's not ALWAYS the only guy on the thing...

My brother was telling me Monday that he got to work and found out someone tried to steal their tractors again. Think it might be kids or some nutters screwing around... Last week the tractors had been messed with like they were TRYING to steal them or steal the chains off them (they have shop-built brush guards installed on the fronts-- years ago they simply wrapped their tow chains (they always carry chains wound around the brush guards to pull each other out when they inevitably get stuck mowing creek and drainage canal bottoms and flanks) around the brush guards but people kept stealing them off the tractors overnight, so they finally started WELDING the ends of the chains to the brush guards so they couldn't be removed... that and parking them butted up against each other "nose-to-nose" to make it nearly impossible to get the chains off... Turns out some nutjob had unwrapped all the chains intending to steal them, until they got to the padlock holding the chain on one tractor and the weld holding the chain on my brother's new tractor... A batwing and tractor were still sitting in the bar ditch by the road... looked like someone tried to take off with it and got that far before stalling it out, and didn't know how to get it restarted (the new Deere's have all sorts of safeties on them where EVERYTHING has to be in neutral or they won't start, hydraulics, transmission, everything, like a flippin' lawn mower I suppose). They apparently couldn't get it restarted and so they left it there.

Well, over the weekend, someone evidently got a Deere key and got into my brother's brand new cab tractor slope mower and took it for a joyride-- they ran off into the creek in 4wd and buried it... they tore the bonnet (mower deck) off the older open-station slope mower tractor (boom mower) sitting in front of it-- evidently was pushing down trees or whatever, tearing them up... that one will have to go back to the shop to have the deck rebuilt... The boss was out of town for the weekend, so another county guy went out to check on it after they got the report that one of the tractors was in the creek, and when they got out there Monday, it was evident that the thieves had returned, because they'd tried to pull the 4wd cab tractor out of the creek and broke the chain, and got it even more stuck (but moved from its original position). Second time in two weeks... My brother also said that a farmer a few miles from here had the vandals get his tractor-- he left it parked on the end of the field with a fertilizer wagon hooked to it (liquid fertilizer) and they evidently pulled out of the field onto the road through the ditch and flipped the fertilizer buggy over, and dragged it on its side down the road for about half a mile spilling fertilizer everywhere before abandoning it...

I asked my brother if they bothered to call the cops this time-- yeah, they did... but the cops didn't bother taking prints or anything like that... having been a cop, I know the routine-- it's one of those 'file a report and giggle about it over beers later" type deals... I told him they better take it a little more seriously-- after another guy had a baler and rake stolen last week, now this fertilizer deal, there's plenty of guys around here that'll lay in wait for them and somebody's gonna end up getting their head blown off when they screw around with the wrong guy's stuff... too much money involved in this stuff... some jerkwads thinking they're having a good time may find themselves on the wrong end of a 12 guage... (and rightfully so... thin the herd isn't a bad thing).

Later! OL J R : )


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

My brother said he mentioned to his boss that they better do something before we get a five inch rain (not that uncommon this time of year) and the idiots steal the tractors, put them in low-2, point them at the creek, and jump out... sink them in 10 feet of water just for shits and giggles and end up totalling a couple hundred thousand in tractors and equipment over a weekend...

Sounds like a job for some well-placed game cams...

Later! OL J R


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Is it a common key? How do they start them? Key under the mat type of deal?


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

luke strawwalker said:


> having been a cop,


I musta missed this little detail in all of your other stories/posts I have read.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

A ring of 30 keys will start most of the tractors made in the last 50 years. Cab doors sometimes are keyed differently but not on all brands.



deadmoose said:


> Is it a common key? How do they start them? Key under the mat type of deal?


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

deadmoose said:


> Is it a common key? How do they start them? Key under the mat type of deal?


Not sure... common enough I suppose... Probably only a handful of different keys made for all the tractors... I know our Ford keys are pretty simple looking...

Later! OL J R


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Teslan said:


> I musta missed this little detail in all of your other stories/posts I have read.


Well, I shoulda said, "trained as a cop"... did a lot of ride alongs as part of our training... and we had an interesting discussion one time in class...

There was an elderly lady (you know the type-- "crazy cat lady" type...) who had her potted plants stolen off the porch one time... probably neighborhood kids or something messing around for kicks-- we all know the type. Of course she called the cops and wanted a "full fledged investigation" like it's gonna be a federal case... so what to do?? It's misdemeanor theft at most, because the value is so low... SO, you take a report and "investigate" and look very concerned and busy, and SOP is "file 13-ing" it when you get back to the station-- after all, there's enough else for the prosecutors to deal with... keep your eyes open during neighborhood patrol in the area looking for the stuff, but odds are it's gone...

Same thing happened with my old man when his 77 F-100 was stolen out of the yard in the early 80's... the deputies came out and made a report and "investigated" and left. A couple months later, the sheriff from Matagorda county (county south and over one from us) called-- the truck had been found sitting in the back of a remote rice field-- the farmer found it when preparing the field for planting, sitting in the back of the field access road in the weeds and called it in. The deputy ran the plates and called Dad as the registered owner. We suppose that a roughneck, working on one of the drilling rigs on the farm at the time, had probably hotwired it (or probably used a shaved key, as nothing was physically damaged) and rolled it down the driveway in the middle of the night and started it up and drove it to the ricefield, where he abandoned it and probably caught up with some buddies heading who knows where... just needed a lift and didn't want to thumb a ride. What was interesting was, it wasn't in the database as a stolen vehicle-- it wasn't on the "hot sheets"... so evidently the deputy that took the report never bothered to file it... probably "file 13'd" it rather than actually going to the trouble to enter it into the stolen vehicle database... probably figured "it'll never be recovered", so why bother...

A lot of that kind of stuff goes on... too much IMHO...

Later! OL J R


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