I hate to ask you guys too many questions especially off topic; but I usually get answers so much quicker from FTE folks than all the other sites combined.
I have a Case IH JX 1090 U tractor made in Italy and am needing a service manual for it but also,
I'm looking into buying a 1086 cab tractor 4X4 and am wondering if anyone has personal experience with the "86" series tractor as made by IH before being sold to Case?
I understand that a 40 year old tractor may have parts availability issues but in another life I was a machinist so I'm usually not bright enough to be afraid of such things. I'm currently slowly converting my Ford 1910 tractor to SAE and did convert to G.M. electrical charging system, has worked for 5 years.
Question on the 1086, is there a good reason not to buy a tractor with 47XX hours on the clock with recent clutch?

 

As with any machine, it depends on maintenance. I have never had an 86 series tractor, but ran a 1466 IH tractor for years. It had around 7000 hrs. on it when I traded up to an IH 5288, which I still have. It showed 4500 hrs. on the clock when it came to me, and now shows a little over 9000 hrs. and the engine has never been opened up as far as I know, outside of replacing the fuel injection pump. It uses a little oil now if pulled hard, but it now is used mostly for putting up hay, and loader work. The 1086 would be a good tractor, and 4700 hrs isn't too many, IMO. Parts availability shouldn't be to big of a problem, if you have a Case/IH dealer near. I get my parts from a New Holland dealer, which once sold IH tractors and equipment, along with New Holland haying equipment. When The company That bought Case/IH from Tenneco, also purchased Ford/New Holland, they made the local dealer choose between Case/IH and New Holland lines. As the dealer sold a lot of New Holland haying equipment, they chose NH.

 

Thanks Tom!
The pics of the tractor look pretty good. All glass, covers etc. It does not have a loader but the DOT here will pay me $162. an hr with a push blade. The 1090 grossed around $17,500 this past week and in 2010 grossed $38,000. with the bucket. So,.... it would pay for itself and have way more hp than needed to pull the baler. The thought of having such a piece of history and 4X4 to boot has me excited. The real problem is finding someone resonsible to help operate them during mandated shift changes.

 

The front wheel assist on an 86 series is kind of a rare tractor out here. The 1086 is rated at 130-135 hp range IIRR, so you will have plenty of power for the baler. It seems like finding responsible help these days is getting harder and harder.

 

If it's an aftermarket Hydro FWA I would think twice about the tractor, they aren't very reliable, have a large turning radius and require slow speeds from what little I know of them.

 

The FWD system on those tractors is a novelty

The FWD systems on those tractors are a real PITA. We had a 1486, added the FWD ran it for about 5 years and were CONSTANTLY fixing parts in the FWD system. Then removed the FWD and been running the tractor for the past 15 years problem free

 

These are the things I needed to know. The long wheel base would make it a large turning radius which I had NOT thought about. That would be a problem with some of the fields I hay. However, it would have little effect on the roads for snow plowing. The reliability problems are a real concern. I believe it would have the ground clearance needed for feeding this past snow; we had approximately 30" with some drifting so the 2 wheel and small 4 wheel drives were useless.

Was it simply bad design, low grade parts or just compatibility to the rest of the tractor? Could it be modified to be reliable? This tractor is about 20K without loader and a similar hour Italian tractor would be much more $$$ but perhaps reliable and lighter.

 

If I were in your shoes and looking for a FWA/4x4 tractor I'd seriously consider a more modern tractor that was designed to have FWA, I'm a John Deere guy so I'm not very familiar with IH but something similar to a JD 6400 FWA can be found for 30-35k and are very reliable, had 10,000 hours on ours when we sold it and it still going strong for my uncle and now have a 6420 2wd and a 6430 premium FWA that will eat a 4ft snowdrift like cotton candy.

 

Just a bad design(like most early designs of anything). They got it all figured out in later series tractors. So if you want 4wd, look at a newer tractor

 

I'd have to agree with Brad on the later series tractors. My brother bought the first 5130 Case/IH tractor the local dealer received. It was a front wheel assist tractor. That was a sweet tractor for loader work, with the 16 forward 4 reverse powershift transmission, and left hand reverser, which let you shift from forward to reverse without clutching. It also had a fairly short turning radias. That tractor came with the 5.9 Cummins in it. The local tractor mechanics have said they have seen tractors that have over 10000 hrs on the transmission, and never been opened up. I'm an IH man so I might be a little biased here so-- shortly after he purchased the 5130, John Deere came out with the 7600(?) series tractor, and the local JD dealer brought one down to compare. There were things about the JD that I liked better, and some things on the 5130 I liked better. If they would have taken the best from each, and built a tractor with those features it would have been a great tractor. But over all, I liked the IH better.