# Ford Select-O-Speed transmission



## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Hi all,

Picking up a '68 Ford 4000 industrial tractor this weekend. It has a Select-O-Speed transmission that 2nd gear seems a little weak (slips under load). Anyone have much knowledge of these?

I'm going to change the filter and fluid in it right away and not use 2nd gear until I'm able to find the parts to fix it. Is there any other gear/gears I should not use until then?

Thanks

WWW


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## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

only things I know is that I loved the S.O.S. tranny and I have heard that finding parts is darn near impossible.


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## foxtrapper (Dec 23, 2003)

N-News: The Magazine for the Ford Tractor Enthusiast

Go through the archives and find the articles on the SOS. They ran one series several years ago from a national Ford factory service rep that were the best I've ever seen.


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## Caz (Jun 29, 2002)

Change the filter and fluid, get a service manual and adjust the bands and go to Yesterdaystractor.com and get on the Ford board as there a re several very knowlegable individuals on there who live and breath Ford SOS Transmissions. John


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

I think the parts you need to find are .... a standard tranny. No sense throwing good money after bad.


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

Great advice from Ross. 

Joke is that if you had the choice between a social disease and a Select o speed tranny choose the former. Chances are it can be cured.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Yes one of the options that has been thrown out by my FIL was to replace it with a dual shift.


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## foxtrapper (Dec 23, 2003)

That's part of the reason I sent you that link. It's a very poorly understood transmission, frequently set up wrong, causing it to work poorly. When properly set up, it works superbly.

It was a design well before its time. Sadly, released a few weeks prematurely, requiring a lot of field repair and adjustment work for Ford reps.


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## Sawmill Jim (Dec 5, 2008)

Caz said:


> Change the filter and fluid, get a service manual and adjust the bands and go to Yesterdaystractor.com and get on the Ford board as there a re several very knowlegable individuals on there who live and breath Ford SOS Transmissions. John


Yep lots of info there :cowboy:


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## plowjockey (Aug 18, 2008)

If it's an 3 cylinder Industrial model, it should be a model 4500.

I have one with a backhoe (Manual 4 speed). Some battle tanks are probably not as heavily built. 

Ebay has inexpensive Ford factory manual files, that tell just everything to repair adjust SOS and the rest of the tractor.


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## Caz (Jun 29, 2002)

Ross said:


> I think the parts you need to find are .... a standard tranny. No sense throwing good money after bad.


That is debatable, A working SOS that has regular maintenance is a versatile transmission,all it takes is understanding how they work and adjusting if needed. What most people don't know is that the design engineer for the SOS was hired away from ford by john deere and he designed their power shift transmission which is very similiar. They stressed the maintenance requirements and did not have overrunning clutchs and faired better than ford, but the similarities are there. John


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Each to their own. Automagic trannies annoy me in car, really annoy me in a pickup, and stupidest idea ever for a tractor. Unfortunately the whole world seems to be thrilled with them since most modern people seem super delicate and have to be tweeting instead of actually driving, so its harder and harder to get a simple heavy duty manual transmission in anything. So the automagic people seem to have won out even if it is a bad idea.


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## oneokie (Aug 14, 2009)

My 2Â¢

I have seen too many sos transmissions that were repaired by factory trained Ford mechanics continue to have problems. IMO, if a factory trained mechanic can't fix one, that says volumes.


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## foxtrapper (Dec 23, 2003)

SOS wasn't an automatic, is was a shift on the fly transmission. You shifted and selected the gears. It was a sequential shift, which let you easily work your way up and down the gears, while plowing or cutting or whatever, selecting the optimal speed for the condions, without stopping. This also let you get more plow moving, and then bring it up to speed, so you could work harder and faster.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

foxtrapper said:


> SOS wasn't an automatic, is was a shift on the fly transmission. You shifted and selected the gears. It was a sequential shift, which let you easily work your way up and down the gears, while plowing or cutting or whatever, selecting the optimal speed for the condions, without stopping. This also let you get more plow moving, and then bring it up to speed, so you could work harder and faster.


If you can shift without a clutch its hydraulically driven one way or another, at minimum it has a torque converter. Back in the 40s and 50s you could buy cars with a manual transmission hooked to a torque converter. You manually shifted but you didnt have to clutch. Cheap fuel so didnt matter it wasnt particularly efficient. So there are lot possibilities. For me, straight manual transmission with a manual clutch means its durable and cheap to repair. Automated anything means higher maintenance and higher costs in the machines "senior" years. Why anybody would want some antique automated anything is beyond me, just asking for problems. If you are very profitable commercial operation and can buy and depreciate new equipment thats automated up the wazoo, more power to you, to use whatever works out most cost effective for that extra 5 seconds of productivity. But antique machines with no longer supported automagic anything is buying trouble and major expense. Whereas a good manual transmission will outlast the vehicle its installed in.


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Caz said:


> That is debatable, A working SOS that has regular maintenance is a versatile transmission,all it takes is understanding how they work and adjusting if needed. What most people don't know is that the design engineer for the SOS was hired away from ford by john deere and he designed their power shift transmission which is very similiar. They stressed the maintenance requirements and did not have overrunning clutchs and faired better than ford, but the similarities are there. John


OK sure nice history lesson (and yeah i heard it before) now the OP should still go buy a used standard tranny, and swap it out. They'll double the value of their tractor, or more. JD improved it, because it needed improving. Not that I'm a huge fan of any power shift tranny or hydrostat tranny. Yes modern ones are terrific..... I'm still not buying one. And I have a tourque converter spun Ford 555, not that it gives me a good night's sleep! If or when it calves I might just slip in a 4000 standard tranny unless it seriously messes it's hydraulic system or its cheaper to fix what flew apart. I'm told the 555 had a bullet proof system. We'll see.


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

Had a Ford 4000 SOS. Say one thing for it, it could flat out move in 10th gear.

My local mechanic found one retired Ford repairman who specialized in these transmissions. Name and phone number is about 12 years old now: Ben Garrett, 13905 Heartside, Farmers Branch, TX 75234 - 972-247-3053.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Most things that work like they are supposed to are considered fine products. How ever the ford Select O Speed did not earn the reputation Select o Junk because it was a fine and worked like it was designed with long Gevity. Some models of ford tractors command huge amounts of dollars for collectors to buy because they are so rare and many were built in the late 1960âs. But due to the SOS trans were either changed over to a manual or junked out.
My uncle had a SOS Ford, the trans stopped working for him so it went to the ford dealer near Green Bay Wisconsin to be rebuilt. About $4000.00 latter he got it back. It worked fine for 5 years, a manual trans was swapped in its place for less than $2000.00.
Notice they do not build them today?

Dad called those auto trans objects street bums as they were shift less.

 Al


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## foxtrapper (Dec 23, 2003)

HJ,
Please, my mother taught me to shift gearboxes without using the clutch decades ago. She grew up shifting crash boxes without using the clutch, just so she could match shaft speeds. 

There is no torque converter in the SOS transmission.


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