Where the heck is the serial # on my HG? I have looked on the bell housing and the right frame rail. There is a small tag under the top right trans/diff mounting bolt which is very hard to get at. Could it be on the tag? If it is on the frame rail where would it be (top, side, front, rear etc)? This machine has two paint colors - green over coated with yellow. Would this have been done at the factory? If so it might give some clue as to the year. I would like to find the serial # for general interest and so I can paint it the correct color. Thanks to anyone who can help.
John Hill
John, not sure how much help I can be, but someone will be along that will have a better answer. In the mean time I can offer a little info.
The serial number on mine (1951) is on the right side of the bell housing for the tractor and on the right side of the block for the engine. I know there was another location, but don't remember where.
The green over yellow may indicate that you have and older machine that was either made by Cletrac or early Oliver. Cletrac was purchased by Oliver in 1944. Cletracs were all yellow to my knowledge. I think that Oliver stayed with yellow at first but then changed to green, but I'm not sure when that was.
Does your exhaust maniflod have "Oliver" cast into it?
John, I can't get the edit function to work so here is some more information. Apparrently the color change happened in 1945.
Go to this link for the specifics of colors:
http://www.hartparroliver.org/vendors.html (http://www.hartparroliver.org/vendors.html)
The problem of serial number tags missing on the Hg was a problem. In fact they even sent a service bulletin out about that. Look on the LEFT side of the block near the top of the head for a flat spot in which Hercules stamped the model and serial number of the engine.They are some form of an IX engine. The very first ones were IXA. Then IXK Then in 1950 the IXB engine. If you have an IXB engine the correct collor is Oliver green. IXA models are all Cletrac Orange. IXK could be either.
The engine Mod/Ser # on my HG is IXK3 -1296400. If anyone who owns an HG and knows the year and engine Mod/Ser # could post this info it might help me to narrow down the year of my HG. Thanks JH
Look behind the magneto and see if a month and year are cast into the block. Do you have a Delco or Auto-Lite electrical system?There were many little changes in those HG crawlers, some of which were also furnish only as repair parts.
The engine casting is May 28/47 so I guess my HG was built in47 or early 48. It has a Delco electrical system.
Thanks all!!
On my OC-3 the serial nr: are on right side
of bellhouse looks like the oliver shield
but i have an instruction manual of an hg
an there is a picture of an plate on the left side on trackframe between the spring and the sprocket wheel
but i cant see if it an serial nr plate
on the engine behinde the magneto you
finde engine nr: and also on the engine block left side just under the cyl head
John,
That tag you found by the trans/diff mounting bolt sounds like the tractor serial tag you are looking for. That is where the factory put them up until 1946, or 47 when they moved them to the bellhousing.
The engine casting date is a good way to date them also. Coupled with the tractor serial no. it is also a good way to tell if a worn out engine was swapped with a later one.
Factory color from 1945 to 1951 was green, but you could still order your new tractor during this time with Cletrac orange among other colors (yellow being another). Same goes for post 1951's- you could still order the green after they went to all yellow. My third edition OC-3 instruction manual shows a green OC-3 in many of the diagrams.