Vintage Tractor Engineer

Finding the year of manufacture for a Dexta is a complex process and sources of information differ. The serial number of the Fordson Dexta is stamped on the flange between the engine and clutch housing on the left hand side of the tractor. The castings codes (clutch casting, rear axle casting, gearbox casting, hydraulic lift casting) can also give an indication of year of manufacture. Fordsonfreeweb and Yesterdaystractors give information on this – and here’s a summary of that info.  Other Dexta statistics are available here.

Casting Codes

From 1957 until 1963, the casting codes would be in the format of C17A (for example). The first letter refers to the month (i.e. C refers to March), the number refers to the date (i.e.17 would be the 17th of March in this case), the last letter refers to the year (A refering to 1957).

From 1963 onwards the code consisted of a year number, letter indicating the month and a number for the date. So 4D18 would be the 18th April 1964. It would seem that there are some anomalies though – see the table below.

Month                             Until 1963                     1963 and after
Jan                                       A                                            A
Feb                                       B                                             B
March                                 C                                             C
April                                    D                                            D
May                                      F                                            E
June                                     H                                           F
July                                      J                                            G
Aug                                      K                                            H
Sept                                      L                                            K
Oct                                        M                                           L
Nov                                      N                                            M
Dec                                       P                                             N

Year                          Code
1957                            A
1958                             B
1959                             C
1960                             D
1961                              F
1962                             H
1963 (Jan-May)       J
1963 (Jun-Dec)        3
1964                             4

Serial Numbers

Year                                     Prefix                           Number
1957                                     957E                                1 to..
1958                                      957E                          144 to..
1959                                      957E                     22558 to..
1960                                      957E                     44432 to..
1961 (Jan-Oct)                  957E                      71921 to..
1961 (Nov-Dec)                   09A                   312001 to..
1962                                          09B                  702592 to..
1963 (Jan)                              09C                   732031 to..
1963 (Feb-May)                   09C                   900001 to..
1963 (Jun-Dec)                     09C                    916550 to..
1964 (Jan-Sept)                    09D                   907332 to..

Other sources do differ slightly from the above numbers, so please only use these as a good guide.

Comments…..
1
Lee says:

March 31st, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Could you tell me when or if the orange wheels on the fordson dexta were red.

Cheers Lee.

2
The Vintage Tractor Engineer says:

March 31st, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Hi Lee,

As far as I know the wheels were orange and not red. The orange wheels
changed at serial number 09C 913383 (June ‘63) to the grey/cream coloured
wheels.

This Fordson tractor website gives you lots of detailed information

Steve

3
ENDA says:

August 4th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
RECENTLY OBTAINED A FORD 3000 .ON THE BONNET IT WAS MARKED SUPER DEXTA. IT ALSO HASA FIN BONNET . WERE TRYING TO FIND INFO ON THIS .THE SERIAL NUM IS B226 OR B STAR 82162 COULD YOU PLEAS HELP ME ON THIS

THANKS

4
Roger Jacques says:

December 5th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
To whom,
I have purchased a fordson dexta,diesel 3cyl T3. The serial # is 1492597 which is on the engin and another number on the transmittion area which is # 957E – 7005 L5F. I am wanting to rebuild this tractor but don’t know the year it is to order parts. Can anyone help me to determ the year or where else on the tractor I can find a number to help determin the year. Thanks in advance

5
Paul Johnson says:

December 11th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Roger,

From the transmission casting it looks like your castings were made on 5th September 1961. So I would think that your tractor was manufactured late in 1961.

Paul

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