Farmall Cub

I just acquired a 1951 Farmall H. It has a #30 trip bucket loader on it which works pretty well. It doesn't have any wierd noises. The one thing that bothers me is a leak coming from the back of the tractor. It is on the bottom, between the belly pump and transmisson. A nieghbor told me it is the "rear main seal". I don't know if the oil is coming from the Trans or the belly pump. It is black oil, needing changing but I'm just wondering what it is coming from. I think it's the belly pump so i just put more oil in the belly pump resivour. The other problem is that it only has three positions on the light switch box. Which are lights off, lights dim, and lights bright. The previous owner said that the generator (6 volt system still) was rebuilt be he occasionally ends up with a dead battery. The amp gauge is questionable. It has a crack in the glass and even when the battery is unhooked it reads a little to the left of zero. It moves a little more to the left when the tractor is running and /or with the lights on. Is there a way to check the generator? Thanks for any info on my two problems.

Black oil is likely tranny oil or engine oil - not from belly pump.

Ground generator F terminal, if it doesn't charge, it's either the generator or connections.

I agree with bigdog since the oil is black. Both the drive shaft and pump drive are noted for leaking. If its the pump you can force it to leak worse when you pull the rod full aft to port pressure somewhere. Both tranny seals are easy to replace as they are in a removable cap ( 3 bolts ), no tranny teardown needed. Depending on how bad it is you might be able to get by by replacing the diaper on the cover. I did that for a few yrs before finally fixing it. A sheet of that spill absorbant stuff for oil and fuel spills works great.

There's an access cover under there by the belly pump that you can pull off and look for obvious leaks. If it's leaking as badly as you let on, it should be easy to pinpoint...

Oil color won't help much to tell where it's coming from, because it's going to get dirty and black just running down the inside of the tractor.

If it's leaking as badly as you let on, you should notice the level of SOMETHING getting low:

Check engine oil using the petcocks on the side of the oil pan. It should run out the bottom petcock if it's full, but not the top one.

The Liftall pump should be right full with oil. Normally there's a dipstick attached to the fill pipe cap. Yours may be missing?

The transmission level check is a plug on the side of the transmission. Oil should barely run out that hole if it's full. Add through the plug on top of the platform next to the shifter if necessary.

You should be performing these checks as a matter of normal maintenance... Weekly at minimum, daily is preferred, especially with a known leak.

My dipstick for the bellypump is missing, i'll try what you suggest. Thanks again for the help.