Learning alot, but want more info

[Cowpuncher]

My Cousin who worked at Continental Bank and Trust at the time was in charge of the Bankruptsy and was overwhelmed by the depth of the problem.  He spent many nights in Chicago!

[Howard_P]

To clarify, there was no bankruptcy. 

It was close and he was likely preparing for that.  I heard that all the paperwork was done and all that remained was for IH to file it with the court.  But the deal with Tenneco cancelled that so his work was for naught although his bank probably came out better in the end.

[234-IA]

Bankruptcy would have been a nightmare to carry out- didn't the company have their debt spread out over a couple of hundred banks? Enough work to deal with one banker in decent times, let alone the early 1980s

[Drysleeves]

Several years back there was an article in Red Power about a 1950 prototype Farmall M with an early version of the sliding gear transmission that appeared in the 706/806 tractors in 1963. That tractor has two shift levers rather crudely secured to the steering pedestal to operate the shifting. The operator's platform on the 460/560 Farmall tractor is considerably larger than an M or Super M and has the shifter on the left side. On the opposite side there's a three bolt plate in the exact same location as the shifter that I can only remember using as a place to add Hy-Tran when needed. If you look closely at the plate you'll notice it's the same size and shape of the shift lever fixture that also seems rather out of character for an oil port. Could it be the fixture was really intended to accomodate a shift lever? Clearly a 706 category tractor introduced in 1958 would've changed things dramatically at Harvester. The documented hard sales culture imposed under John McCaffrey overruled and apparently lingered on until it was too late.

[Matt Kirsch]

40 minutes ago, Drysleeves said:

Several years back there was an article in Red Power about a 1950 prototype Farmall M with an early version of the sliding gear transmission that appeared in the 706/806 tractors in 1963. That tractor has two shift levers rather crudely secured to the steering pedestal to operate the shifting. The operator's platform on the 460/560 Farmall tractor is considerably larger than an M or Super M and has the shifter on the left side. On the opposite side there's a three bolt plate in the exact same location as the shifter that I can only remember using as a place to add Hy-Tran when needed. If you look closely at the plate you'll notice it's the same size and shape of the shift lever fixture that also seems rather out of character for an oil port. Could it be the fixture was really intended to accomodate a shift lever? Clearly a 706 category tractor introduced in 1958 would've changed things dramatically at Harvester. The documented hard sales culture imposed under John McCaffrey overruled and apparently lingered on until it was too late.

My understanding is that plate is for reverse operation of the tractor, such as when it's under a cotton picker. The shifter is installed on that side as part of the process that results in 5 "reverse" gears and 1 "forward." There are other things that need to change as well. Earlier tractors had a separate platform that had to be installed, but for some reason IH included accommodations for both forward and reverse operation on the 460/560 tractors. 

[Drysleeves]

Makes total sense. I never considered that aspect but haven't spent much time around cotton pickers.

Now if they'd have applied that reverse logic to the door hinge point on the Control Center in the beginning instead of waiting until the end, who knows what may have happened.