Wow, what a coincidence. Don’t hear much about John Deere 2140 Tractors, then early this week I got 2 messages from followers on the topic of 2140’s.
Henryk from New Zealand contacted me first back in Sept. '17 with this note on a “Barn Find” John Deere 2140 he ran across:
“Hi there Pete, I am writing from New Zealand. My brother and I have recently come across what you would call a ‘BARN FIND’. As far as we know it is a late model 2140 (1985) with only 1800.7 hrs on the clock. This machine has been sitting for quite some time in a shed on a dairy farm, but unfortunately outside for the last 10 months,” said Henryk.
“So the reason we were so interested was the fact that this tractor has the factory bar type axle in the rear, which is unheard of (only one we have seen in NZ on this model JD). We are keen followers of Machinery Pete on Youtube and enjoy farm machines, having grown up on tractors and ag machines. We know we might not have something of great value or anything, but we are busy restoring the 2140 and we are trying very hard to get some information about these tractors regarding how many were made in which year, last serial no.'s., which market had special options and so on. We realize these were made in Germany, but we are having a ton of trouble trying to find anything. The best we can get out of the dealer is that this tractor was traded and sold to the farmer we got it from in 2006. But the rest is unknown.”
“We are very impressed how you guys have been able to find out almost everything about some of the machines that collectors and on the auctions, so were hoping someone there may be able to put us in contact or point us in the right direction with our machine? It would be so much appreciated!”
Henryk sent these pics of their barn find 1985 John Deere 2140:
Henryk sent me an email note today touching base and filled in the rest of the story on this John Deere 2140, which he has now acquired:
“We had been driving past the 2140 for a year now, seeing it sitting out in the weather. When we got it home the clutch was rusted to the fly wheel and we estimate this tractor has been sitting at least 3 years and quite some time outside in the New Zealand weather (damp, rain and very harsh sun). To a keen person, like ourselves, we could see that the damage was cosmetic more than anything.”
“So since my last e-mail we have spent quite a few hours on the machine and have done a fair bit, we replaced the clutch and got the tractor completely mobile, the engine fired up like a charm btw! We drained all the fluids and checked all the oils for anything to be worried about on the internals, but all seemed normal. But as we have worked on it we have come to realize that maybe 1,800 hours is when the clock stopped working, so our plan is to redo the wiring and repower the old instrument panel to see whether the hour meter does go or not. Though we have reason to believe that it has done more than 1,800 hours, the things that wear out first or should show signs of wear and tear still seem to have plenty of life left so it is a mystery to us still.”
“It is so hard here in new Zealand to find any archives or access data bases regarding these models and to find someone as interested as us to really dig deep seems to be like finding a needle in a hay stack. We have established where the tractor was last traded and sold, this was at a John Deere dealership in 2006, but they told us the serial number is to old for their data base and that is all they can tell us.”
“Here are the reasons why we are interested to look into this model John Deere…It is a John Deere Open station 2140 Power Synchron with front wheel assist, Bar type axle in the rear with the big square mudgaurds and a 540/1000rpm PTO selector. We understand that there were thousands and thousands made of the 2140 out of Germany, but like I said before, we have never come across a model like this in New Zealand and so far the few people that has been interested like us haven’t ether. Would be very interesting what we are able to dig up.”
We have just about repaired all we have found on the mechanical side of things and are about to attack the panel work and paint then lastly we will be doing the electrics. We would love to do a full restoration on it as it is a ‘keeper’ but nether of us has the funds to do so yet, but she will be a million bucks compared to how we found it. Apologies for the long message, but like you we are also interested in the stories attached to machines so thought you mite be interested in ours. Thanks Again for your time and effort, we really do appreciate it!" - Kind Regards, Henryk
Here are the “After” pics Henryk sent on their 1985 John Deere 2140:
Anyone with any info on this particular John Deere 2140, or 2140’s in general, reply here and we’ll see if we can help Henryk out on his quest for more 2140 info/history.
FYI: here’s look at the John Deere 2140 Tractors I’ve seen sold at auction over the past 18 years:
Auction Prices on John Deere 2140 Tractors
- Data by MachineryPete.com