Refurbishing my Z145 135

[Slowride]

I've got a question. On the lower right side of the Instrument panel appears to be a window of some sort for a switch, serial number or something. It appears to have a factory blank bolted to the panel to cover it. Anyone have a clue as to it's purpose?

Hello, I just found your thread as I am in the process of refurbing my MF135. To answer your question, the slot is there for lever that is used to select Highway range on the transmission. IIRC, the MF135 has a 3spd H/L configuration (6 gears). That slot basically turns 6spd into 12 spd. for Highway hauling of trailers, implements, etc.

I also just have the blanking plate with no selector lever. I believe my MF is a 73' and after looking at your tractor, I can say I have a few things different on mine. Like your air filter is vertical, my is horizontal. I also have a few more switches on my dash. I do have the old power supply for the dash lights. I fits to the left side of the battery tray opposite of the VR on the right.

I just pulled my fuel system, gas tank and carb. I need to put a new fuel petcock on it and replace the tubing with fuel hose. I noticed you said something about the location of the fuel hose you have and the proximity to the manifold... did you come up with a solution to keep it off the manifold. I am exploring the same thing.

[The kid]

Hello, I just found your thread as I am in the process of refurbing my MF135. To answer your question, the slot is there for lever that is used to select Highway range on the transmission. IIRC, the MF135 has a 3spd H/L configuration (6 gears). That slot basically turns 6spd into 12 spd. for Highway hauling of trailers, implements, etc.

I also just have the blanking plate with no selector lever. I believe my MF is a 73' and after looking at your tractor, I can say I have a few things different on mine. Like your air filter is vertical, my is horizontal. I also have a few more switches on my dash. I do have the old power supply for the dash lights. I fits to the left side of the battery tray opposite of the VR on the right.

I just pulled my fuel system, gas tank and carb. I need to put a new fuel petcock on it and replace the tubing with fuel hose. I noticed you said something about the location of the fuel hose you have and the proximity to the manifold... did you come up with a solution to keep it off the manifold. I am exploring the same thing.

Hello, they call that switch the "multi-power" selector switch. I've learned quite a bit about the MF135 Continentals since I purchased it.

The air filter in a vertical configuration was only used a few years after they determined it was allowing debris to enter the carb when the filter was serviced. On mine the only way to keep that from happening is to remove the entire assembly, turn it upside down and remove the filter. This assures no debris enters the center chamber and could get sucked into the carb creating all kinds of problems.

My 65 was missing the heat shield that went between the fuel tank and the manifold. My fuel filter as sitting real close to the manifold thus causing a vapor lock when moving slow mowing high brush. I put some heat shielding on the tank. Later i found an original heat shield at a salvage year and cleaned up the tank. Installed the heat shield and relocated the fuel filter above the heat shield close the the fuel cut off.

If yours still has the heat shield then just moving the filter using high quality fuel line kind of following the oil pressure gauge line and relocating it at the rear top of the fuel tank. That's where I have mine now. Easy to get to for maintenance too.

Post a picture of your dash, so I can see the differences.

[The kid]

Repairing my sheetmetal

My side panels where in pretty sad shape and was going to put new OEM panels on. But a mistake by an unknowing dealer sent me Perkins Hood and side panels. I'll sell them to someone here eventually for someone restore thier tractor.

The Hood opens on the right side for Continentals and Left for Perkins in case you didn't know. My dealer didn't.. Duhh. Not my dealer anymore. My side panels had tress tears, rusted out bolt holes that needed to be repaired. No problem, but time consuming.



This picture shows where I welded up the bolt hole and repositioned it to match my new hood nose. The welded bolt (original) was cut off and ground down.



This picture shows the front side, where the top bolt is hidden as it should be.



I replaced the factor bolts with 3/8 - 20 standard side bolts. I mounted them in a vise and ground down the head to about 0.05" which should tack down nicely on the inside sheetmetal.



You know how I am about making patterns. Here I make a pattern for hole and bolt placement..



I used a welders C clamp to hold the modified bolt in place while I tacked it in.




These are the bolts I used. I picked them up by the sackful at my local TSC store. You can see where I started grinding down the head getting it ready to by welded.



New bolt welded in nicely. I think the old bolt was metric and cost more. I converted and retapped all my sheetmetal to 3/8 - 20 bolts to standardize.

A bit of primer over the new welds and it's ready for the outer side to be sanded, primers and ready for final paint.



Panel ready to be sanded. Very few dents needing filled after time consuming body work hammering everything as flat as possible. This filler will be sanded down to a very thin taper, primed and await final paint..

[The kid]

Total repaint planned

The last time I was a Harbour Freight in Clarksville,TN I picked up a few supplies to get ready to paint all my sheetmetal. I got to looking at my tractor and just wasn't happy with the paint choice I made. I drove up to Hopkinsville, KY to B&G tractors and picked up some AGCO paints. body: Flint Grey Metallic Fenders and sheet metal: Rouge Red wheels and grill: Silver Mist. HF had thier paint guns on sale so I bought two HVLP guns. They should get the job done. I'll be adding reducer with a 4:1 ratio and a bit of hardener to add some shine and speed up drying time between coats.

[BobG_in_VA]

Kid....very cool...keep 'em comin'.... BobG in VA, whose MF 135 Cont. will be doing one more brush hogging before cold weather and a water pump change over...(by the way..I understand the hood, etc will come off pretty easy from the frame...you got any ideas on that? BobG PS: the water pump is OK as is the thermostat, however the pulley on the pump has a slight "wobble" at low rpm...drives me crazy..

[The kid]

Kid....very cool...keep 'em comin'.... BobG in VA, whose MF 135 Cont. will be doing one more brush hogging before cold weather and a water pump change over...(by the way..I understand the hood, etc will come off pretty easy from the frame...you got any ideas on that? BobG PS: the water pump is OK as is the thermostat, however the pulley on the pump has a slight "wobble" at low rpm...drives me crazy..

Hello Bob. Yes the entire hood assembly can come off in one piece very easily. Unless you have eyes around your ankles, it takes two people to put the assembly back on to line up the bolts.

There's a few things you need to do before removing the assembly. First disconnect all electrical lighting attached to the front sheet metal if you have them. Second would be to unbolt the scisssors hing located at the rear of the fuel tank at the hood attachment point.



As you can see in this vintage photo from a service manual shows one person lifting the entire hood off in one piece.



I've pointed out the front bolts that actually hold the assembly to the front of the tractor. There are two bolts that attach each side panel to the dash. A total of four bolts to the dash and two to the lower front end. You now can remove the entire assembly to service your tractor. Neat huh.. If you have a brush guard, of coarse that will need to be remove before hand as well.

Your water pump is actually pressed on. If it where me, when you do the water pump, I'd also remove the radiator with the shroud still attached for better access and less skined knuckles and elbows. I'm currently working on a modification to the Z145 manifold and heat shield to make it very easy to service without special tools.

[BobG_in_VA]

Kid, yeah, I know the pump and the pulley are a press fit...I've already got the new everything...but as the pump is actually fine, I'm gonna finish the hoggin' prior to garage time...as you can see, I'm of the old school that works a tractor rather than sand blasting every nut/bolt to make it look pretty..BUT, I also have a '57 Farmall 230 that looks about as good as a new one..I guess being raised on a farm and spending half my time telling my father what I think we need to do the job, and the other half of my time fixin' what we had kinda stays with you...We had one tractor, a '50 8N that Dad bought the year I was born, for 120 acre farm...I've got about 5 tractors and live in suburbs....go figure..keep em comin' BobG in VA

[vegaome]

Howdy Kid,

Excellent post. I don't know how bad my sheet metal really is because I have not tore it down yet. Mine is a Perkins gas. I think your thread will help. Thank you for the pictures too.

v/r

Mike

[The kid]

Howdy Kid,

Excellent post. I don't know how bad my sheet metal really is because I have not tore it down yet. Mine is a Perkins gas. I think your thread will help. Thank you for the pictures too.

v/r

Mike

Thanks for the flowers Mike. I am contemplating welding all the sheet metal together. I will use the bolts mearly to appear to be bolted together. I even thought about allowing the bonnet assembly to hing forward like a race fuel gasser. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of it all welded together. You could do it similar to the way auto repair shops do it. drill a hole in one panel, put it against the mated panel and weld/fill the hole. That's how they do fenders. If one ever damaged a section, just drill out the welds and replace.. BTW, if your hood and sides need to be replaced, see me before you buy a replacement. I'd make you a sweet deal on a new hood and sides. Perkins and Continental hoods open on opposite sides. Unless I buy a Perkins in the near future I'm not needed those pieces that I bought and was mistakenly sold.

[The kid]

I fought the Bear and beat him!

I stated in an earlier post I wasn't happy with the paint color I was using on the body of my 135. So I'm going Flint Grey Metallic. I wanted to clean up the rearend and tranny of old paint and the fenders where just in the way of everything.

The clamshell fenders are held on by two 5/8 by 7.5" bolts. Inside the fenders the bolt heads where severely rusted. I'm looking at 47 year old installed bolts. I used my craftsman 1/2 drive and put a cheater bar on the end to give more leverage. As I loosened the bolts, I give them a shot of WD40. Then retighten a bit and then another shot of spray and commence to ratchet them off. Nuts all came off. Then I saw the BEAR.



You can see where I made a small cut with my Harbour Frieght $9.95 11K rpm cuttoff wheel. I also noticed before I made that cut that the 5/8" was welded to the axle housing. Oh no.. Oh yes... I got out by big ballpeen hammer and started pounding the bottom and it didn't budge. Oh crap.. I'm going to have to cut that rascal in two.. Bad angle too. After about fourty five minutes I finally cut that bear into. Mind you the bolt head is stilll on top and the bottom of the bolt is welded.

So I get out my 4" HF $15 high speed grinder (bought two) and start grinding the head off the bolt topside. Washer too!! I finally get it ground down where I can drive it down a tad. ThenI take a screwdriver and drive it back up far enough to get my vise grips on it. More WD40.. I get it to move and finally pull the top half of that bear out.. Beer break.. The bear is still there. Now I have a half 5/8 bolt welded to the bottom hole. I'm thinking "Can't touch this" song .. Hammertime!! I start beating the bottom of the bolt. Bingo... The weld broke loose.. I had to grind off any burrs left by the cuttoff saw so I could start twisting it and finally.. FINALLY.. pull out out from the bottom.



You can see the bolt where I cut it and how it was fortunately welded poorly. The bear was beat!!!



This shows the bear is gone. Ready for me to clean up the paint and get it ready for that Flint Grey Metallic paint.



More salvage..

Ordering two new Sparex fenders. One with toolbox.