Refurbishing my Z145 135

[murphy1244]

Adding or Replacing a stabilizer bar

I was bush hoggin in the back field and there where quite a few saplings I was chewing up. One of them snagged my front lynch pin going to the right lift arm on the three point hitch. The bar fell and dug in and bent to almost a U shape. I'm going to heat it up and repair it next summer. In the meanwhile I went to TSC and bought two of their "country time" adjustable stabilizer bars.

Notice in picture two there are four holes to select to mate to your stabilizer bar. I've seen kits that offer to flat bars and attachment points similar to mine.

If your tractor doesn't have stabilizer bars, you should really consider investing in a pair. It's not the difficult to install the hardware and sure keeps the rear implement from doing the rumba behind you. I have a few pictures showing what to do on my old MF135.

I measured from the front point to the rear lift arm swivel which was apporxiamtely 33.5 inches. I adjusted the bars to match attachment points. I then put a slight bend in each eyeley in opposite directions to make them fit better.

Attachment 290319 Attachment 290320 Attachment 290321 Attachment 290322 Attachment 290323

TSC sells these for around $39 each which is what I'm using. I'm going to paint them red except for the ends.
Attachment 290324


These are heavy duty pins TSC sells which have twice the strength of their cheap ones. I now have them on the front lift arms.
Attachment 290328

Lookin good, thanks for the lesson.
Murph

[The kid]

Headlight Bling Modification

I saw a picture of a Massey Ferguson somewhere and noticed something something different about the headlights. They had visors on them. I really thought it looked cool so here we are.

The headlights in my 1965 are a GE 4419 35W 12VDC bulb. They are approximately 5 1/2 to 5 3/4" from edge to edge. The 4419 has notches on the edge back so as the bulb can not rotate in it's housing. The notches are 90 degrees apart to orient the bulb pattern to your liking. The bulb is held on my a DIETZ 9-51 retainer ring screw tightening that fits into a groove on the headlight housing. The ring fits really tight with the bulb. The outer part of the ring is a bit more flaired than the one that locks to the housing The more flaired side goes to the headlight.

Now where to find a visor. I got to searching bulbs that where 5 3/4" and motorcycle lights (5 3/4") where popping up along with visors of same size. 1/4" is not much and decided to buy a pair and I'd just bend to match my lamps.

In order to retrofit a visor to the housing I had to modify both the housing and retainer ring as well as the visor itself.

I ran into problems because the headlight retainer rings fit too snuggly which is a good thing. So I got out my needle nose hobby pliers and started carefully bending the visors so the edge was no longer 90 degrees but closer to about 60 degrees. This is not critical but has to be bent to match the agle of the outer edge of the retainer ring. I then took the retainer ring and fitted to the visor. I marked the ring and bent only that part of the ring so the visor would fit under it. There still wasn't enough clearance so I had to modify the housing.

Next I took the edge that contacted the bulb and bent it inward to allow the bulb to actually drop deeper into the housing. This allowed enough room to put the visor under the rim and lock the bulb on the housing.

The last picture shows what the headlight will look like when I mount them on the side panels of the sheetmetal. I think they give it a bit more classic look. I'll give the visors a coat of lacquer in case I cracked the chrome (rust prevention) on the very edge that I bent and give the housing a final coat of red.



The final results

[murphy1244]

see below

[murphy1244]

The dealer still carry's visors but the cost is 23.00 each. Bought a 4419 bulb from TSC. I noticed the new bulb uses screw on connection instead of a spade, is the right?? Where did you get your visors???

[The kid]

The dealer still carry's visors but the cost is 23.00 each. Bought a 4419 bulb from TSC. I noticed the new bulb uses screw on connection instead of a spade, is the right?? Where did you get your visors???

I don't know how old my bulbs are but they they have screw terminals as well. In my opinion have the best connection. I ran two wires to each light. I didn't depend on a chassis ground. As for visors. Yes, you can still buy them but pricy. I paid $10 each and they are heavy chrome off of eBay with free shipping. But they have to be modified for fitment. I think you have different housings than mine. Mine doesn't use a rubber gasket. My plough light is different from the headlights. The bulb is held in with a snap ring.

I was wanting to put my lights on the front part of my fenders, but those light mounts where discontinued years ago. So I was told.

[The kid]

Headlight Bling Modification (part two)

I finished up both headlight mods. I'm going to give the rings a respray where I scratched them reshaping to allow for the visors. I went ahead a wired them inside. Every 135 I've seen had headlight wings when the lights where mounted in the front sides. They where usually painted either MF red or silver some I've seen black. I decided to go gold with mine with cleat lacquer top coat. I bought the wings off ebay. The idiot sent two right wings. I had a broken left one. So I cleaned it up and used some JB weld. Sanded it down and made sure it was flat so to not stress the wing.

The headlight goes thru the swivel opening and the wing has a small bolt that holds it to a backing plate on the inside. Making sure it's flat before glueing it with JB will assure the JB won't crack when I bolt it on.

Next is waiting for one good day to give the hood and sides a spray of red. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel if the weather holds up this week.

[murphy1244]

Supposed to be 58% on Monday so you may get your wish.

[Lava Rancher]

So no updates? Has the MasseyWV fate befallen this thread too?

[murphy1244]

So no updates? Has the MasseyWV fate befallen this thread too?

We never see the finished tractor it seems.

[The kid]

We never see the finished tractor it seems.

HAHAHAHAhahahaha. Ouch.. I've been more occupied during the day keeping one of the grandkids pacified while out of school. The past few days has been helping the economy and Santa in the evenings dusting out my savings account..

I think where I left off I was retrofitting a new throttle lever which doesn't have the same linkage end. I'll see if I can get some more pictures up. Puting on a new throttle lever just kind of freshens up the dash in my opinion. I'm still here, just haven't had much time to work on Ole Sally. The wife dragging my all over shine ola shopping in the evenings is killing me.. I've got a few cool ideas I'm going to post too. Thanks guys for the reminder. -robert