Refurbishing my Z145 135

[murphy1244]

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.. :shocked:

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

Got a new steiner catalog today.

 

[The kid]

Got a new steiner catalog today.

I need to get on their mailing list. I've bought a few things from them but never got a catalog.

 

[murphy1244]

I need to get on their mailing list. I've bought a few things from them but never got a catalog.

Its got a lot of good stuff that would keep both of us broke.

 

[The kid]

Cleaning up the serial tags

One of the ideas I've been pounding on was reproducing my serial tag and engine tag. On my serial I.D. tag I've found they are differrent depending on the year made. It looks like the 1964-66 had embossed stamped serial numbers. Later they used number stamps. I also discovered while cleaning my I.D. tag up that all the printing is not printing but embossed metal lettering. I believe back then when they made the plates it was a result of a high pressure stamp press which brought all the lettering raised from the plate.The plate was then painted and sanded to reveal all the lettering, wording, Logos, etc. As needed they would emboss serial numbers on the plate before mounting on the tractor.

The motor serial plate are more generic and wording didn't change. My engine serial number is a wreck and barely readable. I'm in the process of trying to reproduce that plate. The cost may be prohibited to make it exactly as the original. About 300 dollars US. Setup fees and artwork to make one plate. I believe there would be a market for them. I do know that Steiner sells a Z134 and a Z129 engine plate. But no Z145.

I'm going to thin down some testers modeling paint and lightly spray my I.D. plate to see if I can clean it up, then sand off the letters with 2k grit wet/dry sand paper. I believe from 1967 or 1968 they went to a flat silk screened plate which is the way the engine plate is made.

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[The kid]

It's alive.. It's alive

I've took kind of a break from working on my tractor and decided it was time to get back at it. Now that I have it in the garage, I don't have to fight the weather. I've added a different starter switch and have had to modify the wiring to get it to work correctly. It's a four pole switch with left acc, off and to the right acc then bump start. I took some pictures of the switch and how it works. It seems to iliminated a few wires. I kept following the manual diagram and it just didn't work that way. Anyway the neutral safety switch is in circuit as it should. I hooked up a minimal of wires, screwed on my oil gauge. I hooked to a hot battery to see it it would start. I finally got gas to the carb from a dry tank. It took a bit of cranking and playing with the choke, but it finally fired up Woo Hooo. :cool2:

Bad news I filled the upstairs with fumes and the old lady was a bit preturbed about it. Seems the garage door being open and it was about 36 degrees outside pushed air into the garage instead of exiting causeing a bit of a stink. She said she could taste it. I thought it smelled good. I had a small leak at the gas cutoff. Fixed that by tightening the nut behind the cuttoff wheel. I didn't have any coolant in it, so I didn't run it long. Just wanted to verify my wiring. Third time wiring.. Third times charm. I still have to wire all my gauges in, but all that will be a piece of cake. Simple and straightforward. Already did it ownce.

I'm going to fill all the fluids. Radiator and tranny and take it for a test spin in the driveway in the next few days.

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This is the starter switch I bought. It's really beefy and works great. Works just like an auto switch.

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The white wire on the back of the switch (center) goes to the S terminal on the starter solenoid..

The red wire marked BATT on the back of the switch goes to a hot source. I routed it to one of the bolts on my + battery clamp. This is kinda temporary to verify the workings of the starter switch.

A wire from the + side of the distributor goes to the IGN terminal on the back of the ignition switch. It's HOT (12V) when the switch it turned on which keeps the distributor hot. It cut off with the key and kills the engine.

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I sealed all the wiring and then had to rip it all apart after discovering some reversed wires with disabled the neutal safety switch. The way I sealed the wires from the elements was to first wrap with plastic electrical tape. Next came a wrap of friction tape which has a tar type base to it making a watertight seal.

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More to come because I'm in the mood to get this machine out of the garage and repair the driveway that got washed a bit after a monsoon came thru.

C-ya =-robert

 

[The kid]

Neutral Safety Switch MF 135

The neutral safety switch in located below the battery on the top side of the transmission. It's purpose is to prevent the engine fron turning over and starting while the engine is in gear. It's best to not operate a tractor with a disabled NSS. They are easy to replace and designed to save your life or serious injury.

My connectors where very loose. I found the the spring clips where missing that keeps tension on the wires. The protective cover was also gone. Since I was fixing things that where either wrong, wore out or missing this was on my list. I bought a new NSS with rubber cover. Since I was going to be rewiring the tractor I had already bought wire, shrink tubing and electrical connectors. I didn't have connectors for the NSS though. ThenI happen think I just might have something that will work great.

I'm also a RC pilot and was working on a recreation of a F4U Corsair VF17 Jolly Rogers. Flown by LCdr Roger Hendrick #17 The plane has a 1400 wingspan with retractable landing gear and gear doors. Full flaps. It's going to be a sweet plane to fly. It is electric. The ESC (electronic speed controller) uses bullet connectors to the high capacity battery. I took an extra pair and tried them in the NSS and they fit snuggly and perfectly.

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The two brass bayonet connectors where from a RC plane parts supplier.
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Here they are mounted with a bit of shrink wrap on them which made them more watertight with the rubber boot on.
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[The kid]

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This is the starter switch I bought. It's really beefy and works great. Works just like an auto switch.

This switch will eliminate using a diode and idiot light . The Alternator is wired to the ACC terminal. The type of switch eliminates backfeed with in some cases causes a tractor not to shut off with the conventional switched turned off after a alternator conversion. The ACC terminal will also be tied into a terminal strip to feed my lighting. I verified the rotation of the engine which is clockwise. The info is needed when buying an aftermarket alternator with a tach drive. The rear of the tach drive actually runs counter clockwise. So it['s important to know this infor when ordering or having one built. A Deco 10SI with output voltage at a much slower RPM than a Genny. You also don't need the oil pressure switch nor the voltage regulator. So basically the tractor wiring has been simplified by converting over to a Delco 10SI

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[The kid]

Throttle lever upgrade

One of the items on my to-do list was to upgrade the throttle lever to a new one. Well that is not as simple as saying so. One thing. The throttle lever used on US version 135's are no longer in production. It would come as a complete assembly. This would include the brass bushin, spring, washer w/key. The lever slides though, where the bushing protects the lever from the metal dash. The tension spring and the mounting bracket. It's all one part.

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As you can see in the illustration the throttle lever actually goes thru the mount and has a lever welded on the end that directly connects to the linkage. On UK versions you can take apart these pieces but not the US version. The upgrade may require some surgery. Alot of so called restorations don't include a new lever because of the PITA of replacing it. I wanted a complete looks so I guess I'll tackle it.

Here's some photos of the old part as compared to the new assembly I bought.

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I'll be cutting the ends off of both the old and new levers and welding the old end onto the new one. That's really the only route I've got for this.

 

[The kid]

Throttle lever upgrade (part 2)

The original throttle arm cannot be seperated from the assembly mount without cutting the end off the throttle arm. The new throttle arm isn't ever close in design. The original is made in such a way that it hit a stop rod that's welded on the assembly frame. The stop rod keeps the throttle arm limited in movement. The following pictures shows the throttle assembly with the arm still attached. The last frame show where I grind off the end weld to remove the end piece that will be welded on to the new arm.

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The last frame shows the part from the old throttle arm I'm going to reuse.

 

[The kid]

Throttle lever upgrade (part 3)

I welded the old end onto the new arm and remounted the throttle lever back in place.

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Here's how it looks with the new gauges.

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