Refurbishing my Z145 135

[The kid]

If I 'm not mistaken one of the side hood pieces on yours had vents on it. That is the way they are being sold now. So I'm guessing some go the sheet metal was replaced on yours since birth.

Mike, fitment to the tractor doesn't seem to be an issue. It's fitment of part to part that is the main issues I'm having. I've actually had to cut slots where the holes are on the new pieces to get them to line up. Since all the pieces didn't originate from the same maker seems to have created fitment problems.

Seems to me the maker of these repro parts could have used a donor tractor with original parts and matched the pieces better. Go figure... - robert

[Mike476]

If I 'm not mistaken one of the side hood pieces on yours had vents on it. That is the way they are being sold now. So I'm guessing some go the sheet metal was replaced on yours since birth.

It's possible, I'd have to do a little research to see when / what models the vent began use. I know there was a lot of work to do getting the whole front end to resemble something like what it was meant to look like, don't know whether he used it to knock over small trees or what but a bush guard would have saved me a lot of work.

[Mike476]

Aftermarket vs OEM, always a joy to work with. I can remember dad and I trying to fit fiberglass fenders to a 69' Cougar convertible, what a nightmare, don't think I ever saw dad so mad.

[The kid]

It's possible, I'd have to do a little research to see when / what models the vent began use. I know there was a lot of work to do getting the whole front end to resemble something like what it was meant to look like, don't know whether he used it to knock over small trees or what but a bush guard would have saved me a lot of work.

Mike, I noticed in one of your pictures you had the hood up. There was a prop hinge holding it up. Mine is missing that hinge. Does the lower part attach to a part that bolted to the tank secure bolts?

Mine was secured with a small piece of rope to keep it flopping over. -robert

[The kid]

I started puling out the gauges today and doing some serious elbow sanding away what looked like three layers of paint. Any small dings I'll fill in with a bit of putty and finish it out. The amp gauge gets replaced with a volt meter.

I pulled the fuel tank off do I could (over cleaner) spray the engine real good before I low pressure (1500psi) wash it off. Hopefully it will take 95+% of the grime off.

In the picture you see the generator which didn't have a tachdrive on it. I'm going to replace with a new GM alternator with tach drive along with a new tach.

-robert

[Mike476]

Mike, I noticed in one of your pictures you had the hood up. There was a prop hinge holding it up. Mine is missing that hinge. Does the lower part attach to a part that bolted to the tank secure bolts?

Mine was secured with a small piece of rope to keep it flopping over. -robert

I'm not home right now and can't remember where it secures to exactly, or whether it's a small link chain or cable.

[The kid]

I got some more painting done on the body. I bought some 500 degree paint for areas needing it from Autozone and it matched the MF real close.

About one more day and I'll have the entire body painted.

[The kid]

When I bought this tractor, there where a few things that didn't work. One was the Tachdrive. Didn't have a cable. The Generator didn't have a tach drive either. I thought this would be a good time to modernize "Ole Sally".

It took two trips to Autozone to get the right size belt. Ther original bracket was removed and a new Alternator bracket I bought off eBay. Ya gotta love it of hate it. The old Generator had two solid spacers.I used one of them with a 3 1/2" bolt to mount the Alternator to the engine block.

I tool my existing upper Genrator bracket and hammered it flat and it will do fine to hold things tight. I bought the GM Remy Alternator on eBay as well. The shop I bought from, Bill said he only get a few in every now than then. He was to send them out and have the machined to adapt a tachdrive.

Since the Alt runs in a counterclockwise rotation with the engine I ordered a clockwise tach which matched the original. The dash will look a bit different because I'm installing a voltmeter instead of using the ampmeter. All these gauges are backlighted for later evening work.

I'm going to add a cigarette lighter plugs and add a buss strip under the dash for future lighting. I'd like to add some caution lighting in case i need to run down the street for some reason or another.

-robert

[The kid]

An issue brought up by MasseyVW about heat shielding the fuel tank or lack of heat shielding. In his case and mine the shield was missing. It must have been one of the nuisance parts guys take off and threw away..

I had a issue recently where I think I had a vapor lock. Not from the tank, but from the fuel filter. I have a metal one located very close the the exhaust manifold. I'm going to relocate it when I put the tank back on.

I've ordered some high tech heat insolation which has two sides tape to attach it to a smooth surface. Many hot rodders use this in the flooring of thier rods to both shield from heat and use as sound deadening.. In my case it will protect the tank from the infamous boiling and then vapor locking. In my case I'm almost positive it was the metal gas filter that was getting boiled. The engine would quit and I'd turn it off. I could restart right back up and once the tractor was moving it didn't happen again. It occured when I was in low range 1st gear using the bush hog thru some some fearcely heavy brush which created poor air flow. -robert

[Mike476]

I'm going to add a cigarette lighter plugs and add a buss strip under the dash for future lighting. I'd like to add some caution lighting in case i need to run down the street for some reason or another.

-robert

That paint is a nice match, looking good.

I did something similar to what you want to do for lighting. Snow removal for me involves working near a secondary highway and from the rear the tractor wasn't well lit and, as you state, I sometimes travel on the road for short distances.

I manufactured the two brackets, LED trailer lights and LED fog lamps made the world of difference. No brake switch but I did install a flasher and a switch so that I can either have them on steady or with the flasher, made a world of difference and draws very little current. The fog lamps are LED as well, they are small but throw a surprising amount of light behind the tractor, and provide a much wider field of view than the stock rearward facing light I had on it.