Refurbishing my Z145 135

[The kid]

They're out there folks

When I bought my tractor there was alot I didn't know about it tilll I started taking it apart or comparing to other like tractors. Several pieces where missing. No show stoppers but missing pieces. Such as the metal hood hinge. Mine was a rope. :laughing: Missing heat shield that protects the gas tank from extreme heat generated by the exhaust manifold. The front of my gas tank was leveled with stacked 3/4 bolts sitting between the tank and the thermostat housing. All of these are corrected. My latest find was on eBay. to correct the leveling of the gas tank and get rid of those stacked nuts the tank was sitting on and bolted down. It worked but wasn't correct.

The thermostat house has two bolts that hold it to the engine block. One must remove the gas tank to access the thermostat.

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This spacer I'll call it, has two large holes on the bottom that lines up with the bolt heads. This makes the gas tank level.

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This picture shows the two large holes that line up on the thermostat housing. The two outer holes are for carriage bolts that secure to the tank, then slide thru the spacer and bolt on the bottom of the thermostat housing.

Now back to eBay. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this piece come up. I had already called about a half dozen bone yards looking for this piece. Well, to make it short I won the item. No one else bid. Paid for it and waited... and waited.. and waited. Mind you this was being mailed from two states away in West Virgina. i waited 14 days... I already decided to get a refund and told the guy, I"ll wait till the following Monday and if it doesn't show, I want a refund. He had a tracking number. The package was lost or so it seemed.

It showed up in Mondays mail. The pictures say it all. Folks, they are out there. No myths. You be the judge in penmanship and methods used.. :laughing:

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Check out the postage.. $6.65 in stamps.. Licked and stuck on plastic wrap..:laughing:

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No wonder it got lost. Mainly they couldn't send it back, because the sendee's address was rubbed off.. Are you kidding me. My address zipcode and partial street address was the only thing legible or it would have went back to the original post office. The penmanship looked preschool. But folks they are no myth.. They are out there. And that's the truth ath:

 

[vegaome]

Dang Kid that for sure is a poor packing job. I would at least wrapped it in possum hide first for protection.

 

[The kid]

what a beautiful fergie.. thanks for sharing your tractor and pictures, kid.

Thanks Bubba. It looks more like what my wife described it as. She said it looked like a "go cart". Now that the body is painted it will start looking like "ole Sally" once again. in one of the earlier picture is shows the right fender with the built in tool box. I ordered a new one thru my dealer from Sparex. I was very impress with the quality and exact duplication. The Britt's know how to make parts for fergies for sure. This is the most fun I've had since high school doing this tractor. Thanks for the flowers. -robert

 

[BobG_in_VA]

Kid...since you have it pulled down that far...are you gonna change out the water pump and pulley....be a shame to spend all that time and then have the water pump crap out on you later on...they can be had as a "unit" (pulley already pressed on to the pump) for about $70...I have one and plan on putting it on when the weather cools down some..Your 135 is lookin' good... BobG in VA

 

[The kid]

Kid...since you have it pulled down that far...are you gonna change out the water pump and pulley....be a shame to spend all that time and then have the water pump crap out on you later on...they can be had as a "unit" (pulley already pressed on to the pump) for about $70...I have one and plan on putting it on when the weather cools down some..Your 135 is lookin' good... BobG in VA

Bob, I've seriously considered that option. At the moment, if it works, it don't need repaired. I'm in a sort of rush to get it back together and bush hog some acreage before really cold weather sets in.

I am however going to make it easy whenever I do. The entire front sheet metal will be welded as one unit. The radiator is simple enough to remove. As the gas tank. So when that day comes it will be rather easy to do.

 

[The kid]

Heat Shield modification for easy on and off

One of the parts missing on my tractor was the heat shield that protects the fuel system from high heat which could cause a vapor lock. I found one at a tractor bone yard in Colorado, and also bought the Z145 manifold as well. My manifold had bad bolts and I knew they where going to be a bear to remove.

I've heard here that alot of owners threw them away because they are a PITA to get off and put back on. That got me thinking of a better way to mount it with the manifold already installed. You will see how I notched the shield instead of closed holes. They are now open and slotted for easy install of the heat shield.

I also noticed the manifold was a PITA to remove due to the top outside end bolts could not be accessed with an ordinary socket, but required a modified tool to loosen or tighten. I marked the manifold with a marker where the metal was in the way. Next I took a 3" hand grinder and ground off some of the metal so a socket would slip on. Be careful not to shave too much off. One side is intake and one side is exhaust that needs to be shaved. I tried the modified socket and to heck with that. This was easier and will make it easy for the next person that may have to service it.

The manifold is held on with 8 - 9/16 bolts. The two outer upper bolts attaches the heat shield. My left bolt was slightly shorter, so a had to grind down a nut to accomendate bolting the shield on. Those bolts are double threaded into the head. Obviously one was screwed too deep. The lower part of the heat shield is secured to the bell housing bolts that also the battery ground is connected to. By slotting that hole, one can now just loosen that bolt and that part of the shield slides out.

Note: If your bolts are the correct length where the shield attaches then modifying the nut is not required.

With the above shield mod, I can remove my heat shield first which gives me access to the rest of the manifold bolts.

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[Lava Rancher]

Good ideas. I'm hopefully not going that deep into mine. Of course each step uncovers something that should be attended to.

 

[The kid]

Good ideas. I'm hopefully not going that deep into mine. Of course each step uncovers something that should be attended to.

Heh Heh Heh. I wouldn't have either had everything been there. Mine won't be original by no means, but the needed parts will be there. Maybe I should quit stepping while I'm ahead. :laughing:

 

[MasseyLady]

Thanks kid for the info, hubby and I will have to take a look there also to confirm.

Your tractor is coming together nicely

:tractor:--MasseyLady

I got to thinking about your engine as to it being a Z134 or a Z145. On the very top of my intake manifold is stamped Z145. It is the original manifold. It has obviously been removed at one time or the other because the heat shield was missing. Does yours have that stamping on it? I'd be willing to bet yours is a Z145.

 

[The kid]

Made some progress today. Fuel tank, radiator and hoses, carburetor, air breather and hoses. Swapped out the neutral safety switch.

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