Help please TO35 Air cleaner problem

[10backacres]

Help please TO 35 air cleaner problem
I'm working on a 1958 TO 35 Diesel, Standard 23c , Wagner FEL. I'm trying to get a working tractor.

Trying to locate a 11 inch tall oil bath air cleaner or ideas to retrofit/ replace it . Original cup rusted out. I could rebuild the filter media but the cup is trashed.

Anyone have any sources? Could the 14 inch cleaner from yesterdays be configured by drilling a hole in the hood, adding a pre-filter or would this be another problem to have to deal with? Does anyone have an ideas about finding a salvaged air cleaner
( made lots of calls), or retrofitting in any way? Anyone know where I can buy an after market?
I have a working 1968 135 Continental gas and thought this would be relatively easy job not the rabbit hole I jumped into.
Thanks for any and all help
Steve

 

[Cougsfan]

Help please TO 35 air cleaner problem
I'm working on a 1958 TO 35 Diesel, Standard 23c , Wagner FEL. I'm trying to get a working tractor.

Trying to locate a 11 inch tall oil bath air cleaner or ideas to retrofit/ replace it . Original cup rusted out. I could rebuild the filter media but the cup is trashed.

Anyone have any sources? Could the 14 inch cleaner from yesterdays be configured by drilling a hole in the hood, adding a pre-filter or would this be another problem to have to deal with? Does anyone have an ideas about finding a salvaged air cleaner
( made lots of calls), or retrofitting in any way? Anyone know where I can buy an after market?
I have a working 1968 135 Continental gas and thought this would be relatively easy job not the rabbit hole I jumped into.
Thanks for any and all help
Steve

My TO35 with a 23c had the similar problems. Mine had a rusted out, leaky air filter oil reservoir, was missing the cap and infeed tube and my wire mesh basket was completely clogged with I don't know what. The few used air filters that I could find were in just as bad or worse condition.

I ended up bending up some light gauge sheet metal and brazing it to the outside of the oil reservoir of the air cleaner to patch the leaks.

For the missing cap I took 2 short pieces of 2 inch PVC pipe connected together with a 90 degree ell and put it on the air filter infeed so it breathed it's air from under the hood. I made 4 slits in the pvc pipe where it slides onto the filter so it could be tightened in place with a hose clamp. Its only function is to keep rain water out of the filter.

I soaked the wire mesh basket in carb cleaner for a day or so and it cleaned up pretty good.

Those mods were made was about 12 years ago and are still in place. It still doesn't leak oil, seems to filter well (I put grease in the air filter outlet that would show signs of being dirty if it was passing dirt) and it all seems to work fine. Won't qualify as an accurately restored tractor, but I don't care as long as it works. I can take a picture of it if you wish. I change the oil in the filter once a year and it is really dirty when I do.

Another solution I have seen on old tractors is modifying a K&N motorcycle filter to fit to the intake manifold. But those old oil bath filters actually work a lot better than one might guess.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

English Standard Diesel, I had one of those years ago.

 

[redman135]

Could you fit an oil bath air filter off a diesel MF35 or early MF135? They had the air infeed from under the bonnet in the early models.

 

[8n Bruce]

I just checked out "Yesterday's tractor" site, they can supply the bottom cap. $15.56. Hope this helps.

 

[WilliamTO-35]

I rebuilt the air cleaner on my 1955 TO-35 Ferguson with the gas Z134 engine. I fiberglassed the housing to seal the many small holes. Instead of using the replacement "steel wool" available as filtering media, I used a copper mesh material sold for rodent control , which will not rust. I stuffed as much of the copper mesh into the housing as I could. My oil cup was in good condition. I painted the filter housing green, as was factory. Most of the filtering is done when the dirty air hits the oil reservoir, and additional filtering occurs in the copper mesh ( which becomes wet with oil). I did have to make new mounting
ears for the filter, since my battery box and everything around it was rusted out.