Let's move back in time a bit and consider the M-H No. 2 tractors.

Whilst most will not have experience of these from experience I do have one massive gripe abut the accessibility of the carburetor - something I'm sure all will agree is fairly vital.


It is impossible to access from the driver platform because of cross bars and the steering, it is impossible from over the front or sides.  The only way is to get on your back and shuffle yourself head first under the RHS in front of the rear wheel manouevering backwards as you go.  Then keeping the shuffle going slowly raise yourself up into what is a tight sitting position at the rear of the engine.  All quite a tight position.  Then undo the carburetor hoping to hell you have brought the right size spanners (wreches!) along with you.  By the time you have it off your arms are aching with hodling them up!  Prepare then to shuffle out in reverse.  Repeat all this to re-afix the carburetor hoping that you have cured its ailment.


If any of you doubt the awkwardness of this operation then try the carburetor shuffle when you next see a N0. 2 or Parrett at a show.

Not sure if the same applies to the No. 3 - Malcolm can perhaps fill us in

Nice warm day here so off to the shed for a few more post winter start ups with fingers crossed!

John 

Then there is the business of 12 screws to get the hood (bonnet!) off an M-H 20 just to access the distributor  - that's the easy bit - takes a bit more effort to get them all aligned when replacing it

John

Yes the same procedure to access the No 3 Kingston Carb, a job I have only done once.

Another job on the U frames which requires some very nimble hands and fingers to work through the hand holes by feel only is removing the oil pipes and studs to remove the engine oil pump for service, even remember hearing my dad swearing when he was trying to put them back and re locate the two studs.

All very interesting points for discussion.

Malcolm.

How pleasant. Useful website posts from sane people with common sense and a sense of purpose for the organization and world of collectors. I noticed Joe had to get just one more dig in, though... Have to admit that I laughed out loud when I read that.

I'll have to give this "design flaws" thing some thought. I know I have cussed several things while working on the old beasts, but I've spent too much time doing other things the last few years... I hope to be close to getting back to tractor work soon!!

Thanks for the good discussion guys!

JB

Okay here we go. I realize this is not a tractor but after trying to put new belts on my Massey Harris 35 SP Comibine i have to say the whole damn thing was a design fault!!! 

There is no way to just replace a belt.  You have to practically disassemble whole sections of the combine to get to them.  You can not get wrenches into the bolts to loosen tension pulleys, you have to take out the whole pulley shaft to get the belt on the pulley.  You have to take 3 other belts off to get to the bad one.  It has been two days of misery, lots of cussing and scratching of the head.  Some old ones were finally put back on in hopes they survive during Massey Days.

It was not pretty, but it is back together again!!

Perfect example of the engineer failing the ask the mechanic.  (Sorry John!!) 

Gary,

That's a good one.  Keep them coming.  I never intended that this thread be restricted to tractors only so do report in on your frustrations and bruised knuckles from all types of MASSEY equipment!

John

Thinking combines, our first one at home was an M-H 726 - probably an equivalent of your 26.  The table lift was operated by an electric motor.  This was actuated up/down by a two electrical push buttons.  They always seemd to have poor contacts and one would have to "service" them 2-3 times per day.  Also the electric motor had a slip clutch and slip it could.  All would be fine going out in the morning but once everything got hot and a few hours under your belt it would start slipping.  The vocabulary was unlimited!!!!!!!

John

Have just been thinking back to childhood days and driving the Ferguson TE 20 which Dad bought new in 1948 and which we still own - or at least my son does!

I spent probably hundreds of hours driving this but one thing that really annoyed me was the very small independant brake pedals as found on the earlier TEs.  These wer e stupidly small and going for one or the other you could easily miss them orif you ahd mud on your boots, if you did locate, then your foot could easily slip off.

Later - I don't know at what serial number they were changed to a more sensible size - I guess they might have been around serial number 60,000 but don't take this as definitive.  Our tractor was 39615.  It's the only one of my tractors' serial numbers that I remember because there it was starting you in the face every time you drove it!

Joe,

With reference to your comments about side fitting distributors getting wet I can honestly say that this was never a problem on our Ferguson.  The ends of the plug leads and the lead from the coil had tight fitting rubber caps which slip fitted down on to the distributor to make a waterproof seal.  I think the same is also true for my MH 201 - I'll have to check when I am out in the shed.

John

My M-H 744 tractor is fitted with an M-H hydraulic lift for three point linkage implements.  This lift is one of only a very few surviving examples.  It is powered by a pump mounted on the front of the crankshaft.  The lift was an optional extra and made ffor M-H by the Ardrolic company of Glasgow.

The tractor was sold new to the local agricultural college in 1954.  I know one of the original drivers of this tractor.  He says the pump was very powerful and  if you got the plough stuck under a tree root and raised the linkage then the front of the tractor came straight up.  He also used it with a buckrake on the front and the rear for piling cut grass into a silage clamp.

To get to the design issue, these tractors can only be mounted from the rear.  Usually one foot up onto the drawbar then the other up on to the footplate.  It can be seen that there is only a very narrow gap between the mudguard (fender!!!!) and the uppr link arm - three slim fingers width only.  So you can't get your leg through and have to really stretch to get up and overthen hope to stay there ffor the day rather than have the inconvenience of dismounting!   Clearly M-H had giraffes in mind as drivers.

The oil reservoir for the system is the large cast iron chamber beneath the seat

John