POTD was doing some much neglected maintenance on our Massey Ferguson 35 tractor. I use the tractor to brush hog trails in our woods/river walk, and finish mow about an acre of lawn.
The tractor was running like carp. I gave it some choke while hitting the starter; no coughing or sputtering. After hitting the starter a number of times, I could smell gas; probably flooded. Pulled a plug to confirm it was wet. I laid the plug on the block and hit the starter. If I used my imagination, I could see a spark.
Pulled the distributor cap, rotor and the points were in REALLY bad shape. One contact was burned completely through. Full disclosure, I bought a high-energy ignition module (
www.hot-spark.com) to replace the points 6 or 7 years ago but hadn’t gotten around to installing the kit. As a lot of my “contemplating my navel-tint” projects go, I figured it’d be a royal pain to install and avoided it.
Hey, "McFly", I think this is your problem!
Much to my chagrin, the module dropped in VERY easily. I had to file a slot in the mounting plate for it to fit over a screw head, but other than that, a 15-minute job. Yeah, I wish I’d have done it 6 or 7 years ago when I first bought the kit! As you can guess, the tractor fired up like it should. Thank you
www.hot-spark.com!
The plastic keyed detail has 4 internal magnets that "tease" the coil
Next step was throwing the finish mower on. I went to hit the Zerks, and noticed one was missing. It was a new one on me, the Zerks are threaded ¼”-28 straight threads, not an 1/8”-27 pipe thread. And guess which size I have. . .
I could have picked up ten ¼”-28 Zerks for $7 off Amazon overnight, but made a brass bushing to adapt an 1/8”-27 Zerk instead. Chucked up a piece of ½” hex brass, faced, center drilled, tap drilled and ran in the 1/8"-27 pipe tap. Parted, faced the opposite side, center drilled and drilled a through-hole. Then turned a shoulder to 0.248” and threaded with a ¼”-28 die.
Brass 1/8"-27 pipe thread female to 1/4"-28 straight-threaded male adapter
Part 3 of Massey 35 maintenance only has a “project done” photo. While mowing, my right foot was getting hot. Yeah, the muffler patch I put on a year ago had blown off; the top of the muffler has a dozen pin-holes in it. So, quick fix was throwing a piece of ¼” plywood on the running board.
Longer-term fix, after removing the partially burned (?!?!) plywood, was forming a stainless-steel heat shield for the top of the muffler. I didn’t show the work, but did the rolling on my Harbor Freight 3-in-one sheet metal machine. I also did some bending on the DiAcro brake to close up the “U” to a “C”. Slipped the stainless over the muffler and hose-clamped it in place. And I may just end up replacing the entire exhaust system if this patch doesn’t work; they’re only around $100 delivered for a complete new exhaust system.
Didn't show the work, but made a hose-clamped on "heat shield" for the pin holes in the muffler. Does it get hot? Well, probably around 450 F where my foot rests as the 1/4" plywood temporary heat shield was practically burned through!
Thanks for looking, Bruce
