FE35

[Anderzander]

So this forum says ‘not only land rover’, so I thought I might jot down some things on what’s consuming some of my time (at the expense of the Land Rovers) at the moment. 
 

On the 17th of Feb I brought this home:

A 1958 Ferguson 35. It’s the less desirable Standard 4 cylinder model .. before they switched to the Perkins 3 cylinder. 

It had been ‘restored’ about 15 years I was told, and had just sat in someone’s garage all that time. 

My plan is to use it for a mower and haybob. 

First thing to address was the leaking lift pump and then work through whatever arises as I get to know it.

[Anderzander]

That lead to a bit of a Diesel adventure.

The new lift pump had come, so I thought ‘before it gets dark, I’ll turn the fuel tap off and swap it out’.

Alas it turned out the on/off on the fuel tap/bowl doesn’t actually turn the fuel off - once I’d released the pipe from the lift pump it was pouring out.

Tried to fix it back in - but the nut was really badly rounded, particularly in the tightening direction - so I couldn’t get it back in.

I stuck a bowl under it - but the diesel was being diverted by all the nooks and crannies and so less than 10% was going in the bowl.

Cue me running round like an idiot, everything I tried to stop it wasn’t working. Pliers, Spanner’s, different bowls, bungs, seals, fittings, funnels - nothing worked.

The floor, my jeans, my coat, my glasses, all covered.

I found a bag of rubber pipes I hoped I could push over the fitting - none fit - so out with heat gun, all the while diesel pouring onto the gravel. It heated it up though and got it soft enough to push on … and finally I had it filling up a container without dripping all over the floor at the same time.

The next job was finding enough containers - as I realised the kind previous owner had made sure the tank was full. 

Every container I picked up seemed to water, or waste oil in it, but after more anxiety and running I did find enough - and the photo represents the end moment … and much fuel rescued As I could and it all put away ..  and relax.

[miketomcat]

Are you sure it's not a land rover, it sounds like one.

Mike

[Blanco]

I had an FF30 4 cylinder (built under licence by Hotchkiss) great machine, you'll love it. Sparex and others do most of the bits now, there isn't much that causes trouble....  look forward to seeing how you get on.

[fmmv]

I like irony too it was a lift pump you were fitting; sounds like the diesel was happy to make it's own way anyway.

[Anderzander]

On 3/30/2024 at 5:35 PM, miketomcat said:

Are you sure it's not a land rover, it sounds like one.

Mike

That’s why I shared it !  Deja Vu 

I wondered if under the Ferguson badge there was a Rover one ..

[Nonimouse]

The only reason the Standard isn't the best is because the Perkins 3.152 was and still is one of the finest three cylinder engines ever manufactured. The Standard is a lovely engine and the cold starting issues are easily worked around with modern gloplugs, batteries and starters

[Anderzander]

I did that thing where I bought a new fuel tap and then realised the old one could be fixed. I’m too impatient/excited.

So this tractor had been restored - but as always you start to find things. The fuel tap was an example. It had been painted - but not much else.

The mesh filter was long gone, and presumably to stop carp from the bottom of the tank getting in, there had been a piece of 8mm copper knocked in. Apparently a common farmer mod - but it must have left half a gallon of fuel in unused.

At the bottom of that inlet/entrance there are two holes - the large main round one and a half round one, which probably works to allow air back up into the tank.  The half round one was completely blocked and had been for many many years I’d say. The other was greatly reduced in diameter.

Ultrasonic cleaners are brilliant for this kind of thing. 

It’s come up like new. I drilled the top out ever so slightly, so I could press fit a plastic mesh fuel filter.

Very satisfying doing this kind of thing, if slow. 

The red is rubber grease to lubricate and preserve the o ring.

 

[Anderzander]

That meant I could pipe the fuel back up…

There is a nut though - so close to the body of the lift pump, that I needed to dig out an old 1/4” hex socket and grind it to reduce the OD.  (Should have done it on my new lathe!)

 

You can see how bad the threads are in the pump and how rounded the nut is.

New pump posed a similar problem - but grinding the screw flush in the back corner of this picture made enough room to get it back on.

End result looks a bit like this:

New fuel filter in. Used the lift pump to bleed through to the filter, then the bottom of the injection pump, top of the injection pump, then cracked that far left injector and it fired up. 

 

[Anderzander]

I also put a new pipe through to the heater plug, proper Ferguson name being ‘Thermostat’.

It fits in the inlet manifold and acts like a glow plug with a diesel supply which it ignites.

Good little video on YouTube shows one working in a vice.

I checked the one that was in it in a vice in the same way .. that definitely hadn’t been restored and was completely full of carbon and dead.

Disappointingly the new one seems to have died already.  It’s still heating - but not opening for the diesel to come in.

[smallfry]

On 3/30/2024 at 2:01 PM, Anderzander said:

That lead to a bit of a Diesel adventure.

The new lift pump had come, so I thought ‘before it gets dark, I’ll turn the fuel tap off and swap it out’.

Alas it turned out the on/off on the fuel tap/bowl doesn’t actually turn the fuel off - once I’d released the pipe from the lift pump it was pouring out.

Tried to fix it back in - but the nut was really badly rounded, particularly in the tightening direction - so I couldn’t get it back in.

I stuck a bowl under it - but the diesel was being diverted by all the nooks and crannies and so less than 10% was going in the bowl.

Cue me running round like an idiot, everything I tried to stop it wasn’t working. Pliers, Spanner’s, different bowls, bungs, seals, fittings, funnels - nothing worked.

The floor, my jeans, my coat, my glasses, all covered.

I found a bag of rubber pipes I hoped I could push over the fitting - none fit - so out with heat gun, all the while diesel pouring onto the gravel. It heated it up though and got it soft enough to push on … and finally I had it filling up a container without dripping all over the floor at the same time.

The next job was finding enough containers - as I realised the kind previous owner had made sure the tank was full. 

Every container I picked up seemed to water, or waste oil in it, but after more anxiety and running I did find enough - and the photo represents the end moment … and much fuel rescued As I could and it all put away ..  and relax.

 

Nothing to see here. All this seems the normal way that jobs go ! Despite how much you try to forward think it.

In my experience, tractor restoration usually means steam clean it. Replace or repair any tinwork, and paint.

[Anderzander]

2 minutes ago, smallfry said:

In my experience, tractor restoration usually means steam clean it. Replace or repair any tinwork, and paint.

I think that’s about right ! 

[Anderzander]

There is a worrying development with it actually …

DVLA haven’t returned a V5 to me and are saying the V5 I saw and had the new keeper slip from was not the last v5 issued.

This is their email:

Quote

We are still currently looking into the record/case at present. As it stands the document you were given was not the latest V5C Registration Certificate which is why we are trying to confirm the sequence of registered keepers and ensure the record is correct and there is no issue with the record and/or the vehicle.
 
As we have written to multiple keepers on this vehicle record, we must allow adequate time for them to respond. If you are in contact with the seller of this vehicle it might be worth urging them to respond to the correspondence they would have received which would help speed this up.

From my perspective I collected it from the guy whose name was on the v5 - at the address on the v5 … so not sure what has happened.

I do know the guy does probate house clearance and bought the tractor as part of that .. so I wonder if dvla are trying to contact someone who is dead ….

Though that wouldn’t explain a further v5 issued after it had gone into his name.

Hope it all works out …. 

[landroversforever]

Hopefully it all sorts itself out quickly! 

[smallfry]

Perhaps he mislaid his original and got a replacement, and gave you the original which he had found.

In these cases if the original is rediscovered, you are supposed to destroy it.

I had exactly the same thing when I bought my van from a mate nine years ago, they did contact him to confirm he had sold it to me, but ISTR it took a month or so.

Hopefully it should be OK.

[Anderzander]

Thanks - the chap I bought it from seems a good guy, he’s being helpful, and his business has lots of very very positive reviews on Google, so he seems a decent chap.

He does say that’s the (only) log book he got. If it’s come from probate - perhaps the V5 from the previous owner wasn’t the latest one ? 

I’ll just have to wait and see.

I’m told there is often issues with this old farm machinery as farmers aren’t good record keepers …..

 

[Anderzander]

I un-seized the rev counter tonight and fitted a new drive cable.

Pattern parts again though - the square end of the cable was too big, so I had to carefully hold the flat sides against a grindstone to take them down a bit and fit.  Worked though.

All you V8 lovers .. I cant see how you don’t love a diesel at idle…. 

[landroversforever]

That does sound lovely. Even better with a bit of load 

[Anderzander]

I find it interesting how the rev counter is run from the drive on the injection pump. 

[miketomcat]

On 4/5/2024 at 7:10 PM, Anderzander said:

Thanks - the chap I bought it from seems a good guy, he’s being helpful, and his business has lots of very very positive reviews on Google, so he seems a decent chap.

He does say that’s the (only) log book he got. If it’s come from probate - perhaps the V5 from the previous owner wasn’t the latest one ? 

I’ll just have to wait and see.

I’m told there is often issues with this old farm machinery as farmers aren’t good record keepers …..

 

There is the possibility that someone in the family has the details of the tractor and has applied for the v5 perhaps to transfer the registration.

I've bought several cars over the years with no v5 (all legitimately) and had to work out the chassis or registration number to apply for the v5. So it's possible to do it without having the vehicle.

Mike

[Anderzander]

I bought a tin of the right paint for the grey .. flint grey. Lovely colour - though not, as it transpires, the one the previous owner used.

So I took the air cleaner off and got some pain mixed up to match it.  

(Flint grey won’t go to waste - I can use it on the trailer when I get into that.)

Before and After :

Colour match was brilliant … though it seems he used another shade again for the wheels. 🤷 

The plan here was that, having sorted the fuelling out with new filters, I’d turn my attention to the air. 

[Anderzander]

Before I went to re-fit the filter I wanted to re-route the battery cable ..

In doing that I noticed that it was sparking around the terminal…. Not ideal. So I brought forward my plan to make up a new cable.

i was going to use a new battery terminal - but then I thought I should really clean up the original:

A before and after. It’s Vaseline on the Earth. 

Having new flexible 35mm² next to the old original cable was a stark contrast. So much easier to work with.

That little pot that’s plumbed into the fuel tank is called ‘the auxiliary tank’ it’s fed from the top of the fuel filter and feed the heater plug. 

Whilst I was on this side I cleaned and tidied up the wires and started terminals. 

I may end up replacing this .. but it’s not wasted effort. 
 

[Anderzander]

With that done .. I could sort the air cleaner.

I reckon there was more money’s worth of tape on the inlet rubber than the new rubber cost …

The inlet rubber goes into the back of the dash .. I guess that is deemed the least likely spot to get harvest dust in it?

The removable mesh filter from the bottom was replaced - I guess this is the primary filter - the mesh in the top half is fixed.

I put SAE30 in here - can’t imagine multigrade will get up to temperature..

All done.

Starting really well now.
 

Fuel ✅ Air ✅ Starter wiring ✅ Heater plug ✅ 

 

[Anderzander]

On to the next thing …. I have noticed is that there is something no right with the charging circuit.

If you watch a multimeter across the battery it reads just the battery voltage .. which does creep up a tenth of a volt at a time.

Im no expert on dynamos, but I think it should have more than that coming out the regulator / control box.

I popped the wires off the dynamo and checked the power terminal, against earth, for its voltage. It should be 2-4v.

I got -1.2 hmm. Made me thing it wasn’t polarised - so I kept it disconnected and put a jump cable onto the battery positive (it’s -be earth) and brushed it against the dynamo’s field terminal .. got a little spark .. and that got rid of the minus sign.

Even building the revs really high only got it to about 1.7v.

Then I ran out of time .. though I did clean up the terminals a bit when I wired it back up.

If I can connect those two terminals together .. and measure voltage from there to

Earth I should get up to its full voltage A up to 20v (as it’s no regulated)… so I think that’s the next test. 

Somethings not right from what I’ve already got though. 

It’s about £80 to get the dynamo rebuilt and about £25 for a control box.

Still nothing from dvla unfortunately.

[fmmv]

If authentic appearance matters you can get alternators that look like dynamos eg link, dynalites. The dynamos aren't normally too bad, brushes are the usual thing, but those control boxes....