We have narrowed the tractor search down....

I agree some minor leaks are almost common. You can chase them forever on any tractor. My Belarus came factory new with leaks!!

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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup........

Found a MF 40 industrial tractor for sale close to our land...

Anyone know much about the industrial model MF's?

Hopefully it has a PTO and 3PH system,I know some industrial models do not.

http://asheville.craigslist.org/grd/1258305220.html

If anyone buys an 8N they need to buy an "overriding PTO shaft" so that when you push the clutch in the tractor will not push you into a pond or somewhere you dont want to be.. They will do that.... with a bush hog on the rear......

Talked to the seller of the MF40 industrial tractor and it does indeed have the 3PH and PTO.He says it is from the 1970's but it is difficult to find much info on MF industrials....except they are heavier duty than agricultural models and can have shuttle shift transmissions.

This particular tractor also has new back tires and is shuttle shift so it is looking promising.

To top it all off I finally sold the stuff I needed to sell to get the money together so who knows,we might be tractor owners in the very near future.

An update.

We decided to buy the MF 40 tractor above.
It has a few issues but a diesel tractor with a loader and box blade for $4000 was hard to pass up.

We will be picking it up next weekend.

Sadly,forgot to take the camera so no pics.

Well Congrats!! The new tires are probably a quarter or better of the price. Look forward to seeing some pictures.

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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup........

Well thank you.

I twas kind of nerve wracking making the decision but when we sat down and thought about it there were a lot of pros and very few cons.

Will have pics hopefully next weekend.

The MF-40 was made 1975-1976.

MF also made:
MF-40B Tractor
MF-40E Turf
MF-40E Utility
MF-40E Industrial

Check the serial number tag to see what model you have.

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Please Put Your Location In Your Profile ... TY

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...08-7A_0001.jpg



was this the one you wanted?

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If the grass looks greener it is probably over the septic tank. - troy n sarah tx

Our existance here is soley for the expoitation of CMG

The MF 150 looked very much like that,the one we ended up with looks more like a MF135.

I've got a Fergie TO30. A good'ole "girl" that I can always depend on. Starts great, runs nicely, and has an over riding clutch for the PTO. I converted it over to 12 volts earlier this spring. Yes it does have a few oil leaks, but for being 50 + years old that can be expected....after all, I'm over 50 myself and I have a few aches and pains, so I'm more understanding about "her" needs.

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Dave

"Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded" (2 Chronicles 15:7)

A little update.

We went and picked up the tractor Saturday,go tit home in one piece and cleaned it up a little.

Didn't get to use it much but that is okay as I want to change the oil and filters and drain the fuel perhaps,it had been sitting for over a year before the seller got it.

I also want to make sure everything is up to snuff.

I DID however go down the drive and dig up the nasty thorn bushes that were attempting to cover the driveway...and managed to run over a yellow jacket nest....

The shuttle transmission worked fine as I put it in high and drove off as fast as I could....

Only stung once but they sure were annoyed.

So far the only thing I see wrong is it smokes(black smoke not white) so it might be a little tired....but we can live with that as long as it doesn't require rebuilding in the near future.
This was taken going up the steep part of the drive,as you can see it has a built in mosquito control feature....



Getting degreased.


Under the shed.




Hopefully the pics work...

Your latest pics aren't showing for me?

The issue with a loader tractor is weight on the rear axle. Sounds like you got a nice size, utility, designed-for-a-loader machine.

If you look at it from the side, you will see it is sorta like a teeter todder. The front axle is like the middle of the teeter todder. The rear axle is one side, and the front of the loader bucket is the orther side.

The more weight you put out front on the loader, the more it balances & takes weight off that rear axle.

Now, you see, the rear axle is where _all_ the traction & _all_ the braking comes from.

So, if you have a big load up front, you better have a real good weight on the back of the tractor to balance it out.

Or, you go sliding down the dew cover grassy hill......

I bought a little diesel compace 27 hp loader 6 yrars ago. I've farmed all my life, diven tractors for 40 years, all sizes & kinds.

I've never been so scared as when I was going down my hilly driveway with that little tractor & an empty wagon behind it. There were no wheel weights, and no fluid in the rear tires. The loader made the rear end real light, and the wagon pushing down the hill also lightened the rear end. It just had no traction on the rear axle, too much weight up front, not enough on the rear.

Seriously, I've never been so scared on a tractor - and I've been in a lot of bad situations with tractors in mud, hills, pulling too much load, etc.....

I called the coop and had the tires filled with calcium cloride that week - didn't use the tractor until they came.

It's been a wonderful, use it every day, tractor since then. Hasn't scared me since. Yuppies like to have these little tractors and use them for lawn mowing, and don't want the weight on their lawns, or are scared by stories of the saltwater wrecking their tractor, that they leave the rear end light.

Man that is dangerous!!!!

My long story is to emphasize that you have some weight on the back end of the tractor when it has a loader on it. The tractor needs to be balasted correctly.

You can get cast iron wheel weights; you can have the rear tires filled with fluid. Perhaps they already are. But you need something.

Down south I guess it is common to use just water or even windshield washer fluid. Understand that Calcium cloride is a salt, & mixed with water weighs over 11 lbs per gallon. Water is around 8, and windshield washer fluid is 6. So you don't get the weight, nor the freeze protection from those things. If you are really worried about rust from the salt mixture, 'Rim Guard' is made from beet juice and works as well as CC without the small chance of rust issues.

For really big loader jobs - loading out dirt or manure or the like, I also will put a weight on the 3pt hitch. I got a rock box that hooks on for counter weight, about 400 lbs. This makes the tractor extra stable. Some folks just hang an implement on the back for counterwight - mower, disk, etc. But I find they take up room, and are a little awkward to manuver without hitting something sometimes. And a person doesn't always want to bother hooking up a counterweight; and when pulling a wagon down a hill you can't fit weight on the 3pt......

So, hope your tractor is set up with some weight on the rear end, or look into wheel weights or tire fluid. It makes a much more stable machine.

So you don't slide down the dewy grass hills.

More info than you wanted I'm sure, but if you are new to tractors esp with loaders, that is how this weight thing works. Having weight on the rear axle to balance out the weight in front of the front axle is very important.

--->Paul

You'd be surprised what clean air filters can do and new fuel. Black smoke isn't always "bad". Sorry the pictures didn't work for me either.

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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup........

Okay,hopefully the pics work now.

Work fine now thanks. Looks like a good starter tractor.

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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup........

I had a MF 165, and it was/is a great tractor. My brother bought it and is still using it. As noted by an earlier poster, this MF series gets great fuel economy. Mine was light on the front, but wheel weights solved the problem.

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"Luck is the residue of design" - Branch Rickey

We took time and researched the various old tractors and it seemed that MF was a better choice for us.

This particular model MF is heavy duty,much heavier front end than a ag model and it was built to have a front end loader from the factory.

One thing that I discovered is this,to change the fan belt requires quite a bit of work,you have to unbolt the shaft to the front hydraulic pump,hope it will move enough for you to snake a new belt in and then reassemble....luckily the belt looks new although it was squealing some.I do think they have a belt that is just a little too long as there is almost no adjustment left.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to the smoking,beyond it needing new rings?
Draining old fuel,replacing filters and perhaps some injector cleaner/conditioner is all I can think of to see if it will clear up some.

If it doesn't it will not be the end of the world.

Clean the air filter so it is getting the air it needs. Could be an injector too simply dumping in too much fuel.

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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup........