Our Ferguson FE35 by Massey Ferguson... 

was purchased in 1984 from a farmer here on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, Canada. We intended to use it for hauling logs and firewood-making as well as some clearing and gardening on our 10 acre (4.5 ha) property.
   It has performed flawlessly in those tasks over the years, but it has also become a hobby–in fact a most enjoyable passion. Since it is a working tractor we've spent much time maintaining it and making functional improvements to it over the years. We've not had time to pay much attention to its appearance but maybe someday we'll get busy cleaning up the sheet metal and in general making it look more like those beautiful show tractors we so admire. Truth is though that we'd rather have it smell of manure or soil than of enamel paint!

Here's the serial number plate which shows that our FE35 is a standard (chassis) width agricultural tractor (S) with a Standard 23C diesel engine (D), and a deluxe model with dual clutch (M).
     According to the serial number, it was built at the Banner Lane Works of the Standard Motor Company in Coventry, England on Friday, the 9th of October 1959.
     The engine's serial number is SJ128117ED, and the coded dates on the transmission and differential indicate that these were cast on the 14th and 24th of September 1959, respectively.

The hydraulic logsplitter is one of the most useful implements we have. We bought this heavy-duty unit many years ago and it has performed flawlessly for around 25 years now. We split between 4 and 5 cords of wood a year for our woodstove and fireplace. Here is detailed information about the log splitter.

This is part of our veggie garden. It's located in one of the only meadow areas on our property which in general consists mostly of woodland and rocky outcropings. Our terrain has an altitude difference of about 150 feet so the tractor's fairly wide wheelbase helps keep it on an even keel on the slopes. Our trees are mostly Douglas and balsam fir with a sprinkling of arbutus. We have hardly any red cedars as we slope toward the south and cedars like more northerly cooler, wetter conditions.

The electric re-wiring has been particularly important since the Standard diesel 23c engine is notoriously difficult to start.
   The re-wiring began when we replaced the original Lucas dynamo with a rebuilt Delco 10-SI alternator. The dynamo produced its maximum output of about 20A around 2000 rpm with a cut-in rpm of 1050-1200. We seldom reached 2000 rpm, and most of the time we ran below 1200 rpm due to the difficulty of our terrain. It was no wonder that the dynamo couldn't supply enough current to properly charge the battery, which in turn contributed to our starting difficulties.
   When we replaced the Lucas dynamo with a 42A Delco alternator, the battery charging improved substantially, and when we later added a second battery—which doubled the amperage available—the starting performance improved even further.

NEW!
The wiring diagram above is our latest modified version. The "remote voltage sensing wire" from terminal 2 on the alternator was previously connected directly to the BAT post on the alternator. It has now been moved to the positive battery post—the point where the accessories (lights, etc.) are connected. This way the alternator senses the actual current load instead of being fixed according to internal alternator settings—and adjusts the output accordingly. The photos on this page do not reflect this change yet.*

We made several changes to the usual wiring setup in order to enhance the starting performance, such as

(1) Collecting all the ground connections in one spot on one of the large bolts connecting the clutch housing with the engine (see photo above); This should ensure a better ground connection, thus a higher starting current. One writer has suggested that the positive and negative battery cables ought to be of the same size, i.e., 2/0 gauge. However, our present positive battery fitting is larger than the negative one—the same as in any other vehicle—so some adaptation would have to be made. If you have any thoughts about this, please email me.

(2) Connecting the gear safety switch to the alternator exciter wire through an indicator light on the dash. As described in the above diagram, the indicator lamp lights up when the engine is shut off to make sure that we remember to move the high-low gear shift lever away from 'S' so as not to drain the batteries.

(3) Installing a lower radiator hose heater in addition to the four glowplugs which were already there.

(4) Bought a magnetic block heater which is used under the air filter oil canister.

All these improvements have really helped the tractor start easier in cold weather. An engine rebuild would undoubtedly also be a big improvement, but that'll have to wait for a little while yet. We recently received a great engine rebuilding DVD from Vintage Tractor Engineer in England. It runs for a little over 2 hours and is so well made and so detailed that even we non-mechanics will be able to do a complete rebuild of the 23c engine.

The hydraulic take-off setup which we use for the log splitter

Above is a photo of the hydraulic transfer plate we removed from the top cover, and in the larger photo (above left) the selector valve we installed in its place for diverting the hydrauic fluid from the lift arms to the log splitter.
     To the left is shown the quick-disconnect bracket which is attached to the rear differential housing.
     To operate the log splitter we simply turn the selector valve toward the rear position and pull up the lift lever on the quadrant to maximum lift. We usually run the engine at 1200 rpm when splitting wood, but a bit higher if the wood is very dry and hard.

CLICK tractormeter to see larger image

More links will be added here soon. If you know of any good ones or if you'd like to be listed yourself, please send me an email.

Vintage Tractor Engineer - great source for a 23c diesel engine rebuilding DVD as well as technical information about tractors in general. You can even find expert answers to technical questions on this website.
     And check out their latest DVD: Massey Ferguson 35 (and Ferguson TO35 and FE35 tractors) Hydraulics, Troubleshooting And Repair. It'll enable just about anyone to repair or adjust a tractor's hydraulic system.

Friends of Ferguson - much good reading about Fergies, including a list of British equipment and parts suppliers.

Yesterdays Tractors - lots of tractor information and a very active forum. Unfortunately they don't ship parts to Canada from their Port Townsend, Washington location, only manuals. This is particularly frustrating since we are located only about 100 km away from us as the crow flies.

Jack in Ontario, Canada  has an FE35 very similar to ours. He's got a bunch of really nice photos here.

Kevin L's Ford 8N tractor site has a good writeup about wiring and how to do a generator to alternator conversion.

Wilson Auto Electric Products has excellent re-manufactured alternators like the 10SI. They also have a catalogue with specs and cross-references for alternators and starter motors.

These are some of the suppliers I'd check if you're looking for parts:
 
1. I would ask your local Massey Ferguson dealer first. Our closest MF dealer is not very close, so we usually go to a Kubota/New Holland dealer who is only a short distance away. They have a CD they pop into their computer and it shows most parts available for the MF35/FE35. We've had good luck getting parts from them. It seems a non-MF dealer may have access to a larger assortment of after-market parts than a MF dealer.

2. Bare-Co in Australia lists an extensive selection of after-market parts for the FE35, TO35 and MF35. They have two main catalogues, one for British and one for US built tractors. Unfortunately, they won't ship to North America but has a US branch. When you inquire from Canada about parts they refer you to a US dealer... who to me at least doesn't seem too interested in shipping smaller parts to Canada, except via UPS which incurs some hefty shipping and brokerage fees. They seem to have nice stuff though, and their online catalogue lists a lot of MF parts and their MF numbers.

3. You might try the Canadian (or US) Sparex dealer. However, I had one correspondent who contacted them but was not too happy with their responses or attitude.

4. Most of the British suppliers seem to stock brands such as Sparex, QTP, Vapormatic, etc. Three popular supplies companies in England are southerntractorspares.co.uk, agrilineproducts.com and fergiland.co.uk. There's also dwsmotormachine.biz which is a US company--they seem to have quite a few of the engine parts (but not all of them). And not to forget ssbtractor.com in the US. A friend recently bought a rebuilt injection pump from them for substantially less than a rebuild in Canada would have cost.

I don't know what shipping costs in general are from England, but the thing to do is send them an email and ask what airmail for the items you want would cost. As with all shipping from the US, I try to avoid couriers like FedEx and UPS as the brokerage fee and customs can be quite high--I've heard many horror stories about how sometimes it can be as much as the value of the item! That's why if they won't ship via the post office, I won't buy from them. Shipments from England to Canada via air mail usually takes 10 days or a bit less.

5. Finally, a trip to one of your local tractor wrecking yards might be worthwhile. Or look for one on the internet.

Again, if you've had good luck with a supplier of parts, please send me an email.

          

Updated Monday, 17 May 2010

The information presented on these webpages is a description of our tractor and of how we have dealt with various problems associated with it. It is not intended as recommendations and we accept no responsibility for the use of this information, nor are we responsible for the contents of external links.