[Ambush]

Late last fall I picked up a MF10 on an impulse. It looked good from ten feet and it didn't look like too many people had been "fixing" it over it's fifty two years of service. Tin looked pretty good and straight. Tranny shifts crisp and positive and a quick pull of the tranny drain plug didn't show any water or jewelry. It ran but the carb poured gas out and it required fiddling with the bowl drain to keep the level low enough. So it came home with me. Some work has been done already but I'll try to catch that up with some of the pics I took along the way. Pic #1 is as it sat at the sellers.

 

[Ambush]

I stuffed it away until late December when I had some time to do a better once over to see what I had gotten into. There are very few vintage garden tractors around here and I've never seen a Massey, so I knew parts would be a problem. I've been repairing, rebuilding and remaking machinery for a living my whole working career, so I'm no coward when it comes to tearing stuff apart or being creative when necessary.

I'm calling this a Shade Tree restoration because it won't be going back to pure original shape. It should look pretty good and work well and I will modify or make some parts to suit. I expected some surprises and got a few already, with some parts missing and some damaged. But the bones are good, so I think its worth it to carry on. Some pics are on my phone and some on my computer and I'm not tech savvy, so it may be a bit of a dog's breakfast.

 

[Ambush]

To get the dash tower off, the steering wheel has to came off first. Judging by the way the wheel was cracked and damaged someone had tried pretty hard once but had to give up. I took the nut off and gave it a half hearted try with a puller, but that didn't budge it. So I just sprayed it with PB blaster several times a day for a couple of weeks. Actually I sprayed every nut, bolt, pin and linkage with Blaster several times a day while I worked on my Cub cadet 149. Even after all that attention and patience the wheel stayed put. I got a bit more serious, pretty much hanging the tractor by the wheel, putting all the pressure the puller could muster and some hammer persuasion. Not a hope!!

 

[Christoph from Germany]

To get the dash tower off, the steering wheel has to came off first. Judging by the way the wheel was cracked and damaged someone had tried pretty hard once but had to give up. I took the nut off and gave it a half hearted try with a puller, but that didn't budge it. So I just sprayed it with PB blaster several times a day for a couple of weeks. Actually I sprayed every nut, bolt, pin and linkage with Blaster several times a day while I worked on my Cub cadet 149. Even after all that attention and patience the wheel stayed put. I got a bit more serious, pretty much hanging the tractor by the wheel, putting all the pressure the puller could muster and some hammer persuasion. Not a hope!!

I made the same experiance... Finally I was able to get off the stearing sproket at the other end and pulled the wheel with the rod attached.
It is still this way and I gave up... Maybe it works for you too - try the other end?

 

[Ambush]

Ok then, time for a different attack. I took the three bolts that hold the steering box to the frame, unbolted the tower from the frame, unbolted the dash from the tower, un hooked all the cables and wires and with much wiggling and jiggling got all that off the frame. That's fine, but I still can't get the dash off of the steering column, box on one end and steering wheel on the other and I can't get it under the press like that. The wheel is in pretty rough shape anyway and getting uglier by the minute, so I made the decision to cut the spokes close enough to the hub to get the dash over it.

Got that done and put the offending wheel under the press. I was putting a lot of pressure on it and was really starting to wonder if it was welded on by some desperate-to-steer previous owner when BANG! it gave up.

Hmmm, well that was easy.

 

[Christoph from Germany]

Well, whatever it takes...
Good to read that you could overcome the issue.

I had to save my steering wheel (hard to get spares here in Europe) but I was lucky that the colomn at my Bolens didn't interfears with any other body parts.
But I really like your writing: ...

I'm no coward when it comes to tearing stuff apart or being creative when necessary.

Isn't this all the fun?!

 

[Ambush]

Everything under the tower was rusted, seized and some links bent. It was like a mind puzzle trying to find some link that would let me start to get stuff out of there. The square headed grub screw started to round off so I had to tap a half inch nut over it and weld it in. Once it realized I was pretty serious about winning, it gave up. Then I could pull the Varidrive shaft out and the rest was fairly easy. The adjusting nut on the eyebolt was seized on the threads and in the carrier. That fork was bent and twisted.

Oh well, surprises aren’t really surprises, they’re only discovering the expected.

 

[JDBrian]

Nice 10! It’s worth the work to get it back in shape! I had an 8 with the front nose piece just about broken in 2 at the top. I repaired it by bending a piece of 3/16” steel rod to fit in the v shaped groove on the back side of the top of the nose piece,. I used long hair Fibreglass to embed the rod in the groove while having the nose piece held in position. This worked a treat and the repaired nose was super strong and looked like new. It’s hard to find one of those tractors without a damaged nose or dash. They are sturdy and easy to work on. I also had a nasty time removing the steering wheel. I just let it soak in penetrating oil, heated it a bit now and then and kept applying a bit more force to the puller. Took about 2 weeks and just as I was about to give up it popped off.

 

[Ambush]

JDBrian, that's a great idea for repairing the hood bezel. Mine is broken in two places and a repro would be well over $150 (in Cdn pessos) out of the US. I have short strand fiberglass on hand, so I'll use that. Thanks for the tip

And repair rather than replace is the major theme.

The cap on the steering wheel has been missing for many years and between the rust, spline and taper, they would be "bound together 'til death do us part". The wheel died. 😞

I'm amazed that much of the tractor is in such good condition after fifty two years. It must have been looked after and stored indoors most of it's life.

 

[JDBrian]

It’s nice to see another Canadian member on here! About that hood bezel repair. Not my original idea, just passing it along. I forgot to mention that that tip came from member Olcowhand (Daniel) who used to be a major contributor in many, many ways here and was a big MF fan. These older tractors were built to last in an era where when you made a major purchase like a garden tractor the expectation was that it would be a long term purchase that would earn it’s keep for many years. How a tractor is stored makes a huge difference in its condition. I recently purchased a 76 Sears SS18 that was just too good to pass up. It had been stored inside for a long time. It has low hours, you can tell by the level of wear and tear on all the major parts. If it had been left outside behind the shed for 20 or more years it would be in pretty poor shape by now. The MF tractors are solid with heavy metal frames and parts. It’s relatively easy to clean them up and paint them and restore them to full functionality again. Good luck with your project!

 

[Joe Baring]

Awesome tractor! It seem to be in great shape and complete. And yea I hate "jewelry" in my oil! Awful inconvenient.

 

[Ambush]

Thanks Joe! It is missing the jackshaft/pulley set up to run the mower deck and the rock shaft for lifting it but I may have a line on those. Likely missing a few things I don’t know about yet and a spring or two.

This is the fate of the steering wheel that wouldn’t listen to reason. I machined the hub round and if I can’t find a good one for a reasonable price, I’ll weld a disc to it and bolt on a sport style racing wheel. Probably be great for those lawns with lots of high speed curves.

The column threads were toast, so I machined them off and the bore in the middle was about the perfect size for a 7/16” fine thread. Also made a new bushing for the shaft while it was out. I may still use a front wheel bearing there if I don’t like this, since I have a bag of them.

 

[Joe Baring]

May I suggest a steering wheel that looks similar to these? wheel wheel 2 The racing steering wheels in my opinion look a little out of place on a garden tractor. These may be a bit more pricey and not particularly for this brand of tractor, but I think a traditional tractor wheel would look a lot cleaner. Of course this is my opinion and do what you think looks best on your tractor!

 

[Ambush]

You are right Joe and that is a pretty good price if I lived in the US. Right now, I'm working on a package of parts from a very big Massey GT collector in Ontario that hopefully includes a steering wheel.

The steering box has been disassembled, cleaned, repacked and set up. I had to machine the follower to get rid of the flat spots and I probably should have replaced the top bearing set, but I can do that later when I have the parts in my hand. I have a running list of "to do and to buy" things.

It's a pain that pretty much everything has to come from far away and often out of the US. Shipping can be way more than a single part and the exchange rate alone adds 35% right off the hop. I try to find sellers with multiple items to save on shipping costs. But hobbies are a luxury, not a necessity, so I just order and snivel to my wife a bit, 'cause nobody else really cares.

 

[Christoph from Germany]

It's a pain that pretty much everything has to come from far away and often out of the US. Shipping can be way more than a single part and the exchange rate alone adds 35% right off the hop. I try to find sellers with multiple items to save on shipping costs. But hobbies are a luxury, not a necessity, so I just order and snivel to my wife a bit, 'cause nobody else really cares.

Well, dear Anbush,
we DO care here and I think that all everybody gives a pretty good support. You are right: financially it is only on you to pay for your hobby! But if possible here you can get a lot of tips, tricks and advices to find alternatives, DIY solutions and chances to reduce the costs.
At all, I really feel with you. I live in Germany and between me and the USA is the stormy rough Atlantic and not only a border line like between USA and Canada ;-)
See it this way: Hey - we still can order good parts for our damn' old little tractors! So this keeps our hobby expensive - but it also keeps it alive!! GREAT - isn't it?

 

[Ambush]

All true Christoph. Here we say “misery likes company” so we come to these forums to sooth our souls. And there are no better people to ask than those that are dedicated to the subject. Years ago we just had to hope we knew somebody that knew something about our project. Now we can virtually rub elbows with and pick the brains of the best!

 

[Ambush]

Whenever we got a warm (enough) day to work outside, I stripped and cleaned the frame and various brackets. Every bolt came off the frame and everything that was bolted on. That all got one coat of Tremclad bear metal primer then two coats of Tremclad dark grey. I added a thinner and a hardener to speed up the cure. Parts hung off rails like sausages in an old time German butcher shop.

 

[Ambush]

About two thirds of the bolts into the frame snapped off. I cut off the offending nuts that were welded to the frame, made new ones and welded them on.

 

[Ambush]

I straightened brackets and chased threads. The one spindle was flopping around and that turned out to be the top bushing had slid back inside the bore. I cleaned the axle up then pushed four undersized bushings into place so I could run an expandable ream through then for a good fit.

I also made two Teflon washers to replace the steel washers that the spindle rides on. Supposedly an upgrade?

 

[Ambush]

And it wasn’t too long before I had a rolling chassis again.