Massey 135 Narrow steering

[Laurence Lombard]

I hinted to a farming colleague that i would be interested in his 135 narrow (knowing that it was standing in his shed in a sorry looking state). He said (without offering it to me) that it had steering box troubles and that it could not be easily fixed - something about it being of French design and that the parts are not interchangeable.

I am aware that there are various subtle differences between the narrow and the standard (besides the obvious of front and back axle widths), but I find it hard to believe that the steering boxes are different. Am I missing something? Is there indeed a difference between the narrow and standard steering box, and if so, is there a workaround?

 

[Anonymous-0]

MF-135 were made in US, UK, France, Germany, and maybe a few more contries. All they shared for sure was the model number. I know they used different transmissions and engines so different steering gear is not surprising. UK and US MF-135 used different power steering too.

Gerald J.

 

[Laurence Lombard]

"Of course", I thought to myself as I lay in bed this morning, "in the narrow the steering arms face outwards (over the front wheels), so the tie rods (and steering box drop arms) move in the opposite direction to normal"

Now I have been thinking of a way to somehow convert to power steering, but it must be more complicated than it seems. It would have been less complicated if there was only one tie rod involved.

I will have to find out what is wrong. It might be that the worm mechanism in the steering box is broken. The drop arms would then be correctly linked to each other. In that case one could fit an orbitrol above the steering box and convert the steering to hydraulic.

 

[Anonymous-0]

So maybe the ball worm has the opposite thread from the wide front. Or the gear positions are swapped around. Its easy to make them different when working from scratch on paper.

My US MF-135 parts book shows only wide fronts. In it the power steering cylinder mounts on the front side of the steering gear box and runs a rack on top of the top cross gear. The cylinder is controlled by a valve that is on top the gear box and operated by a little up and down end play on the steering wheel shaft. I've had all that apart on my MF-135 fixing bearings and rebuilding that cylinder that had a broken piston rod.

I've heard of other versions that use a single cylinder alongside a drag link to provide the power assist. I suppose the same control valve concept could work, just that the steering gear box has to be machined to accept the valve and the steering shaft shims adjusted to allow the needed end play.

Until you broke the steering gear box, probably a universal Behlen or Char-Lynn steering helper could be installed in the steering shaft above the steering gear just like it fit on an unstyled JD tractor with the exposed shaft running above the hood. You might need to shorten the upper part of the gearbox that has the upper bearing and seal a foot or more above the gearbox top. That might be a major machining exercise.

Maybe its time to scrap all of the original steering gear box. Cover the transmission with a flat plate or the bottom sawed off the original steering gear. Mount the steering valve from a combine and couple that to the steering wheel, and hang the steering cylinder on the side of the tractor attached from the engine block (since that's the side frame) to the front steering arm.

Look at Baum Hydraulics for new parts for such a scheme. Probably could use the existing hydraulics though something directly engine driven would be safer. Don't need to loose steering with the clutch pedal pushed in all the way.

Burden's Surplus Center at Lincoln NE might also have such parts and I'm sure any combine salvage yard will have the pure hydraulic steering parts by the boatload. Steering by pure hydraulics isn't very new, JD came out with it on the 3010 and 4010 in 1960, my 4020 still work though it wanders a little and I plant straighter rows with my MF-135 (and use a lot less fuel in the process). Such schemes have also been used on many a Case and IH tractor since then.

Gerald J.

 

[Laurence Lombard]

Thanks for all that info. I spoke to an old dog at a local used spares place. On the narrow model the worm of the steering shaft is opposite thread and is all but impossible to get hold of, and very expensive. The tried and tested solution is to install a standard steering box, and turn the steering arms over the front wheels around (to face inwards instead of outwards). You lose a little narrowness, but according to him the front whells will still be narrower than the back wheels.

I was also thinking about using combine parts, but the one hassle is that the Massey left and right wheels are linked via the steering box, so one will have to coordinate the left and right side. That is why I thought one would have to keep the bottom half of the steering box.

Another hassle is that if the tractor does not have power steering at this stage, so one would have to install a power steering pump/ oil reservoir as well.

I even had ideas of making a gear system (posiibly with planetary gears) so that as you are turning the steering wheel to the right, the steering shaft turns left.

In the end it probably makes sense to stick to the old timer's solution - it would have the least number of surprises.

It was interesting and fun thinking about the various solutions, so thanks once again for your input.