Picked up this 'well used' MF 30 gas engine about 6 years ago. Really hammered, person I bought it from did a bunch of hoses and other things to get it functional, but still barely usable. Dug some massive boulders out of my yard with it for a year or two though. Started sputtering out one day in the field digging out a boulder, and I drove it back to the side of the garage and it sat since basically. I wanted to do a compression test on it before I kept messing with it, but it just so happened at the same time the key had gotten stuck while it was running and roasted my starter.
Back at it this year, new starter, compression is OK'ish, 1st cylinder worse than others but fine. Got it to run on a gas can, so decided to carry on. New water pump, old one leaked and now after sitting was just totally frozen. The new pump however is just different enough in thickness that my pulley will touch the pump when bolted up, so have to make myself a shim to deal with that. (Should have just ordered some seals and bearings probably). The radiator I did my best to confirm was not leaking while out of the tractor, apparently is leaking, so back out it will come. New alternator, the last ones Tach drive was trashed, and frankly the charging system didnt work right, I was actually "tuning" the voltage regulator trying to make it happy, I was only able to get it so do this sloppy like 1 second charge/no charge flapping back and forth. So ordered a 1 wire replacement. The gauge the tach drive connected to anyway was toast, so new gauges. The instrument panel itself is rotted away at the bottom and not even attached properly to the tractor.
This is all the exact escalation I feared would happen if I touched it in the first place
So while I'm ripping the radiator back out this week, Im thinking while I'm able to reach everything I should figure out the power steering. It has never worked. All my readings on this system, which I believe was all about the farm variant (of which I forget what model it is now), says its all pretty bad and unreliable. The previous owner clearly tried to get something going because the PS pump is the cleanest thing on the tractor. I remember trying to manual actuate it to see if I could get something to happen and having no luck. Sitting out here wrenching the wheel back and forth on non running machine I can certainly get it to pull/push on the actuator for the hydraulic ram. That specific part of the linkage doesnt seem like it has too bad of play to it. However the entire, i guess... pitman arm assembly? has play in it, quite a lot. Turning the wheel back and forth just has the entire assembly moving around, Im assuming if play is bad this is probably the play in question. I havent been able to properly see this stuff until I stripped the machine down and pressure washed everything.
- How should I verfiy my PS pump works? Am I crazy to think I should be able to just push/pull on the actuator while its running to test this? Because I did give that a best effort once upon a time years ago to no avail, but I had terrible access and couldnt reach anything properly.
- This wobbly shaft likely a reason for the system not actuating? I havent looked at parts manual yet but somehow I dont think this is going to be easily fixable.
Back at it this year, new starter, compression is OK'ish, 1st cylinder worse than others but fine. Got it to run on a gas can, so decided to carry on. New water pump, old one leaked and now after sitting was just totally frozen. The new pump however is just different enough in thickness that my pulley will touch the pump when bolted up, so have to make myself a shim to deal with that. (Should have just ordered some seals and bearings probably). The radiator I did my best to confirm was not leaking while out of the tractor, apparently is leaking, so back out it will come. New alternator, the last ones Tach drive was trashed, and frankly the charging system didnt work right, I was actually "tuning" the voltage regulator trying to make it happy, I was only able to get it so do this sloppy like 1 second charge/no charge flapping back and forth. So ordered a 1 wire replacement. The gauge the tach drive connected to anyway was toast, so new gauges. The instrument panel itself is rotted away at the bottom and not even attached properly to the tractor.
This is all the exact escalation I feared would happen if I touched it in the first place
So while I'm ripping the radiator back out this week, Im thinking while I'm able to reach everything I should figure out the power steering. It has never worked. All my readings on this system, which I believe was all about the farm variant (of which I forget what model it is now), says its all pretty bad and unreliable. The previous owner clearly tried to get something going because the PS pump is the cleanest thing on the tractor. I remember trying to manual actuate it to see if I could get something to happen and having no luck. Sitting out here wrenching the wheel back and forth on non running machine I can certainly get it to pull/push on the actuator for the hydraulic ram. That specific part of the linkage doesnt seem like it has too bad of play to it. However the entire, i guess... pitman arm assembly? has play in it, quite a lot. Turning the wheel back and forth just has the entire assembly moving around, Im assuming if play is bad this is probably the play in question. I havent been able to properly see this stuff until I stripped the machine down and pressure washed everything.
- How should I verfiy my PS pump works? Am I crazy to think I should be able to just push/pull on the actuator while its running to test this? Because I did give that a best effort once upon a time years ago to no avail, but I had terrible access and couldnt reach anything properly.
- This wobbly shaft likely a reason for the system not actuating? I havent looked at parts manual yet but somehow I dont think this is going to be easily fixable.