MF 65 Questions

[William Allis]

Looking at MF 65 Diesel, 1964, has 38 inch tires, thought they all were 28's? Seems to be factory as the front spindles are long enough for the tractor to be level. Are they factory?

7000 hours before the tack quit. I presume when they changed to 12 volt. Is there a way to make the tack work again? Must be something wrong with the voltage regulator as they have a jumper wire on the ground to make it charge.

Transmission side of clutch is at the very top. PTO/Hyd side is about in the center. Is there adjustment or does it sound like a tired clutch?

Hydraulics?? It has auxiliary hyd. but there are two levers between your legs in front of the seat and also the quadrant lever on the right side of the seat. The long lever and the quadrant lever both seem to control the 3 pt. lift arms. I presume the short lever is the aux. control. Can someone explain?

It is suppose to have power steering, but there is no assist when the tractor is stationary. Is the PS a separate pump or is it connected to the tractor hyd. so the clutch has to be up and will only work when the tractor is moving?

How much of a job to change a brake disk?

Thanks,

Bill

 

[gerrymn]

The high-clearance models had 38" tires. The 2-lever valve between your legs is also a factory item. Just leave the quadr lever all the way up and use the lever between your legs for the 3-point. The tach on my 1966 165 diesel works, but the hour meter stopped working long ago. Maybe a drive cable?

 

[William Allis]

OK, so the quadrant lever is draft control.

How about changing the dry disk brakes?

Should the power steering work when the tractor is stationary but running?

Bill

 

[Aaron Ford]

The original tach was driven off of the generator. If it has been converted to an alternator, there is no longer a way to drive it. It would have been 12v since about 1957.

Cannot answer about the clutch. Might simply need adjusted, or worse, replaced.

Brakes are a bit of a bear on this model. The axles trumpets have to be pulled as the discs are inboard. 4 discs @ $16 a piece. If properly maintained, they work quite well. I can stand on mine and send myself into the steering wheel. A 64 would have the direct injection diesel. Parts are plentiful and cheap, as with the rest of the tractor. These tractors were often accused of cheating at the pulls. They really run good.

Now if it has power steering it will have a pump mounted on the left side of the engine near the front. Two hoses running through the radiator shroud connect to the hydraulic ram cylinder behind the grills. It is common for a link to become loose between the pedestal and control valve and cause a loss of power steering.

This model brings about $3500 here (WV) in fair to poor condition. $5000 if fair to good and $7500 for a nice model.

BTW, they look nice painted up.

Hope this helps.

Aaron

 

[Anonymous-0]

You don't use the lever between your legs to work the 3 pt. You'll have terrible control. Pull the lever that runs the 3 pt. back and use the 3 pt. controls on the right side of the seat. MF has the best 3 pt. control made. Why wouldn't you take advantage of it? Dave

 

[Aaron Ford]

Yes, the PS should work when stationary. Pull the grills and have someone move the steering wheel. You should see the pedestal rotate and the linkage between the pedestal and the control valve move. If it is slop in the linkage, you should be able to force the valve with a pair of pliers and get power steering in that direction. If this is the problem, you may need to redrill the holes and install larger pins. I did this and it works perfectly. However, you may have more serious issues.

Have we established that it has PS?

Aaron

 

[William Allis]

Aaron,

Thank you, you have answered many of my questions. Are you familiar with this high clearance model with the 38 inch rubber? They have a finish mower on it and it is mounted so close to the tractor that you can't lift it only 3-4 inches or it hits the tires. Is that a problem with this model? Will I have to extend the lift arms? Or is it just this particular piece of equipment. I will want to put a brush hog and a disk on it and they both mount close.

You indicated it was a pretty stout tractor. 3 plow power? It takes a 3 plow tractor to pull 2 bottoms in our hard rockey ground here in western NY. Would it handle a 7 foot brush hog in heavy grass?

Once you get the wheels off, is replacing the brakes a big job? They have been using it with one brake so I am sure both will need replacing.

I am looking at this tractor to take some of the "heavy lifting" off my compact 4X4. 47 HP in Korea translates to about 35 here. I am trying to get 50 HP out of it and keep breaking things.

Please send me your e-mail.

Thanks again.

Bill

 

[William Allis]

OK Dave, explain the 3 pt hyd control to me. Better yet the whole hyd. system.

Thanks,

Bill

 

[Aaron Ford]

I forgot to answer the other half of your question. The early 65 with the weaker (relative term) indirect injection and the gassers were rated as a 4 plow tractor. I pull a 7 foot box scraper with my 65 gasser with no problems, but I haven't pulled a bush hog or disk with it. Yet.

HTH

Aaron

 

[Danthemasseyman]

Hi.
The tractor you have is a high clearance model...thus the 38" tires. This tractor has a two stage clutch in it, so when you push the clutch pedal down about half way, that will stop the transmission, but still allow the PTO to operate. If you push the clutch pedal all the way down, it will also disengage the PTO clutch as well as the transmission so the tractor and the PTO will both stop.
The 3pt hitch on these models were kind of strange.....lock the small red lever between your legs in the rearward position and then control the 3pt hitch using the quadrant lever. Don"t try to understand it...it"s complicated. The power steering is also kind of silly....usually the linkage has a touch of wear and it will usually result in the tractor steering easier to the one direction and harder to the other. You will need to tighten up the linkage completely....it HAS to be tight. It doesn"t take much wear to screw it up. As the others have said, the tach was driven off the generator, so check if you have a cable running from the generator to the tach...the cable inside might be broken. As for changing the brake disc...not a horrible job, but takes time. However, don"t expect much better braking when done as the brakes in these 65"s were basically non existent even when new! Chances are the disc isn"t even worn much, I assumed the same when I tore mine apart and they weren"t worn much. After I put the new discs in, the brakes were better, but once the disks get shined up again, it"s back to the way they were. Good luck!