Intro and new to me MF50a TLB

[hoodshy]

Howdy All,

First post. I recently acquired a 1971 Massey Ferguson 50a backhoe loader. It is a diesel with the AD4.203 Perkins. It has the 300 loader and a 54 backhoe. Quite a few hours on it. The tack/hour meter isn't working but it shows over 7500 hours. Overall in okay shape. A little bit of blow by seen at the oil filler. There are at least 2 fuel leaks. The brakes need some attention. I can stop it on flat ground but it takes quite a bit of pedal pressure to stop on a grade. I haven't checked the master cylinder or the fluid yet nor adjusted the pedals. This one has the manual shuttle on the dash and primary brake is on the right and there are two dedicated brake pedals for left or right behind the main one. Oh, at some point this backhoe must have had the boom hydraulic rotary cylinder removed and replaced with straight ram cylinders.

Overall happy with the purchase. I believe I got it at an okay price. It does need new tires all around at some point.

I'll post some photos once I reach that magic post number which I believe is 3? I'm in north Idaho about an hour south of the Canadian border.

Thanks,

 

[Tinkerer]

Welcome to HEF, Hoodshy !
Interesting user name.

 

[hoodshy]

Thanks Tinkerer. I use to be a falconer and also bred hawks. The hood is that thing you put over a hawks head and it calms them. Some hawks hate to be hooded and we call it "hoodshy". I've used that username on forums for nearly 30 years now. My real name is Michael

 

[Delmer]

I've never seen the shuttle on the dash, that's not electronic controlled transmission at that age, is it? I'm used to the right pedals being forward and reverse, and the left being the brake. with two behind separate, and the front hydraulic one operating both sides. Tightening up the lever linkage at the axle might help, or they might be so worn, out of adjustment, and oiled up that they will never stop great unless you replace the discs, I think that's what they are.

 

[hoodshy]

Hi Delmer. Yes, this is the mechanical shuttle on the dash and not electronic. You push the lever to go backwards and pull to go forwards. On this one the clutch pedal is on the left and the brake is on the right with the two separate behind. I'm hoping the brake disks aren't worn out and all oiled up but that is very possible. Most of my initial work will be on flat ground pulling stumps and pushing fallen trees and rocks so I think I can get by with the weak brakes for now. If I can get a hundred hours on it and nothing major shows up as issues I'll put new or newish tires on it. Since I will have the wheels off to do so I'll take a look at the brakes then if needed. I haven't confirmed yet if I can get the brake disc parts yet. There is an agco parts dealer not far from me in Washington. I've been looking at the agco online parts books already. Oh, this machine came with the original manuals. Only a few pages missing. The original owner even wrote all the serial numbers in the operators manual. I also have the original service and parts manuals.

 

[hoodshy]

Let's see if I can post photos now....

 

[hoodshy]

 

[hoodshy]

 

[Welder Dave]

Interesting conversion on the swing.

 

[rumblecloud]

Dang....1971 was a good year. IT looks pretty darn good for a 52-year-old (I had to use my calculator to figure that.

Welcome to the community.
r

 

[Delmer]

Yes, have to keep that swing conversion in mind, I'm sure somebody will need it again someday.

So is that a dry clutch, and gear shuttle between F and R? no torque converter?

The wheels might not have to come off, if you have a setup to remove the wheel and trumpet in one piece (pallet jack etc.) I believe the brake parts are common to many tractors of that era, easy to find aftermarket and cheap. You'll pay full price for labor though! Adjust the nuts on the axle housing underneath first though, see if it helps.

 

[hoodshy]

Morning guys. I'm still a working stiff so won't be posting as much during the day, but I've only got a few years left until retirement Howdy rumblecloud, Welder Dave, and Delmer. Thanks for your replies to my post. I think I recognize a couple of you from my searches on the forum about these MF50a machines. I'm sure I will appreciate your insights as I learn and work more with the one I just got. I sure do hope this wasn't a bad decision to get this TLB. At first after I looked at it I was kind of interested but was hesitant to buy potentially another project. But the seller called me back a few days later and came down on the price to a point I decided to take the gamble. Originally he was asking $8K USD but he came down to $6.5K. I think that was an okay price. Backhoes and excavators are in pretty good demand locally with all the folks that homestead acreage around here. I suppose I am one of those folks. I have 5 acres about 30 minutes from my home in town. I'm slowly improving the property and at some point will build a small house on it. So far I've built a carport for an old travel trailer I'll soon be getting rid of since I bought a newer larger one that I'm also currently building a steel carport for. The original carport that I already have is also cover for a 1965 MF135 I have owned for nearly 20 years. I guess you could say that's why I am a little partial to massey fergusons. The MF135 though old and not ergonomically friendly as more modern tractors has done me well. I've used it to do some basic road grading, dig post holes with an auger, and blow snow with a 6 foot blower, and other misc uses.

Yes, Delmer, this is the manual shuttle single clutch transmission instead ot the instant reverse transmission with a torque converter. The tranny and it's shifting seem fine so far. 3 forward and 1 reverse gear with a high/low. The manual shuttle on the dash works fine as long as you come to nearly a stop and use the clutch to shift between forward and reverse.

Anyway I need to work for the man for a while today before I can reply again. Thanks.

 

[Welder Dave]

135's are the most sought after acreage tractors for good reason. I have a 1965 UK 135 with Multi-Power. The manual shuttle trans works very good but you need good brakes for it to be the most productive. You have to come to a full stop before changing direction so that's where good brakes come in. I ran an MF30 with manual shuttle and it was pretty fast. I think a 50A has selective self leveling on the loader lift if you pull the lever further past lift it directs some oil to tilt the bucket forward. A very good feature because the bucket linkage allows the bucket to roll back enough you'd dump most of the material in your lap at full height.

 

[hoodshy]

Yeah Welder Dave I'm quite partial to my 135. I've considered getting something a little newer with perhaps 4 wheel drive (I'm in snow country), but for a tractor that I spent $6250 USD dollars on nearly 20 years ago and I've only put a new two stage clutch in over all these years, I think it's worth its weight in gold. I've been really wanting to get a hoe for a while. Considered a 3 point hoe for the 135 with a pto driven dedicated hydraulic pump but I know they are hard on the 3 point and the tractor overall if not on a subframe mount. So occasionally I look at dedicated TLB but was not wanting to spend $15-20K as most of the better ones are. So, for this cheaper MF50A I thought what the heck, if I can get 6 weeks of work out of it without a major issue that's what I would have spent on renting a 12K lb excavator and it sure is nice having the machine sitting there on the property to use whenever I want.

Yes, this loader does have the self leveling though I have not tried it yet. I see the marking on the decal on top of the loader arms that show an option to float and level. This one also has the bucket position indicator driven by a cable.

I've posted a video of the MF50A running yesterday on the property. If you play it on a higher resolution you can easily see the first significant fuel leak right where the fuel line comes out of the front of the tank. The stream traces around the seam on the tank and also flows on the underside of the tank and I'm assuming that is where the light smoke is coming from when the fuel drips down on the hot engine and exhaust. You can also see the blowby from the oil filler. Is that considered a lot of blowby? I've seen much worse in other videos.

Here's the link to the youtube video if this forum allows links to be posted:

 

[hoodshy]

Also, here is a photo of my 135 from a recent weekend after I used it to dig holes with the digger for the steel carport I am standing up now.

 

[T-town]

Welcome to the 'club' Hood... wonderful to see work getting done with old iron!

Your 'hole dirt' looks awful clean ... is that native soil or fill?

And I see you have 'inspectors' in your county

 

[hoodshy]

Thanks for the welcome T-town. Yes, that row of holes has a bit of fill from the cut I did for that pad. The slope goes up to the right in the photo so there is probably 8 inches of fill from the cut and then I put down 8 inches of crushes rock to level the pad so no larger rocks there at least at the dpeth of the holes. These holes are 30 inches deep. What you can't see is the row of holes to the right had quite a bit of cantaloupe sized rocks and I broke the auger shear pin 3 times digging that row before I got more patience We are in what eons ago was covered in glaciers so there are all kinds of rocks in some areas and then just few feet over there is decomposed granite and sand. It's a mixed bag. Some of the boulders on the property that are above grade are larger than my tractor and I assume they made the trek down here from Canada riding the glacier.

 

[Welder Dave]

I forgot about the cable bucket level indicator. It is very handy but the cable wears through cross member over time. MF were very good loaders in their day. The bucket cylinder on your 135 looks massive.

 

[hoodshy]

A previous owner put the loader on the 135. The bucket is only 40 inches which is fine for a tractor not meant to have a loader and they did add an additional dedicated hydraulic pump.

 

[Welder Dave]

A dedicated pump would be nice. My loader works good but is pretty slow. I put a 7ft. blade on the front mostly for pushing snow but don't use it much having a skid steer and now a grader. It is a good counterweight though for driving up the jumps on my MX track with an implement on the back.