massey ferguson three bottom plow tripping

Hey guys, I have a three bottom older massey plow. While using it today the plows started tripping and I can't get them to stop. Tightened all
bolts. Still trips. Looking for some help if y'all don't mind sharing any links that you may know of or knowledge. I'm 33. Thinking about growing
some nursery stock. I did not grow up farming or using equipment. All of my quipmnt is old. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
welcome to yt massey, do you have the book for the plow? if not just google up that model plow manual for sale and you should be able to get one. there is usually a spring/dog latch set up in them, could be broken springs or latch or just full of crude and muck not allowing the latch to lock up? john.
 
Also the way the latch is made the top corner of the vertical part of beam the bottom is bolted on chips off and then they will not hold. Mine was a 4 bottom but made same way and every bottom was like that. I did not know about things when I bought it and found out after I had it that someone previous to me had drilled that beam and side plates to put a shear bolt in and that is the way I used things for years. If yours is that way you will have to take things comepletely apart and a good welder (that I am NOT) could weld up that corner that chips off, it is only less than an eighth of an inch that the corner needs to be welded back up and reshaped. Lets just hope his plow is not yet that bad and just a good cleaning and adjustment will take care of it. Never had my JD apart so do not know if they are made the same or not.
 
Ok, I'll try to find a manual on line, and may take one of the bottoms apart to try to see how it all works, get it cleaned up, greased and put back together.
 
Here's a pic of the plow. Maybe it's a model 66? Cat 1. No name plate on it anywhere. I'll order a manual if I can identify it. That hole I'm pointing at goes all the way through. Like maybe for a shear bolt. But the bolt would be so small I can't imagine it being used for that. What do y'all think? It's about 1/4 inch hole, maybe 3/16
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That is probably a lube hole to squirt a lite oil like kerosine in to keep things washed out and lubed up. My plow had both 5/16" and 3/8" shear bolts put in by previous owner instead of welding up the broken top of shank. A good lube for that after you get it working would be PB Blaster. A motor oil would just gather too much dirt. I did not know what PB Blaster when I had my plow now gone for 15 years. I found out after I had it and went looking for parts it had the deep tillage bottoms on that was very hard to get parts for and did not work as good as a regular bottom would have for me. I did not want to plow as deep as they wanted.
 
Maybe you are just going to deep. That looks like a 14" plow. Rule of thumb, go half as deep as your plow width so for your 14" bottom you should go about 7"deep. How deep are you going?
 
My old Dearborn plows use a shear bolt to keep them from tripping, I like a grade 8 bolt for that application. That?s what your hole is for too.....
 
her said 1/4" max on hole and more like 3/16" and that is not big enough for a shear pin, only big enough for a squirt can spout. And trip plows do not have a bolt hole in from factory.
 
I guess I'd have to have one that wasn't broke yet, so the fab guy would have one to go by to make it like its supposed to be. Really hope I don't have to do all that.
 
Here it is. Massey 275. I believe it's a 1976 model. Me and one of my buddies took the metal,
wheels off and painted it. He did all the pretty work and I sprayed the underside. Wish I had a
before picture. Looked nothing like this when I bought it about 4 year ago. Had the injection pump
rebuilt and had to fix several other leaks too. She runs real good and strong for what it is. Have to
add some oil every now and then. Starts on a bump in warm weather. Not so much at 30 degrees.
No glow plugs or heater. By the way, look at the shirt my girl has on. Massey pride ha.
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Won?t hurt to try : if you can find out what model plow it is you can go to agco parts online and look at the parts breakdown and see how the trip mechanism works
 
I just worked on one of these the other day for a guy . Your tractor is in way better shape than his though
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On that one I had that was changed to shear bolt because the latch part was busted off on all 4 bottoms I only ever used grade 2 bolts for shear bolts and that was in the 2 places they had drilled for 5/16" molts as well as the 2 plaves drilled for the 3/8" bolts. Never a problem with those grade 2 bolts. A grade 8 should bust things up more than it is before that bolt would shear. You just need to take each unit apart and clean good and make sure all parts are good and not broken and reasembly. I don't remember as has been too many years since I worked on mine to remember how to adjust the trip but I don't think it was tightening bolts. I do still have my manuals but it would take days to find them.
 
good morning massey, thanks for the pics! the old girl looks real nice, i'm like you massey I like the older iron, easy to work on, no computors :lol:, now you just need the decal kit to finish up the resto.
 
Good looking setup there. I do not know what is wrong with your plow tripping. Like others have posted take one apart and see how it works. I have different brands of plow but I do not plow much anymore. So the plow may set for years without being used. I have to usually free up the trip latches to make them work correctly. I would bet your having that same issue, stuck trip latch.

I did notice the points/shears are worn pretty blunt. They should not be too costly, $15-20 each. New shears will make the plow work a lot better.
 
Would be easy to tell what it is supposed to look like. Just take a straight edge and lay on the side and anouther on the top of the shank piece and where they come to gether is what it should look like, just not a sharp edge like a mower blade but just slightly rounded like a worn mower blade. If it is that you will be able to see where chips have broken out of. Just one weld bead smoothed off should do it.
 
That's a good looking rig to pull that plow! When I first saw your pic of the plow it looked "out of kilter" to me to be plowing well. It looks to me like your plowing a steep hillside because of the tilt of the plow to the left while it rests on the ground. I've plowed more acres than I can count with an MF 82 three bottom trip plow and I've never had to tilt it that far to the left. I have to wonder what the plowed ground looks like? In "most" cases the right lift arm of the tractor is slightly lower than the left one, yours looks like it's higher. Normally when your right tire is in the ditch/furrow the top of the plow beams are very close to level while turning the dirt. Then the top link is adjusted to keep the plow level front to back so all three are plowing the same depth. Of course the type of soil you have will vary your adjustments. Also the hand crank at the front of the plow 'fine tunes' the track of the plow, it may need a few cranks to keep the plow straight with the direction of the tractor. Like JDseller said you could probably use some new points which can keep the plow from getting a good 'bite' in the ground. I have no doubt you will get the tripping issue solved, keep at it. Should you locate an operators manual you can probably find some other things that will help in the care and feeding of it. Good Luck with it! That 275 needs hard work to keep it happy ;-)
 
I'll take a pic of the plowed ground so you can see it. I'm almost brand new to plowing. I've done just very little. The right arm is higher like you said. I'm going to try to call call agco and see if they can tell me what model it is by the numbers on it. It's kinda tempting to drill that hole to 3/8 and use it as a shear bolt hole but I know I need to do it right so I'll see what I can come up with.
 
I found it massey, a post by " ipmaynard" title of the post is 3 bottom plow trips? same plow as yours, got the model # and pics from the manual posted in the thread, all the info you need there. john.
 
(quoted from post at 21:38:38 04/15/18) I found it massey, a post by " ipmaynard" title of the post is 3 bottom plow trips? same plow as yours, got the model # and pics from the manual posted in the thread, all the info you need there. john.
soory massey go to search in modern view, type in ipmaynards name under auther, or the title of his post 3 bottom plow trips ?
 
(quoted from post at 10:46:17 04/16/18) Thank you for showing that to me.
not a problem massey, I have had a lot of help from the members here in the short time I've been here. that's what makes this site so great, the wealth of knowledge and experience here is amazing, and in a year from now some guy is going to come on here with a massey plow that keeps tripping and YOU will be the go to guy :lol: have a great day massey and I hope that helped you.
 
I was way off on the hole size on mine. I thought it was 3/16 , turns out it is 5/16 so I installed one kn each plow grade 8. To wet to see how well it will work right now. Hope to get to try by the weekend.
 
(quoted from post at 08:37:05 04/17/18) I was way off on the hole size on mine. I thought it was 3/16 , turns out it is 5/16 so I installed one kn each plow grade 8. To wet to see how well it will work right now. Hope to get to try by the weekend.
let us know how it works massey, i'm hoping the pics in ipmaynards manual where a help.
 
(quoted from post at 10:37:05 04/17/18) I was way off on the hole size on mine. I thought it was 3/16 , turns out it is 5/16 so I installed one kn each plow grade 8. To wet to see how well it will work right now. Hope to get to try by the weekend.
A grade "8" bolt for a shear bolt may make your plow break/bend before the bolt shears.
 

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