Rescued Minneapolis

ISITRUSTY

Member
Hello,

I am new to the forum, I will apologize in advance if asking for something that has been fully covered in a previous threads.

Just a little background, a guy posted a dandy little Massey 35 on Facebook for sale. A his Father in Law had passed away and the family was selling his equipment. I went to look at the tractor and made the agreement to buy it.

I was starting to write the check and the Son, said that if I liked tractors there was and old Minneapolis buried in a collapsed shed up in the woods.

There was a pile of rubble covered with Poison Ivy vines. You could see the steering wheel poking out. In what was the front of the building you could see the grill of the tractor and to the side part of a rear wheel.

I bought that tractor too.

I won't say what model. I took a lot of pictures, and I thought it might be fun to post and guess what model the tractor is. I ended up guessing wrong. Once I figure out how to post to the forum I will. Unless you think it is silly and we will skip it.

I thought it was going to be a fun adventure, but 3 hours into it, it became a lot of work.

I got the tractor unburied and finally home. I was playing around with the hand crank and to my surprise the engine was free. I turned the engine over several times by hand. I did not hear any bad noises like metal scraping.

The tractor is in much better shape than I expected. Kind of a time capsule. I took the old battery out and it had the date of October 1978 scratched into the top. I took the starter off cleaned and oiled it.

As I was testing the starter, it was spinning the engine and really just got up to speed when something with thunk and the engine is completely locked up.

I am glad that it happed at this point and not when I was actually trying to start the engine. It wasn't turning fast enough or long enough to do any/much damage.

A bunch of empty seed husks where blown out of the exhaust. I guess a mouse had made a home. I don't know if something might have gotten sucked into a cylinder. Or possibly a ring broke, even though I didn't have to for the engine over at all.

My question, where would you start? Pull the heads? I really wasn't looking for a project at the moment. I would like to get it running. If it requires a full engine rebuild, I will have to put this on hold.

Thanks for your time.

Bruce
 
Pull the heads is a good place to
start. Sounds like something lodged in
a cylinder perhaps. A number of issues
come to mind but pulling heads lets
you check most of them.
 
It may have water in one or more cylinders, if a cylinder has water in it
and comes up on the compression stroke it will hydra-lock. Pull the plugs
first and see if that helps. Also sometimes mice can get past the valves
and fill a cylinder.
 
(quoted from post at 15:00:35 06/06/17) Hello,

I am new to the forum, I will apologize in advance if asking for something that has been fully covered in a previous threads.

Just a little background, a guy posted a dandy little Massey 35 on Facebook for sale. A his Father in Law had passed away and the family was selling his equipment. I went to look at the tractor and made the agreement to buy it.

I was starting to write the check and the Son, said that if I liked tractors there was and old Minneapolis buried in a collapsed shed up in the woods.

There was a pile of rubble covered with Poison Ivy vines. You could see the steering wheel poking out. In what was the front of the building you could see the grill of the tractor and to the side part of a rear wheel.

I bought that tractor too.

I won't say what model. I took a lot of pictures, and I thought it might be fun to post and guess what model the tractor is. I ended up guessing wrong. Once I figure out how to post to the forum I will. Unless you think it is silly and we will skip it.

I thought it was going to be a fun adventure, but 3 hours into it, it became a lot of work.

I got the tractor unburied and finally home. I was playing around with the hand crank and to my surprise the engine was free. I turned the engine over several times by hand. I did not hear any bad noises like metal scraping.

The tractor is in much better shape than I expected. Kind of a time capsule. I took the old battery out and it had the date of October 1978 scratched into the top. I took the starter off cleaned and oiled it.

As I was testing the starter, it was spinning the engine and really just got up to speed when something with thunk and the engine is completely locked up.

I am glad that it happed at this point and not when I was actually trying to start the engine. It wasn't turning fast enough or long enough to do any/much damage.

A bunch of empty seed husks where blown out of the exhaust. I guess a mouse had made a home. I don't know if something might have gotten sucked into a cylinder. Or possibly a ring broke, even though I didn't have to for the engine over at all.

My question, where would you start? Pull the heads? I really wasn't looking for a project at the moment. I would like to get it running. If it requires a full engine rebuild, I will have to put this on hold.

Thanks for your time.

Bruce
 
(quoted from post at 15:00:35 06/06/17) Hello,

I am new to the forum, I will apologize in advance if asking for something that has been fully covered in a previous threads.

Just a little background, a guy posted a dandy little Massey 35 on Facebook for sale. A his Father in Law had passed away and the family was selling his equipment. I went to look at the tractor and made the agreement to buy it.

I was starting to write the check and the Son, said that if I liked tractors there was and old Minneapolis buried in a collapsed shed up in the woods.

There was a pile of rubble covered with Poison Ivy vines. You could see the steering wheel poking out. In what was the front of the building you could see the grill of the tractor and to the side part of a rear wheel.

I bought that tractor too.

I won't say what model. I took a lot of pictures, and I thought it might be fun to post and guess what model the tractor is. I ended up guessing wrong. Once I figure out how to post to the forum I will. Unless you think it is silly and we will skip it.

I thought it was going to be a fun adventure, but 3 hours into it, it became a lot of work.

I got the tractor unburied and finally home. I was playing around with the hand crank and to my surprise the engine was free. I turned the engine over several times by hand. I did not hear any bad noises like metal scraping.

The tractor is in much better shape than I expected. Kind of a time capsule. I took the old battery out and it had the date of October 1978 scratched into the top. I took the starter off cleaned and oiled it.

As I was testing the starter, it was spinning the engine and really just got up to speed when something with thunk and the engine is completely locked up.

I am glad that it happed at this point and not when I was actually trying to start the engine. It wasn't turning fast enough or long enough to do any/much damage.

A bunch of empty seed husks where blown out of the exhaust. I guess a mouse had made a home. I don't know if something might have gotten sucked into a cylinder. Or possibly a ring broke, even though I didn't have to for the engine over at all.

My question, where would you start? Pull the heads? I really wasn't looking for a project at the moment. I would like to get it running. If it requires a full engine rebuild, I will have to put this on hold.

Thanks for your time.

Bruce
 

Yeah, post some pics!! We'll guess!!

A mechanic friend one time was talking about getting called out to start a V-12 irrigation engine that was "locked down". The farmer said he started to start it, and then it locked.

After much messing around and then pulling the heads, they found a mouse had somehow filled a cylinder or two with seeds for the winter...

I'd pull the plugs, oil the cylinders down good and see if you can see anything telling (like a rusted end of a spark plug) and then try to roll it over (maybe backwards first) and see what happens.

I had a brand new Chevy 454 "lock up" one time after running a few days, and then being off a few days. I didn't know what could cause that, so I blew some PB Blaster in each cylinder - and tried it again
- and it took off like a scalded cat and never gave me any more problems...



Howard
 
Pull the plugs. If you can turn the engine backwards, see if it moves. Use compressed air and try to blow any debris from the cylinders. Squirt some oil in each bore and gently try to move the motor in the correct direction. Use your hand crank if your tractor has one.
See if the tag is still in place, so we know what you are fiddling with.
And of course, pictures would be great.
 
Sorry for the duplicate posts. I was trying to post pictures. I had to resize them, so I am not sure what you will be able to see once posted. This first 3 are basically all that I could see of the tractor when I bought it.

Thank you for the replies. I thought the starter was the problem as well. That one bolt holding it in place made it quick and easy to find out the starter wasn't the issue.

The guys who designed that tractor were thinking of the men who had to work on it out in the field.
 
If you blew junk out of the exhaust, it's a good bet a mouse has deposited something in the cyl that the exhaust valve was open to. Before you squirt any oil in the cyl and make every thing all gooey, do like Mr Precision said, take out the plugs and blow compressed air in the spark plug hole. Keep your face back away you might be surprised what comes flying out of there. i have seen this many times that mice have filled a cyl with seeds shells you name it. The reason it turned free at first could be because what ever is in there was in the center of the piston and it went up and down in the cavity of the head where the valves are located. once it spun fast and things started moving a chunk of some thing moved to the side and stopped the rotation as it locked between the piston and the head. GOOD LUCK
MMDEL
 
Looks like the pictures will post for me now. These three pictures are basically all I could see of the tractor.
a162231.jpg

a162232.jpg

a162233.jpg
 
I am not familiar with MM tractors. I originally thought I had bought an Model R. But discovered that it is a Z. You will have to tell me which version. Thanks for the suggestion to look for the Data plate. It was there but just hanging on by a whisker on one corner. I went ahead and pulled it off so I wouldn't lose it. What is my best option to find the serial number? The plate is like crumbly aluminum foil. I thought about putting it in vinegar, but I afraid it will completely dissolve. If you hold it right you can barely make out the engraving

Once I got the tractor uncovered, I discovered that the right rear wheel had almost completely rusted away. I had a hard time getting the tractor moved. I have some heavy bridge timbers which I used to make a slide load the tractor. I jacked the back of the tractor up, then put one of the timbers under the rear axel and over the flat belt pulley. The timber acted like a sled runner. Almost got away from me once.
a162260.jpg

a162261.jpg

a162262.jpg

a162263.jpg

a162264.jpg

a162265.jpg
 
I hadn't heard of Virginia Creeper. I looked it up, I see it has 5 leaves, poison ivy has 3. It makes sense. I treated it like it was poison ivy and I thought I came out pretty good with only a Ivy rash on one arm. Thanks for pointing that out.
 

Must be an R from late 40's to early 50's. My 1950 Z looks same as the 3rd picture, however the fenders in the pix appear to be a little lower in height than my Z, and the Z gas tank filler cap is centered on the top rather than on the right corner as shown.
Thanks, R
 
Now that we know it is a 206 engine instead of a U or G. I'l have to revise my comment. On that engine there would not be a cavity in the center for the valve area. The most open area is on the right side of the engine. also where the valves work horizontally. the left side of the compression chamber would be where the piston is tight to the block. Another thing I meant to mention is a tool that is great to examine something like that without the time and expense of tearing things apart, and then finding out it was unnecessary, is a bore-scope. I have wanted one for years, but they were very expensive.But now you can buy one on Amazon that plugs into your smartphone for $20-$30 and I am amazed at the clarity of the picture you get of what you are looking at.
MMDEL
 
You do indeed do have a diamond in the rough. It appears to be a ZA. Since the engine was free at first, and then locked up, I would agree with the theory that mice have stuffed the thing full of seeds. The good news is that it is easy to pull the head and clean everything out. If you are careful, you might even be able to reuse the head gasket.

After all this time, chances are that the crankcase has water and dirt in it, and the manifolds are probably home to spiders and mud-dobbers.

I would drain the crankcase, pull the head and the manifolds, and clean everything out. A few new gaskets and I bet she will run.
 
Thanks to All for the replies and good advice. I took the plugs out and blew compressed air into each cylinder. It looks like the number 2 cylinder has the trouble. The engine is still stuck, but I have a plan where to start.

I was looking at the tractor last night and had to laugh. I can only speak for myself, but it seems when you take on a project and plan it out generally you will end up where you expected. As you progress through the project you will have things that work out and things that will cause you trouble. Unless you have bad luck, connecting the dots of the highs and lows the progression will be a gently wavy line.

So far the progress line on this tractor looks like saw teeth. The plan was to uncover the rear of the MM and pull it out backwards from under the building and vines. That all went according to plan, but the Massey couldn't budge the MM since it was on its belly. I had to completely uncover the MM (low). One of the family members came by to look at my progress and said, you know Dad bought a rear wheel and good tire but just never put it on the MM. We looked in one of the out buildings and found it (high). Got the tractor home and found the engine free (high). Starter is spinning the engine and I am thinking to myself the I might get it running today ( really high). Engine locks up (really low). I put the wheel on the tractor and the tire seems to hold air, at least one good tire (high). I pulled the MM from the where I unloaded it to my shop 300/400 feet and the tire comes apart. So I am where I though I would be when I started. An old tractor with 4 bad tires and a stuck engine. It is not the destination, but the journey. Have a great Weekend!
 
Great pictures:

We never see growth like that over the YOUNG LADY, here in North Western Alberta......USA?

Bob...
 
I took the manifold and head off this weekend. The manifold was completely full of empty nut and seed shells. There was a little bit of trash in the cylinders, but not much to speak of. You could see where the pistons had rubbed when I spun the engine. But there were no scoring of the cylinders. I guess I should have squirted some oil in the cylinders before I messed with the starter. I am soaking the pistons with PB Blaster now. Hopefully that will free things up.
 
It looks to be a late 1950 to 1952 ZAU. In late 1950 they changed the
headlights from the large 7" flat lens ones to a 5 3/4" one. They were still
reflector type lights. When the ZBs came out they went to sealed beams. Other
changes on the ZAs were: pressurized radiator, flote-ride seat, which you have.
The brake pedals were made higher (about 3") and the throttle lever rod was
mounted on the outside / left of the steering support post.
 

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