What is this Ferguson and how do I tune it?!

I do know it was made in England. It's got a Lucas starter, an English Zenith carb, and a radiator from the "Coventry Radiator & Presswork CO., Ltd.".

The other things I can tell you are:
The hood and fenders are red, (and it's original paint on the insides), and everything else is grey.
The engine is a overhead valve type and has no markings except S97847E stamped on the left-hand side between the coil and the oil filler. The oil filler cap has various names of oils on it.
The oil filter adaptor on the left of the motor says Tecalemit.
The radiator has a plate on it that says FZ4194.
In front of the gear oil dipstick, on the right-hand side under the seat, are cast the numbers 27110 with a 3 beneath that.
The rear axle has 12LH on one side and 53RH on the other.

If anyone can compare these details with what's on their Ferguson, that will help narrow things down a bit for me.

I also need tune-up specs and part numbers for the tune-up parts. And I REALLY need to know where the timing marks are. I've looked EVERYWHERE!

ANY help from ANYONE will really be appreciated.

Thanks a lot,
Dave

I live in England and have an English built TEA 20 and can compare yours with mine.

First, could you describe the dashboard and instruments in detail, to help decide between a TE 20 type and a TE35 type.

eg is there an air-intake grill on the RHS of the dashboard, or does the air go straight into the air-filter under the hood.

Is the exhaust pipe vertical,like most tractors; or horizontal and near your feet.

For now lets assume it is some model of a TE20. some

Since it has a carb. it's not a diesel, which eliminates quite a few models. And I assume it's not a special Vineyard model, which eliminates a few more. First question - does it run on petrol (gasoline) only or petrol and TVO (like kerosene), i.e. does it have a divided fuel tank and 2 feeds to a changeover tap.

Next question, if you look at the cylinder head gasket - does it have just one gasket, or are there 2 gaskets with a narrow metal spacer between ( which indicates that the engine was originally petrol only but has had the TVO Conversion kit. ) This will narrow down the models a bit more. I have a few Ferguson magazines, and hope to be able to identify the exact model, and possibly the year it was built.

I'm getting to be pretty sure this is a TEA-20.

The dash is very simple, just oil pressure and starter switch on the left and temperature on the right. The air intake is an oil-bath air cleaner under the bonnet.

The exhaust goes straight down, and then turns and runs horizontally under the right-hand footrest and running board, finishing under the rear axle.

It runs on petrol and doesn't have the divided fuel tank. There's just a single head gasket, so yes, it seems to originally have been a petrol model.

Thanks again,
Dave

Your tractor does sound like a TEA-20, and very like my TEA-20 (1948) in most respects. All 'normal' petrol-only tractors are TEAs. Early TEA tractors did not have the 'thru-the dashboard' air intake, with a grill and a cowl on the dash. Only what the instruction book calls 'later' tractors have that. The instruments and layout sound identical to mine, so its not an MF35, even though it is red. It should be grey all over.

Both Continental and Standard engines used a horizontal exhaust, but I'm puzzled by that since I thought only very early tractors had a horizontal exhaust, and my 1948 tractor has a vertical exhaust, and engine number S6860E which is a lot lower than S97847E.
Possibly one of them no longer has the original type of exhaust. ( Mine has been converted from petrol-only to run on TVO and petrol, so maybe someone also altered the exhaust.)

TEAs were made from 1947 to 1956.

They had engines with 80 mm bore and 1879 cc capacity; up to tractor serial number 172501, made early during 1951, when they changed to 85mm bore and 2088 cc..

TEA-20 means a Standard petrol engine.

TE's with Continental Z-120 petrol engines were just called TE-20, (or TEB-20 for the Narrow tractor.)

You can tell if its a Continental engine because the oil filler is at the front of the engine, not towards the rear.

All the UK built tractors are TE-something, the US built ones are TO-something.

* Ignition Timing Marks:*

Quoting from a book by Tracprez: -
Continental engines (TE20) before tractor serial 36152 have a line on the crankshaft pulley, which lines up with a mark on the timing gear cover, at TDC.
If there is no mark on crankshaft pulley, remove the starter motor and find two punch marks on flywheel housing in starter orifice, these will mate with 2 marks on flywheel at TDC. After s/n 36151 there is a flywheel inspection cover on the ignition side of the engine, when cover is removed a TDC mark and single degree line can be lined up against a pointer exposed in the inspection hole; note inlet valve opens, ie tappet clearance is taken up, at TDC.

You say it's hard to find the Timing Marks. I'm not surprised !!.

* Carburettor Tuning *

From my Ferguson factory instruction book. : -

The TEA-20s have 4 variants of Zenith carb.

If your Zenith has 24 T 2 marked on it clearly, then it's not a Zenith 28G.

The 24T2 has 3 kinds of Main Jet adusting screw, (this is the screw near the block, NOT the carb drain, which also has a cross-bar type screw.) and different settings.

Here they all are:

(For petrol)

24 T2 with cross-bar type of main jet adjuster : main jet 2.5 turns open, 24 T2 with 9/16ths round knob, : main jet 2.5 turns open, (same)
24 T2 with 3/4inch round knob with a peg or hole or rivet head in the face: main jet 1 turn open

28 G: main jet 1.25 turns open.

The Slow Running jet has a screw near the top of the carb. The slow running jet for the 24T2 should be 1 turn open,
for the 28G its 1 to 1.5 turns open.

The settings are almost the same for TVO, and can be varied anyway to suit fuel, climate, workload, etc.

Hope this helps.

By the way, are you in the US, or Aus, or NZ. ?

John.

Thanks very much. You're information has been really, really helpful.

I scraped some paint off, and found that the mudguards and bonnet have grey underneath the red on the insides, but just red paint on the outsides. Who knows what happened, but this may well have been grey all over, originally.

There's a bracket on the right side of the bellhousing, hear the radius arm, that's for the exhaust system, so the exhaust may well have originally been horizontal like it is now.

I did eventually find the timing mark, (though it's more of a timing hole). On the flat, forward-facing part of the engine block right underneath the starter, there's a hole you stick a small screwdriver through. I couldn't find it at first because of all the dirt and paint, naturally. As you turn the engine over, the screwdriver will find the corresponding hole in the flywheel and pop in. That is, if you're turning the engine slow enough--- by hand and not with the starter--- not to shear the screwdriver! Incidentally, I've found that a Land-Rover starting handle fits a Ferguson, (with the Standrd motor, anyhow). It just needs a bit of shortening.

Thanks again for all your help, which has made a real difference in figuring out what on earth this old thing is. Great tractors, aren't they?

All the best,
Dave

Thanks for the tip about he starting handle : I need one, and will try a LandRover handle.

Cheers

John

The dash sounds as if it is the same as mine, which is a 1948 TEA, - the grill and cowl on the dash for the air intake came along later.

I'm a bit puzzled about the horizontal exhaust, because I thought that only very early tractors (both Standard engine and Continental engine ) had a horiz exhaust, yet your engine number is much higher than mine.

I ll look through my Ferguson magazines and manuals over the week end.

I have a lot of info about Zenith carbs and how to adjust them .

More next week,

cheers

John

For timing, you can find a small hole over the starter (maybe hard to find with the dirt) in which you can place a screwdriver and turn by hand the engine untill the screwdriver enter in the hole found in the flywheel. By removing the #1 plug you will be able to confirm this by the compression on the piston #1. You got at the time the #1 position. If you want to see the marks corrrectly, remove the starter (it's the easiest way to be sure of the position for #1).

I hope this help.