My current question has to do with the wording of the aluminum plate containing starting instructions on the FE35. The right hand quadrant of the plate is unreadable, and I would really like to know what it says. If anyone would care to photograph one and email it to [email protected] or type in the text and post it, I'd appreciate it.Mark mentions the thermothingie which preheats a wire on this model. I'm pretty sure it is in place, but apart from cranking the engine I don't know how to activate it. Hence the need for the information on the plate. The manuals are ordered from the dealer and should arrive by snail-mail sometime this fall. The model number of the MF35 Diesel is FE-35 and the serial number is SNM 239540, and the plate says it was built in Coventry, England. The tranny, BTW, does not hold ten gallons of fluid. It's 32 litres, a bemused dealer told me after hearing my account of pouring two, 20 litre drums into the hole. That amount does not quite come out the dip stick hole. Another dealer had told me that the crankcase takes 10 litres of oil. Wrong again. That overfilled it. Maybe it's something about Imperial gallons, U.S. gallons and litres getting all mixed up, or maybe I need a new dealer. The same dealer insists that there is only one cartridge oil filter for these models, but the one that I put back into it was much narrower down the middle than the replacement. It fitted as it should around the central bolt, while the replacement seemed to flap around. The replacement had a metal housing punched to let oil through, while the original is of expanded mesh. Anybody know about this? Oh yeah, MF documents -- I read them myself -- suggest GL4 as the tranny fluid of choice for all Fergusons, including the TE-20 series.
| 
