(The following  is taken from an article in Farmer & Stockbreeder magazine - 1969)

 Massey Ferguson Four Wheel Drive

Conversions for Massey-Ferguson 178, 165 and 135 tractors are offered by Four Wheel Traction Ltd of 15, North Audley Street, London, W.1.  Their kits are suitable for fitting by a competent farm mechanic with an assistant, or by a dealer. The work, they say, should take about a day.

Kits with equal-sized wheels, front and rear, are available for the MF 165 at £1,200 and the makers are at present developing a similar system for the MF 178.

The conversion now available for the MF 178, whether in standard trim or with Multi-Power, has wheels smaller than the standard rear units. There are similar small-front-wheel conversions for two other models.

All the company's kits come in two types, one taking its drive from the pto shaft, the other (and more popular) including a "sandwich" gearbox mounted in between the main transmission and gearbox housings.

Prices for the two kits, pto-type first, are MF 178 - £630 and £725; MR 165 £630 and £720 and MF 135 - £580 and £640. Recommended fitting charges are £18 and £25.

All prices include deliver to England and Wales. For Scotland and N. Ireland there are delivery charges of £10 and £12 respectively.

The pto-type kit comprises a transfer gearbox for fitting over the tractor pto, providing drive from the ground speed pto to the front wheels, also providing a replacement pto at the rear.

Drive from the transfer box is taken to the front axle by universally jointed drive shaft.  The pto is positioned 8in rearwards from its original point and engine-speed pto is available only with the front-wheel-drive disengaged.  Ground speed pto is available with or without front-wheel-drive engagement.

The sandwich gearbox version, which is provided with a disconnect lever, uses a similar but shorter drive shaft to drive the same front axle assembly.  Front wheels are in all cases manually adjustable from 60 - 72in track in 4in steps.

A torque-limiting clutch is available for 178 and 165 models at £45 extra.

Supplied with the kit is a set of fitting instructions and an illustrated parts book. There are 22 jobs detailed in the instructions, starting with draining the gearbox oil, continuing with details of the disconnection and refitting of the steering mechanism, brakes, axles, etc., to topping up the front axle oil level.

In standard trim, the converted MF 178 has 53 per cent of its weight on the front axle, 47 per cent on the rear.  The addition of front-wheel weights can increase the weight, to improve traction, by up to 780lb.

     All the conversion parts are bought with their own 12-month warranty.  Massey-Ferguson say         that any claim made on a new tractor fitted with a conversion in the first 12 months of its life         would be treated "on merit" rather than under the normal MF guarantee.     

***********************

Click Here for the diagram that accompanied the article.