# Massey Ferguson 135 electrical problem



## winchester74 (May 22, 2017)

I am having issues with a 1965 Massey Ferguson 135. Everything was working just fine. My dad was using the tractor to plow his garden. Something happened that caused the hot wire to the starter to melt and also melted the other solenoid wires. I replaced the hot wire and the solenoid. The battery appeared to be dead so I hooked it up to jumper cables. The cables started getting extremely hot and smoke was coming off of the tractor battery's ground post. I quickly unhooked the cables. I replaced the battery with a spare on I had on hand. The tractor started and worked just fine. My dad used it the next morning with no issues. He went back that afternoon, and it wouldn't crank. He took the starter to a repair shop. When the guy checked the starter, he said fire was flying. We replaced the starter with a rebuilt one. Now it is the same issue with the jumper cables getting hot. Dad also said the kill switch was not working the first time when the wires melted. I have noticed it almost like it was trying to start with the kill switch pulled. This is not a linkage problem, I have already checked that to make sure it was correct inside the injector cover. Sorry for the lengthy post. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.


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## sixbales (May 18, 2011)

Howdy winchester74, welcome to the tractor forum.

When you refer to the "hot wire" to the starter that melted, are you referring to the battery positive cable? 

"Dad also said the kill switch was not working the first time when the wires melted." Are you saying that the engine continued to run with the kill rod pulled? The kill rod shuts off the fuel, but has no control over any electrical function. Was it cranking uncontrollably with the kill rod pulled?

My concern is that you may have a short circuit somewhere. If you have an ohmmeter, remove the positive/hot cable from the battery, and measure the resistance from the cable terminal to ground. There should be no circuit. Check it out.


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## winchester74 (May 22, 2017)

Thanks. I was referring to the battery cable. I'm not exactly sure what was happening because I wasn't there. I assume the starter kept turning though. I'll check that out to see if there is any resistance.


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## winchester74 (May 22, 2017)

Sixbales, you were correct. There was a circuit when I checked.


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## sixbales (May 18, 2011)

The big job is to find the short. 

On my Ford 3600 tractor, I found the wiring harness wore through the insulation, where the harness rests on the fuel tank. Check where the harness rests on the sheet metal, engine, any metal part.

Check with a MF dealer, they may have experience with this problem.


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## winchester74 (May 22, 2017)

Thanks again. Hopefully with a little time and effort I can find it.


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## Windy99 (9 mo ago)

winchester74 said:


> Thanks again. Hopefully with a little time and effort I can find it.


I know this is an old post but maybe this will help someone now reading these. I have a Massey 175 and my battery neg. cable was heating up and spinning my starter even if it was shut down. My auto mechanic told me I had a bad ground somewhere! I thought I had cleaned all grounds but...When I looked at the ground wire on the alternator itself it didn't look good so I took it off and degreased it and used a brass brush on drill to clean it really well and that fixed my problem! My tractor sits outside and I have learned the hard way evey so many years I will have to go thru and clean the wire connectors on ALL wiring to make sure for good connection. My fuel gauge didn't work and I cleaned the connectors and it worked just fine. I also found out my regulator was bad and my oil pressure gauge was not the right one for my tractor which I replaced. It runs a lot better now!


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