It’s impossible to imagine rural life without the Massey Ferguson 135. For livestock, arable or mixed farms, there was always plenty of work for Banner Lane’s most famous tractor of the 1960s and ‘70s.
The MF 135 may have been the smallest Coventry-built ‘Red Giant’, but it was extremely versatile; a willing workhorse capable of much more than its compact dimensions might suggest. At its heart was the Perkins AD3.152, three-cylinder diesel engine, a descendant of the versatile P3 and P3.144 which had been used as an approved conversion, breathing new life into tired petrol and TVO versions of the TE-20 ‘grey’ Ferguson.
Since Massey Ferguson had acquired F Perkins of Peterborough in 1959, the AD3.152 had become the standard power unit for the 37hp MF 35 and, in 1962, its 44.5hp successor, the MF 35X. So, with a proven record for performance and reliability, it was the obvious choice to power the MF 135. But what made this such a well-respected engine? After all, the market competitors were offering their own compact tractors with similar power outputs.
Sound foundations
With a forged steel crankshaft running in four main bearings, the engine is based on sound foundations. The camshaft and injection pump are gear-driven, eliminating the problem of ‘timing scatter’, which blighted chain-driven engines as the chain stretched over time. Direct injection ensured that starting issues – even in cold conditions – were greatly reduced, and also allowed for an efficient combustion chamber design with a reduced surface-area-to-volume
