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It is important to use the correct fuel in Ferguson tractors that are running on Petrol, lamp oil or TVO, otherwise engine damage may occur. These great little tractors are not always in the ownership of people who have grown up with them, so what seems like an obvious question to some people is important to others.

Hi, GREAT SITE,

considering that today my FE 35 was delivered. Problem is I don’t know which hole to fill with petrol or VO. Come to think of it, what is VO?{City bloke} I changed the plugs, cleaned the carb and with a bit of splutter it’s great. It has less than 4000 hrs and as far as I can see is origional, but is red and grey.

I would also like to know if it has a hydraulic pump and if so, can it be used to drive any other implement?

Hi there,

The smaller tank was originally used for petrol, just for starting and warming the engine. Once the operating temperature (as indicated by the temperature guage) is reached then you can change over to VO. VO was
considerably cheaper than petrol and the tractor would then be able to run on VO from the larger tank all day.

You can mix VO (tractor vaporising oil) yourself

Only thing to make sure of is to check that it is a VO engine and not a lamp oil engine. If you put lamp oil in a VO engine or vice-versa it will cause you problems.

Presumably the tractor has 2 levers on the right hand side of the seat and lift arms on the back of the tractor? If so, then it has a hydraulic pump and system. This can be used to tip trailers, lift a front loader or operate other hydraulic rams. The pump is a low capacity pump (litres/min) compared to a modern tractor and so can only be used to power very small hydraulic motors – not really a good application for these tractors.

If you need something powering with a large capacity hydraulic motor (e.g. hedge cutter) then I would suggest powering an external hydraulic pump/motor system from the pto. (the pto. is the power take off shaft that protrudes from the back of the tractor!)

Hope that gives you some useful information.

VTE

Comments……1
Richard Barrowclough says:

April 24th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I’ve got a 1957 FE-35, which I’ve used regularly on the farm over the last 10 years. Sadly, the fuel tank is now leaking, and I know welding it is difficult and can be dangerous.Do you know where I can find a replacement ? I’ve tried and failed so far. I’m fitting a T-20 Petrol/TVO tank,which more or less fits, for the time being ; but would like the genuine article if poss. Thanks.

2
Vintage Tractor Engineer says:

April 29th, 2008 at 3:47 am
Hi Richard,

I’ve had a search for the fuel tank, but cannot find anyone who stocks the tank. The only thing I can think of is to try a breakers. I know that Ron Greet Tractor Spares…

http://www.home2.btconnect.com/rongreet/

…are breaking 35’s. He is usually very helpful.

If you have to weld the tank then the thing to do is to drain as much of the fuel as possible. Then slowly fill the tank with water until it overflows out of the filler. Any fuel will float up on top of the water and be expelled from the tank. It should then be safe to weld (hopefully!).

Sorry I couldn’t help you source a new tank. If you find anyone who stocks them would you please let email me, as I would be interested to know.

Regards,

Steve