Leyland 154

The Leyland 154 at Richies as we began to load.

History of the Nuffield 4/25 and Leyland 154
(Excerpted from Anthony West article on Yesterday's Tractors)

December 1st, 1965 saw "MINI" mechanization day. Nuffield tractors introduced their new "Mini" following five years of research and experimentation. The tractor was not well received, it was introduced at a time when tractors were getting larger and in fact the ten was by now classed as small. The Mini measured a mere 8ft 2.25 inches long and 3ft. 8.5 inches from the ground to the bonnet top, it weighed in at 2,098 lbs. A large amount of the development was done by "Harry Ferguson Research" of Coventry (this may have accounted for the great similarity with the early T.E 20 of the 50's). It was offered with either a BMC 950cc petrol or diesel engine and put out a mere 15 bhp.

The gearbox was a three reverse nine forward gears, via a high/ medium/ low/ reverse gear lever and a 1st 2nd 3rd gear lever which had a safety start feature. Due to poor sales, by November 1968 the BMC Mini was changed. A larger engine (BMC 1.5L) was added giving an extra 10 bhp at 2,000 rpm and the name was changed. The new Mini became known as the Nuffield 4/24, it became distinguishable by the poppy orange coach work with white wheels.

The B.M.C (British Motor Company) had been bought out by "British Leyland" by 1968, but at the Royal Show, Leyland promised to keep the "Nuffield Tractor" line and disclosed plans to consolidate and expand it. ... In November 1969, new machines were unveiled, however the Nuffield name along with the poppy orange and white livery had been dropped. The name had changed too, the tractors were now labeled "Leyland" (Nuffield) although the Nuffield was relegated to being a small sticker above the model number. Even this was to disappear the following year.

The Leyland 154, was now painted 2 tone blue with silver wheels, the engine gearbox and hydraulics were dark blue, whilst the bonnet and mudguards were light blue. ... The Leyland 154 was the same as the Nuffield 4/25 apart from the change in color and three bars added to the front grill. In 1969 the retail price of the 154 De-lux was £680.

History of this Leyland 154 project
We first saw a Leyland 154 tractor sitting in front of the Sears catalog store in Louisa, Virginia, in 1983. We pulled over to look at it, and immediately noticed that it had a 1622 cc BMC gasoline engine in it, very similar to the 1622 engines in the last years of MGA sports car production, which ended in 1962. After the BMC-Leyland merger in the last 1960s, we had seen Triumph Spitfire pollution controlled engines replacing MG engines in the MG midget, presumably to save development cost. In the Leyland 154, we saw the just opposite, that is, a nice running MG non-pollution controlled engine, in a Leyland product. We tried to buy the machine on the spot, but it was not for sale. The tractor stuck in our mind though, and we said that someday, we'd drive a Leyland 154 onto the show field at a MG sports car meet.

July, 2007
In the summer of 2007, we were looking for the next project to work on for the winter of 2007-2008, and we remembered the Leyland tractor we had seen 24 years earlier. We drove down to Louisa, but found that the Sears store had gone out of business, and the current occupants of the building had no knowledge of the tractor. We spent several weeks searching eBay, and various tractor sales sites on the web. We got lucky near the end of July, when we found one for sale at Richies in Wisconsin. We immediately headed up to Wisconsin with the Ranger and the ministock trailer. We made it to the Motel 6 in Janesville, Wisconsin, the first night. The next day, we drove up to Barneveld to look at the tractor. We bought it on the spot, and then loaded it on the ministock trailer. We had a pretty good idea about the weight of the tractor because we had found this spec sheet. With the weight of the tractor at 2220 pounds, and the ministock trailer weighing around 700 pounds empty, we were just under our maximum comfort weight of 3,000 pounds. However, at 25 PSI, the trailer tires were almost flat. We also had to pull the tractor to the very front of the trailer to get any tongue weight which was puzzling.

The Leyland 154 on the ministock trailer out front of Ritchies.

Before leaving Ritchies, we increased the air pressure to 50 PSI, then drove over to the feed store nearby and weighed the rig on the grain scale. The loaded trailer weighed 3,500 pounds. We assumed that the spec sheet was in error, and for a while, we considered giving up and hiring a transport company to move the tractor home. Instead, we decided to make a ten mile test run over to the hardware store in Mt. Horeb. That trip seemed ok. We bought more tie down chains at Mt. Horeb, and then started for home with a self-imposed maximum speed of 50 mph. The trailer tires were good for 4,000 pounds of weight, but our main concern was wheel bearing failure, and so we stopped every 30 miles on the way home to check for heat in the bearings. A normal 15 hour drive became a 25 hour drive with the slow speed and frequent stops. We made it home ok with no problems, unloaded the tractor and drove it into the shop.

August, 2007
The tractor was in good running condition, and after checking it over, we had a pretty small list of things to fix. Our short term goal was to clean it up, fix everything that wasn't working, straighten the grill and front grill surround, and get the headlights pointed in the right direction. After that, we planned to start replacing all the non-original parts that had been installed on the tractor during the previous 35 years of maintenance, with Leyland original parts.

We first replaced the non-factory ignition coil with a proper Lucas one. Our next job was to get all the dashboard instruments, the lights, and the horn working as new. We traced the horn problem to a wire pulled out of its connector behind the dash. The problem with the fuel gauge was similar. The wire to the dashboard voltage regulator was out of its connector and just dangling behind the dashboard. A wire to the non-standard electric fuel pump was attached to the ignition switch in its place. We remade the connector to the fuel gauge, and the gauge started working properly. The tractometer was full of water, and the drive cable was rusted and broken, so we sent the tractometer instrument to Nisonger Corporation for repair, and ordered a new cable from Speedograph Richfield Ltd.. The rear plow light wasn't working, but the bulb tested good. We had to remove the seat and fuel tank to find the problem. The wire to the plow light was plugged into the wrong Lucas barrel connector under the seat. Once we plugged it into right connector, the plow light worked correctly. Both filaments in one headlight bulb were burned out, and one filament in the other was burned out, and neither were wired up. We soldered new Lucas bullet end connectors on all the headlight wires, and installed new barrel connectors, and searched the web for new headlight bulbs. After several hours of study, we were beginning to think we were out of luck, as we couldn't find a source for the bulbs. Finally, we got lucky and we found that the bulb type was called British Pre-Focused or BPF, but they were apparently scarce in the U.S. After further study, the bulb looked familiar and so we took apart the headlight of our 1971 Triumph Tiger motorcycle, and found the bulb to be the same. That made things easy. We drove over to Meyers Cycle Engineering in Kensington, and bought a couple of new headlight bulbs. We installed the new headlight bulbs, and now all the lights, instruments (except for the tractometer), and the horn all worked as new.

We removed the hood and disassembled it into its four major components so we could straighten the grill surround.

We removed the hood to straighten the grill surround.

We reassembled the hood after straightening the grill surround, and re-aiming the headlights.

Next, we carefully removed the foam from the seat cushion and then replaced the broken snaps on it. We then washed both the foam and vinyl with a solution of water and bleach, and then treated the vinyl with protectant. After the foam and vinyl were dry, we re-assembled the seat cushions and installed them on the tractor.

After working on the vinyl seat cushions, they are now as good as new.

We also performed routine maintenance on the tractor, including greasing all the grease points. While checking the air pressures in the tires, we found that the rear tires were full of a water and calcium chloride solution. As tractor rookies, we didn't know that water ballasting was a common practice to increase traction in a light tractor. We removed the water in the rear tires, and replace it with air. We finally had our answer as to why the tractor weighed so much on the trip home. We were carrying over 500 pounds of water on the rear bumper of the trailer!

We have so far been unable to find an original mechanical fuel pump. The service manual specifies that the pump was an AC Type YE pump, with a glass bowl and threaded inlet and outlet ports. While we continue to look for a pump, we were able to buy a new AC pump that was original equipment on the Morris Marina 1800 sedan. The pump didn't come with its proper spacer, so we built a spacer out of thick aluminum plate. We removed and threw away the electric fuel pump that a previous owner had installed and installed the Marina pump.

A previous owner had replace the original mechanical fuel pump with this
electric one mounted on a homemade bracket.

We cut a new fuel pump spacer out of thick aluminum plate.

The Morris Marina pump after installation. It works great, but we are still
looking for an original pump.

We removed the lower radiator hose that had been cut in half to install a water heater for winter use in Wisconsin. We replaced it with the correct lower hose, and proper British hose clamps.

We removed the lower radiator hose and the water heater.

We installed a new lower hose with correct British hose clamps.

The intake manifold drain tube was missing all together, and the drain was plugged with a bolt and nut. We fabricated a new manifold drain tube out of brass stock and plated steel tubing.

We turned a piece of brass stock on the Logan lathe to make
the top piece for the manifold drain.

After initial cleanup, we decided to touch up the paint the tractor, starting with the dark blue and then the silver. We will probably leave the light blue tinwork alone, at least for now. By examining the parts, it looks like the factory painted much of the tractor after it was assembled. For example, the metal hydraulic lines have blue paint on them and after study, we can see that they were painted while in place on the tractor. The same was true for much of the wiring and other hoses and fittings. The brake pedals and brake rods also appear to have been painted after assembly. Some of the rubber parts don't have paint on them. They could have been replaced during maintenance, or the paint simply flaked off, or they never had paint on them. Our bet is that they were probably painted. We could simply spray everything under the hood Leyland dark blue and call that correct, but that seems too gross. We instead decided to paint all the ferrous metal parts Leyland dark blue, and leave the rest of the parts natural for the most part. Rather than completely disassemble the tractor for cleaning and painting, we decided to do it in sections. That way, we don't run as much risk of getting it all apart and then losing interest, and also, doing it that way makes it easier for us to remember where all the small parts go. We started by removing all the accessories on the right side of the engine and all the right side linkages and pedals. After painting the right side of the machine, we reassembled all the parts and accessories on the right side, and then removed everything on the left side, painted the left side, and then re-assembled the left side.

The right side of the engine after painting. The paint color match to the hydraulic oil tank and rocker arm cover is perfect, but the shine on the new paint makes it seem different. That should correct itself in time.

We painted the pedals piece by piece, so we could keep the paint off the threads of the adjusting mechanisms.

We stripped all the accessories off the left side of the engine for painting.

At the end of the month, a FedEx box arrived from Nisonger Corporation with our rebuilt tractometer gauge. They did an amazing job, restoring a rusty mess of a gauge into a perfectly working instrument. We installed it in the dash. A number of parts also arrived from Wirksworth Tractors, including a new grill, and an original choke cable. We installed the choke cable and the tractometer, completing the cleanup and restoration of the dashboard.

The tractometer now looks great and works perfectly after being rebuilt at Nisonger!

September, 2007
We continued to paint the rest of the dark blue through the end of the month. After the engine, steering column, and transmission were painted, we painted the front axle and suspension. Dupont Variprime primer was used on the metal parts, between stripping and painting.

Dupont Variprime primer was used on the metal parts, between stripping and painting.

We painted the front axle and steering links Leyland dark blue, and then removed the fuel tank, seat,the rear fenders, and then the drawbar and 3-point linkage. We again used Dupont Variprime primer on the bare metal parts, and then Chroma One for the dark blue.

Dupont Variprime primer was also used on the back, between stripping and painting.

The rear in dark blue Chroma One.

We disassembled the rear wheels, and then painted the front and rear wheels with silver Dupont Chroma One.

The rear wheels were disassembled for painting.

We completed painting all the dark blue (cast iron parts), silver (wheels), and black (battery tray) except for the rods and links for the three-point hitch and the drawbar assembly. We did finish painting the pick-up hook accessory. Our next job is to paint the drawbar and hitch parts.

The drawbar and three-point hitch parts are layed out for cleanup and painting.

After painting the accessory parts, we layed them out on poster board so we could photograph them:

The three point hitch accessory is made up of many parts. Not shown in the photo are the backing plates for the lower link mounts. They are in the lower front right corner of the previous photo.

The draw bar accessory is used to pull a cart or other attachment with no tongue weight.

The lift hook after painting. This accessory is used in place of the drawbar when pulling a single axle trailer.

After painting the accessories, we assembled the three-point hitch, and installed the drawbar. That completed the restoration of the Leyland 154. We drove the tractor outside and around the yard and took a few beauty shots.

After cleanup and reassembly, this is our front beauty shot, showing the new grill from Wirksworth Tractors.

The tractor looks great from the side as well!

The rear of the tractor after installation of the three point hitch and drawbar assembly.

Under the hood, left side.

Under the hood, right side.

After much searching, we got lucky and found a good used AC "Type YE" original fuel pump. We cleaned up the pump, and tested it on our spare MGA Twincam block to make sure that it didn't need a spacer between the pump and block to prevent binding. We found that operation was correct with no spacer. We mounted the pump on the tractor engine, and then fabricated a new fuel line from the fuel line joint to the pump, and then soldered on a banjo fitting on the line to the carb, and connected up the fuel lines as originally designed by the factory.

Our "new" AC Type YE fuel pump after cleanup.

We tested the operation of the pump and measured cam to lever clearance using our spare MGA Twincam block.

We installed the Type YE fuel pump and re-made the fuel lines as original.

We have also been unable to find an original fuel tap. We have looked at four different Leyland 154 tractors now, and the black plastic handle part has been broken off all of the original fuel taps. It seems as though the black plastic needle seizes up in the tap and then the owner puts a pliers or wrench on the handle and twists the handle, breaking it off. We think this will be a very tough part to find, and so while we are looking for the correct original tap, we decided to fix ours. We carefully drilled out the plastic needle valve, and then used its remains as a pattern to turn a new one out of steel on our Logan lathe. We cut an o-ring seat to the same depth and in the same location as the original one so that the new needle wouldn't leak. The new needle works just fine and will do until we can find an original, working, tap.

Top left: The tap as we got it with the handle twisted off.
Bottom right: The tap after we built a new needle.

October, 2007
We were planning to debut the tractor at the MG's on the Rocks British car show put on by the Baltimore MG Club, but we saw on the brochure that pets are not allowed, so we decided to leave the tractor at home. We did drive over in the morning to walk the autojumble to look for a few small parts, but had no luck finding what we needed. However, we were surprised to find another 154 on the show field. The tractor was a nice one and was owned by Andrew Ward. We thought we would be the first to take a 154 to a MG car meet, but Andrew beat us with the idea. We talked with Andrew for 15 minutes or so, and during the time, found 3 or 4 other MG guys who also owned Leyland 154 tractors.

We met Andrew Ward at the MGs of Baltimore MG show. Here he is with his Leyland 154. His tractor appears to be a year or two older than ours.

With plans to debut the tractor at the Hunt Country Classic put on by the Washington DC MG Club, we cut a piece of thin pine multi-board panel to roughly 26 inches long and turned the ends of a long dowel to 7/8" diameter to fit into the lower links of the 3-point hitch. We attached the dowel to the board with some glue and wood screws, and then applied a couple of coats of clear urethane. We printed up a "British Leyland Tractotable" decal using our PC and ink-jet printer to give the project a "Factory Original" look. We then applied three more coats of clear urethane, and we ended up with a nice picnic table for the back of the tractor. We'll use the table when we eat our lunch at the Hunt Country Classic.

We made a decal for the table to give it the "Factory Original" look.

We can carry the large picnic basket on the Tractotable for transport to the field.

On Saturday, October 13, we loaded the Leyland on the mini-stock trailer and then took them over to Irwin Stone to check the weight on their scales. The weight of tractor and trailer was now 2850 pounds, down 650 pounds now that the salt-water mix had been removed from the rear tires, and safely below the 3,000 pound target weight we were hoping for. The next day, we towed over to the Hunt Country Classic, unloaded the trailer, and then drove the Leyland onto the show field. We were the only British tractor at the meet and so we were entered into the "Other Sports Car" class. We parked between a modern Aston Martin, and a Lotus Europa. We also unpacked and set up our ploughman's lunch on the Tractotable.

The 154 on the show field at the Hunt Country Classic. The green Morris 8 in the background won the Best in Show award and was our favorite car at the meet.

Our ploughman's lunch consisted of hard bread, English and Irish cheeses, Branston Pickle, apples, and Bass ale.

We had a safe tow home from the Hunt Country Classic, unloaded the Leyland and put it away in the shop. We're not sure of our next plan for the tractor, but that ends the story for now. Stay tuned as we look for our next project.

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