Using a rear PTO on a tractor
http://www.jandjacres.net/2014/01/06/...
Had a few cases of tractor damage lately. One has been waiting to get fixed for a few weeks, the other just took a little learning curve to figure out what was wrong.
Rotary Cutter Drive Shaft and PTO
In another instance of using the bush hog to clear saplings, the drive shaft was pulled from the PTO.
This took about an hour to fix. Why? Because it was necessary for me to learn a lesson the hard way.
Watching the video about Attaching a PTO Drive Shaft to a Tractor will make this easier to understand, but here are some pictures as well:
You see, the collar on the Drive Shaft uses ball bearings to secure the shaft to the PTO. In order to connect the shaft to the PTO 2 things needs to happen: 1) The groves on the shaft and the PTO need to line up. If they do not, you should be able to spin the PTO by hand to align them. 2) The bearings need to be retracted so you can slip the drive shaft on to the PTO, where you release the bearings and they secure into place into a grove on the PTO.
Step 2 was my hold up.
There is piece that looked to me as being the obvious part to move. It did move, and it moved with a little resistance, so if felt like you were compressing a spring, which would release the tension placed on the ball bearings. It did not.
I feel it worth mentioning now that this is the piece that makes sense to move. As you are pushing the drive shaft on to the PTO it would be much easier to push this part of the collar forward rather than move anything else. More later...
I called the dealership. They said that because of how the collar was forced off of the PTO, it was possible that the bearings were jammed and just needed something like WD-40 and a little forcing to get them back in to place.
Begin: 30 minutes of trying to hold the collar forward and pushing the ball bearings back in to place. They never budged. Not one of them, not a bit.
Then: Inspiration! Springs have two sides! And perhaps the 2nd side is not solid, but movable as well!
So, instead of pushing forward on what appears to be the lose collar, pull back on what appears to the the solid immovable metal and - Viola! - the bearings release and move back into the collar so that the drive shaft can be inserted onto the PTO.
Problem solved - time to go back to work!