BCS PTO wont engage chipper/shredder

[Brandt1980]

Last week I had problems with my PTO. With this forums help I got the right parts and got things working again, at least with the tiller. But the slider doesn't want to go on the chipper/shredder. When I try to engage it, the lever won't quite go back to the detent. There's no grinding sound. It's almost like the slider isn't lined up with the attachment spline. I've taken off and on about 6 times. Any ideas?
thanks

[farmerboybill]

Sounds like your chipper's splines are a little boogered. I'd take a very small file and touch up the splines. You can take the attachment flange off by pulling the clip that holds in the pin, pulling the pin, and sliding off the flange. This should give you excellent access to the splines. You may even be able to use a rotary tool and cut-off wheel, but I'd be VERY careful not to take too much.

[Brandt1980]

After your post, I did take a small needle file to clean up the spines. Didn't see anything obvious, but I did take down some slight sharp edges I could just feel. I also used the old slider that is is pretty good condition to check the fit and it slid on nicely in several different rotations. But it still won't engage. I even tried rotating the chipper shaft by hand (well, with a stick) with the engine off and some forward pressure on the PTO lever. It's almost like the slider isn't lined up with the chipper shaft, but it looks like the coupling is self aligning. Not sure where to go with it now. I'm not a big fan of our local BCS repair shop and I'm not sure if they would have a lot to offer.

[farmerboybill]

Hmm, if it lined up properly before, it should now because you did nothing to change the flanges.

Did you take the attachment flange off the chipper like I had mentioned? With it off, can you drive up to the chipper with the tractor and get the slider to connect? There may be a chance your chipper shaft is a touch twisted and your old slider has enough wear that it could accommodate the twist. You may need to either get more aggressive on the grinder, buy an extension and permanently mount it to the chipper, or buy a new shaft. You don't want to know how expensive that shaft is... If you do end up buying a shaft, I'd definitely buy it from Earth Tools and not any BCS dealer as Joel gets them directly from Caravaggi. This way, he cuts out 3 or 4 middlemen and can sell the exact same shaft for considerably less.

[Brandt1980]

I did take the flange off to check the splines. I'll take it back off and see if the tractor can line up that way. One thing that's a bit different is that I have a lot more grease in the tractor PTO now. Could I have overloaded that? You're right, I don't even want to know how much a new shaft for the chipper would cost.

[farmerboybill]

Metal is a lot harder than fresh grease. It'll move aside. Now old, hard, grit-filled grease is another story, but you don't have that in there. If the slider won't go over the splines with the flange off, I think you're gonna need to get a touch more aggressive with a grinder. Obviously, you want to the absolute minimum possible to get it to engage. If the slider engages the splines, I don't have an answer on why it's not connecting.

[BCSSHOP]

Brandt,

If the splines are damaged get a new input shaft for the BIO 100. It is part number 581.27468. It sells for $112.92 which is about eleven bucks less than the spline input shaft for the tiller attachment. I will expedite getting one for you if you need one, something you already know I don't charge for. Twisting of the tiny 18mm input shaft on the chipper/shredder, snowthrower, sweeper and all mowers is not uncommon. That is why BCS abandoned the small input shafts 18 years ago.

Before engaging the clutch on any of these attachments with the spline shaft be sure they turn freely. Jammed shredders, frozen snowthrowers, heavily loaded sweepers and any loaded rotary mower can cause the spline shafts to twist just enough to cause poor engagement or cause them to make the PTO slider disengage under load. Engage the clutch slowly at only medium rpm even on unloaded high inertia load attachments.

John Wihelm, BCS Shop

[Brandt1980]

Thanks, John.
I haven't gotten out to fiddle with it some more, but if the slider will go on without the attachment flange, then something must be out of line. I thought about just giving up on the chipper since it was a "throw into the deal" thing when I bought the BCS used for a tiller. But it worked fine before and your price for the shaft would be reasonable to still have a chipper.
This is a great forum. I'd still be scratching my head without the advice.

[Brandt1980]

Success!
I took the attachment flange off and carefully lined up the extended slider onto the chipper shaft and it fit on. Put the flange back on and carefully lined up the extended slider and got it seated by rotating the chipper shaft a bit, then tightened up the nuts. Now it works fine! I even shut it down, disengaged the PTO and started it up again to engage the PTO like normal and that worked too.
Definitely going to engage at low power and bring it up to speed from there. I think there's just a little play on the alignment, but this works just fine.
Thanks for all the help. I'm back in business with the great advice.
Cheers,
Brandt

[farmerboybill]

Hey Brandt,

Glad to hear you figured it out. I figured if you're capable of changing out the slider and lever, you'd surely be capable of figuring this out as well.

Bill in WI