PTO shaft orientation

[fflmlf]

Possibly a stupid question, be easy on me!

I've got an old pull-behind JD 5' Gyromower shredder thing. The original PTO shaft is at least 50 yrs old, and is one of those two-section pto shafts with a pillow block in the middle. The pto to pillow block is a fixed length deal, and pillow-block to gear box is an adjustable shaft. This thing is WORN OUT. The U-joint on the tractor end has been welded in, and there is about 70 degrees of rotational slop in the sleeve.

I decided to not have it rebuilt, and am replacing the whole assembly with a 48" single shaft (Northern Tools, about $100). The new shaft has a 6-spline adapter at each end. I'm going to remove the adapter on one end and fab up the connection to the gear box.

Finally, the question - what end of the PTO shaft should attach to the tractor, the sleeved end or the end with the center piece? Does it matter? The original one had the center piece attached to the gear box, but it's a completely different animal.

Thanks,

Ted

 

[aczlan]

Finally, the question - what end of the PTO shaft should attach to the tractor, the sleeved end or the end with the center piece? Does it matter? The original one had the center piece attached to the gear box, but it's a completely different animal.

all the PTO driven impliments I have seen have had the center on the implement end and the outer "Sleeve" on the tractor end, on everything from Tillers to bushhogs to my FIL's mid mount 60" mower for his B7500
reason? beats me, I would probbaly keep it that way unless it is a royal PITA...

HTH

Aaron Z

 

[PILOON]

I would guess the correct answer would be which ever configuration has the tube end draining downwards otherwise water would collect and rust the pto shaft inside of the tube.

eg; mowers and bush hogs would 'rest' lower than tractor PTO (and self drain)while a bigger (higher) implement would collect water if when rested was higher than the tractor PTO, therefor the hollow tube would want to be at implement end.

Make sense?

In my opinion both shaft and sleeve (tube) are designed to be equal in strength. In fact I have seen applications where both are tubes.

 

[fflmlf]

Thanks guys!

This is in line with what I was going to do - the water in the sleeve point is excellent, wasn't thinking about that.

TB