2008 5603 PTO hard to engage?

[schiker]

I went to 2 dealers. And had to have PTO parts replaced $3,800 with towing. Works ok now and is quiet.

One acted as if this was a freak event and he had not seen a rust issue and there were 1000's of 5 series tractors out there without problems. He said personally he would leave the bolt out though as older tractors did not have them. That is not the "party" line and not what corporate believes.

Another dealer was more empathetic. One of the service writers mentioned he has seen a few maybe 4 tractors with bad rust in about 5 years and was a bit more humble and seemed honest about the problem but couldn't offer $ for repair. He mentioned he does several PTO clutch jobs a year not all are bad rusted (wait). I understood as its a corporate error out of his control (I did not buy from him nor will give him enough business to really make it worth his while to help significantly with $). He did say he left the bolt out too but would put it back in if I wanted. I do not see a reason for the bolt in for my application no water crossings or other reason for water to enter from bottom.

Corporate stone walled me. The tractor was out of warranty and they could not be responsible for a 6 year old tractor bought used anyway. We argued about long term storage and condensation or other reasons it could have happened. They argued the owners manual cannot cover every eventuality and it was some problem out of their control. It was frustrating and since I did buy the tractor used I had an uphill battle which would have probably needed a lawyer and serious effort (and since used probably wouldn't have won since reasonable doubt original owner could have caused issue).

Will post again with some pictures and thoughts.

 

[schiker]

Here are my parts. Water or moisture or excessive heat had definitely washed all the grease out of my throw out bearing and you could feel the rough dry balls in the bearing it was toast. You can see where it was skidding on the pressure plate fingers and wore excessively. I think this was for 2 reasons. One because the throw out bearing was shot.....

At one point my tractor did not disengage the PTO very well. I had to crawl underneath and push the lever to fully disengage it. If you look at the linkage that runs through the housing its shiny where they may have tried to salvage it with maybe emory cloth and or wire wheel. It was probably rusted and looked like it was pitted and had crap all in the bushings. They ended up replacing bronze bushings and linkage. At one point when my PTO did not want to disengage with cab lever I worked the lever back and forth from underneath the tractor. Working the lever back and forth it started to disengage with the lever in the cab but I noticed cruddy fluid run out of the housing from where this shaft goes through. One of my thoughts is rust and crud from water keep the lever from moving freely. And either does not allow the throw out bearing from completely moving off the fingers and it just rubs and skids all the time very lightly and especially once the grease runs out it was skidding more than rotating. OR once the PTO linkage is allowed to get a bit loose and not enough pressure is there to keep the throw out bearing on the fingers hard enough to make the race stick to the fingers and it skids instead of bearing rotating internal. Either way its another area to increase wear that should last a long time.

The clutch disc was also excessively worn for the hours IMO and I wonder if it slips too much. I really dislike JD's instructions to rev to rated PTO speed before engaging the PTO. I don't do that cause it probably just slips the crap out of the disc for too much.

The Pressure plate was rusted but not seized rusted. I can see where tractors that don't get used for some time the fingers could definitely rust to point of seizure from a moisture issue. Could it also build up rust but not seize however not move freely and allow some extra rubbing on the clutch disc I think so depending on what you have hooked to PTO. I personally leave my mower attached for counterweight a lot and would give some resistance for PTO shaft not to spin and the disc to rub from not disengaging completely. The bottom of disc sitting in crap water would also cause long term issues with more slippage on engagement as its lubed with water or it might swell and want to rub??? Or just build up crud and rub until it burns off each time you operate it after it has sat for a long while????

All of this just accelerates wear at least a little more than it should.

Anyway you look at it IMO moisture definitely accelerated wear on the PTO clutch mechanisms and probably usually doesn't get caught in the warranty period. I feel its a time bomb that goes off afterwards and is an expensive repair that happens way too soon. I would expect the PTO to last several thousands of hours without repair or maintenance needed.