PTO Shaft to Implement Gearbox Connection

[Glenn9643]

I picked up a Howse RTC70 yesterday and after checking it out managed about five hard hours before the PTO shaft came off at the gearbox shaft. It's secured by a headless tapered pin, threaded with nut on one end to secure it. I managed to find another discussion here that has a picture of a similar pin posted as an attachment.
After removing the pin I found a small piece of steel that appears to haven broken off it inside the splined area that slides over the gearbox shaft.
I asked that they check the shaft length before I picked up the tiller so I can only assume that they did. I did an "eyeball" check when I was hooking it up and everything seemed OK, but the only thing I can think of that could have broken that piece off the pin is that the shaft has to be a little too long. Too late yesterday evening to properly check and too early this morning to leave my coffee. Anyone else with a similar problem or ideas?

 

[Soundguy]

My 10' howse mower has that similar setup with the headless pin and nut.. My guess is the pto shaft is too long and when it was raised, put pressure on the uoke, nd then that deformed / broke a shoulder in their the pin was wedged against..

Soundguy

 

[beenthere]

If the shaft is too long, be thankful that is the only thing broken.
Did the cutter arrive hooked up to the tractor? If so, they should have checked this.

If not, did you notice if it was too long when you hooked up the PTO? Probably was your job to check it for sure, and we can hope there is no more damage. The tube needs to be able to shorten when the tail wheel 'lifts', but be long enough when the tail wheel 'drops'. I check that before hooking up the PTO on a new set-up, along with the linkage of the top to see if the PTO shaft will clear the deck.

 

[Glenn9643]

I had asked the dealer when I bought it to be sure the shaft length was OK while they were preparing it. He assured me that it was correct when I picked the tractor up, but I didn’t go through the measuring process when I hooked it up. I just looked it over before putting the shaft on and it appeared to be the right length.

Anyway, after I got my eyes open this morning I went out and checked the length by the book with a tape measure. Collapsed length of the shaft is 34” and the shortest measurement that I can get from tractor shaft to gearbox shaft (at the machined slot for the locking ball) is 37-1/2” so the shaft wasn’t too long after all. I took the shaft back to the dealer and he gave me a replacement the same length, but with a push-to-release pin at the gearbox connection instead of the tapered pin/nut type. After installing the new shaft I made a few rounds and everything seems to be working fine. Maybe it was as simple as a brittle pin that caused the breakout.