Tiller Cutting tiller shaft?

[jwcinpk]

How do you know how much to take off of the shaft on a new tiller? All the dealer said was make sure you trim that thing or you'll tear up the tiller. I would think it would be common sense. Just making sure it is long enough to not be in a bind when down and tilling but short enough to raise the tiller up to move it. Or is there a scientific method to go by?

 

[Egon]

With the shaft apart you can see how much you need when the tiller is lowered and raised.

Egon

 

[rdbrumfield]

I have cut many shafts and the way I do is to hook up the emplement and measure from the notch on the tractor shaft to the center of the u-joint on the emplement with them level with other. Disconnect the tractor from the emplement so that you can hold the shaft level and as short as it will go and measure the same on the shaft and note the difference. Cut that amount plus 1/2-1 inch from the inner shaft and the outer. you will probably have to trim the shielding also. Reinstall the shaft, hook the emplement back on the tractor and have someone lift and drop the shaft to make sure it doesn't completely close. When you are hooking up be sure that the top link has the same length. By shortening the top link, it will sometimes affect the length needed for the drive shaft. You can have more clearance by making it a bit shorter, I just like to have as much shaft doubled up as possible.

 

[rdbrumfield]

note for above.
In doing it this way you get the maximum length for the shaft. you will have to back close to the emplement hook the shaft before hooking up the links. After hooking the links, the shaft will be too long to go on unless you can pick the emplement up far enough to slip it on.

 

[ronjhall]

Here is a link to a thread on cutting a PTO shaft.
A post from Bird has a link to a Bush Hog Manual. It has instructions and pictures on cutting a PTO shaft.
Click Here

 

[jwcinpk]

Thanks for the link! A picture is worth a thousand words. I see now that the problem comes in when the shaft bottoms out thus putting the u joints in an extreme bind. Major breakage, I don't want that.

 

[jwcinpk]

It would appear there is no need for cutting on this one. Went over to the farm to cut and the shaft when bottomed out has about 2 inches of clearance between it and the tractor. When attached it still has a inch or so before it would bottom out. Also you can hook up the shaft at any point too. Am I right? No need to cut. I'm doing this for an older gentleman and I'd hate to mess it up for him. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[kensfarm]

"has about 2 inches of clearance between it and the tractor"

If that's the clearance when the tiller is raised to the full 3pt height.. you should be okay.

 

[theboman]

I guess I cut 2.5 inches off each side of my shaft. I did an inch the first time. Needed more and went with another 1" and the the .5". The last cut was made much later. It helped tremendously in hooking up the PTO, it was really long and hard to deal with on hooking up, etc.

 

[rambler]

"If that's the clearance when the tiller is raised to the full 3pt height.. you should be okay."


Actually, the pto needs to be trimmed for when they are 'exacty' parallel from each other. That will be the shortest distance. On most CUTs I believe when the 3pt is all the way up, the 2 knuckles of the pto will be the farthest apart. But this is different with all tractor/ implement combinations.

Anyhow, measure when the 2 knuckles are on a level plane, as this is when they are closest together. Add an inch or so for clearence. Note that using different holes for the top link (if your tractor has more than one top-link hole) can drasticly change things, as well as different top link settings (screwed in or out). Be aware of that, & perhaps make a bit more room if you are not the only one hooking the implement up.....

The pto shafts should not compress to hit each other (breaks something maybe even your tractor) and should always have at least 6" of overlap when 'fully' extended at the top or bottom of the 3pt movement (or they fall aprt & make a real mess...) Anything in between is fine. Leaving them as long as practical (without hitting) lets you adapt to other tractors that might need the shafts longer. If the shaft is too short for a tractor, the only solution is a new $100+ shaft...

--->Paul