Snow Help PTO Drive Shaft

PILOON · Jan 31, 2015

Exactly, the surfaces act like a shear therefore edges need to be sharp.
Generally grade 5 is suggested as they shear with a clean cut while softer bolts bend and elongate B4 shearing and mess up the cutting edges.

oldtimer 66 · Jan 31, 2015

PILOON we are correct but I missed the question. After I re-read the post he installed a brand new PTO shaft and it immediately broke after a short period of time, so there must be some thing else going on. One other note, my relative had a John Deere square bailer. One of the few around, everything else would be a New Holland. On the flywheel shear bolt setup JD installed / pressed in hardened bushings from the factory. The shear bolt ( body ) would shear between them. Longevity I assume plus the flywheel is rather expensive. The mating piece not so much. Later.

SeymourBota · Feb 3, 2015

All replies seem to focus on the assumption that it is a rear blower. Being a BX1870, I assume it is a front blower. OP, please confirm.

On the front blowers, if the gears and chain at the rear of the blower loosen, they could move around and cause the mid pto shaft to bind, causing the problem described.

PeterK · Feb 3, 2015

Dumb question but are your sure that the pto locked with a 'click' when you installed it? If not, it would fall off, bang as it hit something that bent it and maybe even smash the u-joint carrier.

PILOON · Feb 4, 2015

It is possible that the dealer simply supplied you with a generic new shaft that needed to be adjusted by trimming it to proper length.
When lowered it could run OK but raising an implement with too long a shaft could cause that second failure.

Lt74 · Feb 20, 2015

Thanks to all who replied. This is a front snow blower, Kubota and set up by the dealer. I used it last year with no problems except for a shear pin (which I expect). So I just got it back from the dealer (2 weeks, but a lot of snow for our area). Their diagnosis was missing carriage boalgts and allen screws, also the bearing holders looses. They replaced the parts and tightened the holder. I have used it a couple of threes times since, including one 17" storm. NO problem and it ran like new. I cannot find the 'carriage bolts" on my manuals so I will go back to the dealer and have the service guy point th eprolbem out so I can keep an eye on it.

I lube all points and have not observed anything loose but according the service order the bolts were missing!

Thanks again and I hope this information helps some other BX 1870 owner avoid a problem. If I get any better information from the service people I will update this thread.

aczlan · Feb 20, 2015

AStanton said:
Lt,
I find it kind of strange and timely that you post this issue with your PTO at this time. While using my rear blower during this past big snow storm, my PTO also shut down abruptly. I thought it was the shear pins; no, shear pins were fine. Then I examined the collar where the PTO attaches to the tractor and found the problem. The PTO shaft became unattached due to a missing bolt that held the collar together. Attached is a pic of the PTO shaft. Note the shinny new bolt to the right. That's the replacement bolt I reinstalled. Luckily I didn't suffer the catastrophe that you experienced. I wonder if you had a similar bolt on your PTO shaft and experienced the same loose bolt.

If you look on yours, is there a groove on the inside of the collar (where it sticks into the u joint) that you can put a circlip into keep the two halves together?
Our Kubota tiller has an almost identical setup for the shearpin but it has a circlip to hold the two halves together when the shear bolt breaks (no loose PTO shafts flopping around that way).

Aaron Z

aczlan · Feb 20, 2015

Lt74 said:
Thanks to all who replied. This is a front snow blower, Kubota and set up by the dealer. I used it last year with no problems except for a shear pin (which I expect). So I just got it back from the dealer (2 weeks, but a lot of snow for our area). Their diagnosis was missing carriage boalgts and allen screws, also the bearing holders looses. They replaced the parts and tightened the holder. I have used it a couple of threes times since, including one 17" storm. NO problem and it ran like new. I cannot find the 'carriage bolts" on my manuals so I will go back to the dealer and have the service guy point th eprolbem out so I can keep an eye on it.
I lube all points and have not observed anything loose but according the service order the bolts were missing!
Thanks again and I hope this information helps some other BX 1870 owner avoid a problem. If I get any better information from the service people I will update this thread.

The carriage bolts are probably the ones that hold the bearings into the mounting bracket (should be ~4 of them for that task)?

Aaron Z