I can understand the age thing making it difficult to attach a pto shaft,
to be quite truthful if I am the only one going to use a piece of equipment I have removed shields,
they are much easier to connect to a tractor and the implement can be turned easily as without the guard you have access to the actual shaft,
it can be turned with wrench or slip a bar into the yoke and turn it.
Is an exposed pto shaft safe?
Not if you get anywhere near it with the tractor running.
These Bare-Co easy release pto shields will do away with that liability and still allow easy access to the actual pto shafting to turn it.
This page has a video showing them exposing the pto u joint and shaft it is a fairly simple device to install,
and still allow easier hooking up.
Bare Co USA - BareCo Movie Index
for less cost and it is possible to be fully shielded so the safety police can be ignored.
Have you tried rotating your tractors pto with the tractor shut off? some will turn then.