Best way to cut a groove in a pto shaft...

[Turbys_1700]

I had to upgrade our Howse PTO drive line shaft and slip clutch on our 10' rotary cutter...
The old slip clutch was in need of new friction discs and the nut holding the unit on was impossible to get off...
The new PTO drive live and slip clutch utilizes a bolt that passes through the yoke and thus requires a groove in the PTO shaft to accept the bolt...
The old PTO slip clutch utilized a keeper clip...
I think that the easiest solution is to utilize a side grinder and grind a groove in the PTO shaft to accept the bolt...
The bolt in the yoke is located so that it follows down the side of the PTO shaft...
If anyone else has any other alternatives I am open to suggestions...

 

[LD1]

Mill

Crap, 5 character minimum mur:

 

[bigdeano]

Turbis,
Your plan is what I would do. It would probably be a big job to take the shaft out and do it in a lathe. I would have the shaft turning and have something to rest my hands on to steady them. Take it slow and check your progress.

 

[LD1]

Maybe I mis-understood...

Is this a keyway type groove??

Or a groove that goes radially around the thing??

If the latter, then...

Lathe

 

[Soundguy]

are you sayingthe tractor pto stub does not have the groove?

 

[the old grind]

This may require only a notch for a bolt whose centerline runs tangent to the shaft's OD. Since a lathe would groove all the way around I'd use the hand grinder. We notch plain-shank milling cutters for 'Weldon' holders & the result doesn't need to be all that pretty cosmetically. It just has to hold 'em. Test for fit as you go & don't remove too much stock. It should be as simple as you imagine it.

 

[Soundguy]

almost seems a broach could be used..

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Post some pictures of all your parts laid out in sequence of assembly. We may have better ideas that way. There may be a better solution not thought of yet.

Ron

 

[Tx Jim]

I think a die grinder could accomplish this task with shaft still in gearbox.

 

[Turbys_1700]

are you sayingthe tractor pto stub does not have the groove?

No...
This is the PTO shaft coming out of the gearbox from the cutter...

 

[Turbys_1700]

Maybe I mis-understood...

Is this a keyway type groove??

Or a groove that goes radially around the thing??

If the latter, then...

Lathe

This is a keyway type groove...

 

[LD1]

any pictures??

 

[bigdeano]

The bolt goes crossways to the shaft, right? A keyway goes lenghwise with the shaft. If it's crossways you can just grind it like you originally said. I was thinking it was the tractor pto shaft in my first post, sorry. You could pull the shaft out and have the groove milled at a machine shop. The ones I've seen that use a bolt have the bolt hole drilled through the center of the shaft.

 

[LD1]

IS this the groove you need cut...

 

[Turbys_1700]

Yes LD1...
Well...
No...
I got lucky...
The rotary cutter had an old style slip clutch that had no spring adjustment and only 4 bolts attaching to the yoke on the tractor PTO shaft...
It utilized a clip ring to attach to the rotary cutter shaft...
When I removed the slip clutch I did not recognize the groove already cut in the shaft for the keeper bolt...
I guess that Howse figured they could accommodate both type slip clutches with this arrangement...
Or the newer style slip clutches were just coming when this cutter was made and they made the PTO shaft in the main gearbox to facilitate both types...
I've attached a couple of pictures...

 

[Soundguy]

No...
This is the PTO shaft coming out of the gearbox from the cutter...

ok.. mower gearbox input shaft then? not the telescoping drive shaft. just trying to get the right picture here.

speaking of that.. a pic would be great...

 

[SPYDERLK]

Id say thats a 1000 rpm input.

 

[Turbys_1700]

Id say thats a 1000 rpm input.

The 8050 will run either 540/1000...
You turn the PTO shaft on the tractor...
I think that it has 4 bolts holding it on...
The rotary cutter is 540 but now that you mention it the input shaft looks like 1000...
We run the PTO shaft on the tractor for 540...
I guess they use 1000 input shaft so that you can use either a 540 or 1000 gearbox???

 

[Turbys_1700]

Double post...