first problem

[Tul01]

Hi all, just ran into our first real problem. We have 240hrs on our 5740C and today I was tilling a fresh spot(lightly). All of a sudden the PTO quit, almost like a shear bolt broke. I pulled out and it would turn slightly for a second or so and then stop. After that nothing. If I disconnect the tiller the pto turns but it seems to be slow. There does not seem to be any binding in the tiller and the tractor makes no noise. There was no noise from the transmission or clutches at the time or since. Everything else appears to be working fine, in the clutch and transmission. I thought it might be the switch, but it seems to have power thru it and I tried bypassing with nothing. I tried turning the tractor off and turning the switch but did not hear anything, I had never thought of trying that before so I don't know if you can ever hear the solonoid. I will be calling our dealer in the morning, but he is 3 hours away and I would prefer to be able to fix it myself if I can.

Also I found a white plastic electrical connector hanging loose onthe top of the transmission and can't find where its to be connected to. It looks like it has been loose for a while. Looks like it plugs in to the transmission or under the seat or something. Thanks for your input.

 

[Unclebuck257]

I had that happen when I first got my 5740C brand new. The PTO would not turn at all though in mine. The dealer came out and found that the electrical connector (somethiong like you're seeing hanging disconnected and about in that same area too) had never been connected together at the factory on assembly. He connected that together and we were good to go. Not sure if that has anything at all to do with your problem, but you might want to check.

 

[rcowan]

Did they fix the problem?

 

[Tul01]

UPDATE:

We got our tractor back from our dealer, after almost 3 months (small dealer, had some family problems to deal with as well). He had to split the tractor and it seems(the limited way I understand it) that there is a C-clip on a shaft that the hydraulic actuator pushes on to engage the clutch?. It popped out of the groove so there wasn't any pressure on the clutch or something like that. Our dealer, who has been selling/repairing all manner of tractors for nearly 30years felt that the groove wasn't cut deep enough for the clip to stay in. after a couple phone calls to montana they sent up a complete assembly to replace and took the old one in for analysis as they had never seen this before and initially wanted him to put in a new C-clip with the risk of having to tear down the tractor again. The entire repair was covered by warranty and Montana even covered the return delivery as the repair ended up taking so long (120 miles at the peak of fuel prices!) So far so good, I have put some heavy stress on it with the snowblower and no problems other than several shear pins on the snowblower.