Lengthen a pto shaft

[Soundguy]

Farm.. I'm not talking about buying a new tube and welding it into a yoke.. I'm talking about taking a ..say.. 3" piece o f the tube, and welding it on to the end of the existing tube.. in order to make it a tad longer.. which it sounds like what was being sugested...

That would be like cutting an inch off a 4" bolt, and then welding it on to another 4" bolt to make a 5" bolt.. and then thinking it would be just as strong.. vs just buying the correct size bolt..

Soundguy

That shiney new factory made PTO shaft you can walk into most any farm supply store and buy was welded by SOMEONE. No reason to believe a good welder couldn't re-work an old one. Agri-Supply, Shoup, Valu-Bilt, and a host of other "mail order houses" sell the telescoping tubing stock to make those shafts.

Now.... Unless I was dead certain of my welding skills, I'd be a little gun shy of attemting this. Building your own PTO shaft obviously isn't for everyone. In the end, I doubt that it's feasable to build one cheaper than a good factory made one can be bought for.

Just because you want to know what time it is, you don't have to build your own clock.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Farm.. I'm not talking about buying a new tube and welding it into a yoke.. I'm talking about taking a ..say.. 3" piece o f the tube, and welding it on to the end of the existing tube.. in order to make it a tad longer.. which it sounds like what was being sugested...

That would be like cutting an inch off a 4" bolt, and then welding it on to another 4" bolt to make a 5" bolt.. and then thinking it would be just as strong.. vs just buying the correct size bolt..

Soundguy

I'm not talking about scabbing a shaft together either. That's why I referred to building a new one. And I see very little sense in doing that unless the shaft is something you just can't buy pre-made. I like doing things myself when I can, but why re-invent the wheel?

 

[gemini5362]

Farm I am not trying to be obstinate and I really am asking this as a question. If you get a short piece of tubing for lets say 10.00 and you cut off the end of the driveshaft where it connects to the tractor. You put in the correct length of tubeing. and weld it all back together. That would seem to me like you were getting a working driveshaft for 10.00 versus paying 80.00 to 100.00 for a new one. If your welding skills were not as good as you think they are and the weld broke basically you would have the driveshaft come loose and spin till the implement stopped. But I have had that happen when I broke shear pin bolts that hold the driveshaft to my brush hog. Do you think doing the above would be a safety issue ? Even if the worst case scenario happened and your welds broke.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Farm I am not trying to be obstinate and I really am asking this as a question. If you get a short piece of tubing for lets say 10.00 and you cut off the end of the driveshaft where it connects to the tractor. You put in the correct length of tubeing. and weld it all back together. That would seem to me like you were getting a working driveshaft for 10.00 versus paying 80.00 to 100.00 for a new one. If your welding skills were not as good as you think they are and the weld broke basically you would have the driveshaft come loose and spin till the implement stopped. But I have had that happen when I broke shear pin bolts that hold the driveshaft to my brush hog. Do you think doing the above would be a safety issue ? Even if the worst case scenario happened and your welds broke.

Think about it. A shearbolt shears, and the yoke spins on the input shaft.

A weld breaks in the middle of a PTO shaft and it starts flailing around right behind the operators back.

Not the same thing.

The emergency room co-pay and deductable on my insurance would eat up that $70 to $90 savings post haste. Yeah, it's a saftey issue for the most part.

And we're not even considering the down time. There's a price with that too. Band aid fixes almost always come back to haunt us.

 

[gemini5362]

I understand what you are saying. The thing that confuses me is that I have had a driveshaft come loose from the tractor when a shear bolt broke and I was going over a hill the driveshaft did do some banging around some. But I dont really think of that coming up to hit the driver. If they make the weld where the coupling goes to the tractor then if it breaks the tractor would not be driving the driveshaft and so the only rotation on the driveshaft would be while the brushhog is coasting down, which I admit will take a coulple of minutes. It also sounds like to this poster 80 to 100 dollars is a big deal. Me personally I could take an 80.00 hit with no problem. If my wife and I go out to a decent restraunt and she has wine with her meal we can spend that much. But if I was in the same predicament I would do the fix partially for the thrill of doing it myself. It seems to me like the smartest safe inexpensive way to fix it would be to get the extender someone posted. The next option might be to go to a place that makes driveshafts and point out the he does not need to have it balanced and see what they would charge to use his ends and just weld a new tube in. And please dont take offense at my questions. I know there are a lot of people on here that have forgotten more about tractors than I will ever know. It is just that from where I am reading this and I am relatively inexperienced I see a lot of posts that overwhelmingly say buy the new driveshaft. I am wondering what I am missing since I think that 1. It is not that hard a weld to do. 2. If the driveshaft broke the three point hitch on the tractor would keep it in an arc that is relatively a minor circle so it cant go flying off to the side of the brushhog.

 

[BTDT]

Something I have seen done (on trailer axles) is to sleeve the weld with a larger piece of pipe and weld it in place. That way you have 3 welds, one for the repair/splice, then slip pipe over that and weld each end. Probably not needed, but an option.

 

[Soundguy]

I'm not talking about scabbing a shaft together either. That's why I referred to building a new one. And I see very little sense in doing that unless the shaft is something you just can't buy pre-made. I like doing things myself when I can, but why re-invent the wheel?

( I thought we were on the same page.. but wasn't 100% sure.. sorry for the misunderstanding. )

Agreed. The scabbing or patching a shaft with a piece in the middle or an end is just asking for trouble in most cases. My life ain't worth 80$.. my implement probably costs sufficiently more, and doesn't need to have a welded up shaft .. break, then beat up my implement either.

Soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

Farm I am not trying to be obstinate and I really am asking this as a question. If you get a short piece of tubing for lets say 10.00 and you cut off the end of the driveshaft where it connects to the tractor. You put in the correct length of tubeing. and weld it all back together. That would seem to me like you were getting a working driveshaft for 10.00 versus paying 80.00 to 100.00 for a new one. If your welding skills were not as good as you think they are and the weld broke basically you would have the driveshaft come loose and spin till the implement stopped. But I have had that happen when I broke shear pin bolts that hold the driveshaft to my brush hog. Do you think doing the above would be a safety issue ? Even if the worst case scenario happened and your welds broke.

So what happens when that weld breaks and you have this piece of tubing spinning wildly around the back of your tractor.. beating up the lift arms, and the implement? I got some implements worth 3000$ and up.. I sure don't need a 10$ patched pto shaft beating the cr@p out of them cause i was too cheap to buy a real pto shaft.. or at least just replace the hole tube from the yoke up.. vs welding in an extension..

Soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

treusing the old yokes and just adding a new correct piece of pipe/tube is fine.. the danger comes in with the scab patch in the middle. Sure.. the loose end -propably- won't flail.. but if it does... you may be in for injury or equipment damage. it may be one of those issues where you really can't afford the initial repair.. but if it goes fubar.. you -deffinately- can't afford the repair caused by the previous failed repair.. etc.

For instance..not a long stretch here... if a failed goober'd up drive shaft took out the front double headed or tripple headed gearbox on my 10' or 15' mower.. id be almost half way into the purchase price of the 10' mower to fix it.. and I don't even want to think about the jd batwing mower repair price... I'd be sick that a cheap-skate repair cost me all that.. if the worst scenerio did happen..

Soundguy

I understand what you are saying. The thing that confuses me is that I have had a driveshaft come loose from the tractor when a shear bolt broke and I was going over a hill the driveshaft did do some banging around some. But I dont really think of that coming up to hit the driver. If they make the weld where the coupling goes to the tractor then if it breaks the tractor would not be driving the driveshaft and so the only rotation on the driveshaft would be while the brushhog is coasting down, which I admit will take a coulple of minutes. It also sounds like to this poster 80 to 100 dollars is a big deal. Me personally I could take an 80.00 hit with no problem. If my wife and I go out to a decent restraunt and she has wine with her meal we can spend that much. But if I was in the same predicament I would do the fix partially for the thrill of doing it myself. It seems to me like the smartest safe inexpensive way to fix it would be to get the extender someone posted. The next option might be to go to a place that makes driveshafts and point out the he does not need to have it balanced and see what they would charge to use his ends and just weld a new tube in. And please dont take offense at my questions. I know there are a lot of people on here that have forgotten more about tractors than I will ever know. It is just that from where I am reading this and I am relatively inexperienced I see a lot of posts that overwhelmingly say buy the new driveshaft. I am wondering what I am missing since I think that 1. It is not that hard a weld to do. 2. If the driveshaft broke the three point hitch on the tractor would keep it in an arc that is relatively a minor circle so it cant go flying off to the side of the brushhog.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

One idea that seems to be escaping all of us with the talk of piecing together a broken PTO shaft..... This is a telescoping shaft. Welding either the inside OR the outside portion would likely cause them to "not telescope". The inside shaft COULD be welded and ground to shape where it would fit inside the outer half-shaft. But it would need to be absolutely PERFECT in order to slide freely. The outside portion could be welded....on the outside...... but what happens if just a tad bit of slag finds its way to the interior of that shaft. The inner shaft wouldn't go in all the way.

And besides guys, it's more involved than just that $10 piece of metal. You have welding supplies, grinder disc's, electric for the welder and grinder, and whatever your time is worth to you. All to POSSIBLY save about $75 bucks?????

About 25 years ago, I was on a tractor pulling a silage chopper when something hung in it. The PTO shaft twisted in 2 pieces. The PTO speed was 540 RPM. My heart rate went to 1000 RPM. Trust me on this one, you DON'T want a PTO shaft snapping in two, just inches from your back.