Wanted to join up and make a post here in hopes that it helps someone else out there. I bought a 175 a couple weeks ago. Never heard it run. Put a new starter/battery on it, and it fired right up. Unfortunately, the PTO would not engage in engine PTO and the hydraulics were stuck in the up position at all times when the pump was running.
First, the PTO... pulled the lift cover off, and found that the pto shifter lever had a nice big groove cut into it by the pto gear. I guess when it wouldn’t engage, they just kept pulling and grinding it out. Well, the reason it wouldn’t engage is because there were large burrs between the splines of the PTO shaft. It seemed like at one time someone had gotten the pto in a bind with too long of a shaft and it pushed the pto shaft hard into the shaft from the hydraulic pump, which caused the burrs. After taking a thin grinder blade to the burrs, between the splines, shifting is nice and smooth again. Also replace pto seal while I was there.
Hydraulic lift arms stuck in the up position...
This one really perplexed me for a while. First thing we figured out was that the outer shaft from the controls into the lift cover had broken off right outside the lift cover. Lift cover came off, new shaft installed. The part I was dreading, which was getting the shafts/cams lined back up turned out to be the easiest part. Hardest thing was getting the broken piece of shaft out of the housing it was stuck in. Also the new shaft I ordered did not have a wide enough notch in it to fit onto the lever. Took a bit of time to get that fixed up. After getting everything back together, with the side cover open, I sensed a problem. With the lift cover installed, side cover off, control valve roller on, and minimum hydraulic fluid in the system, I started the engine.
Lift arms went right up. Booooooo!!!! This should not have happened. Nothing I did with the controls would get them down, so I took out the roller and tried to manually move the control valve. It would only move rearward from the vertical position, and I had noticed while the roller was still on that the main linkage arm that contacts the roller would not have any spring tension on it when the levers were set to the all the way up position. This seemed very strange. Also knew that it didn’t make sense for the roller not to move forward. That’s what it was made to do.
I had convinced myself that something was up with the control valve. After watching a couple of YouTube videos, my suspicions were confirmed. The roller lever should move both directions from vertical. Mine would not. So, I threw a Hail Mary and got a super long screwdriver, stood behind the tractor, got the blade of the screwdriver right behind the ear of the lever and popped the snot out of it a few times and all of the sudden, it breaks free! I now had spring tension pushing all the way rearward and could push the roller end of the lever all the way forward. Re-installed roller and she was GOOD TO GO! Control valve must have gotten some corrosion on it somehow, but it broke free and worked beautifully. This totally makes sense of why that position control shaft was broken too. It was stuck internally, and someone tried to force it with the lever. Shaft broken as a result.
Hope this helps someone!
See link below. This is what it SHOULD look like!
Video of my linkage working properly
First, the PTO... pulled the lift cover off, and found that the pto shifter lever had a nice big groove cut into it by the pto gear. I guess when it wouldn’t engage, they just kept pulling and grinding it out. Well, the reason it wouldn’t engage is because there were large burrs between the splines of the PTO shaft. It seemed like at one time someone had gotten the pto in a bind with too long of a shaft and it pushed the pto shaft hard into the shaft from the hydraulic pump, which caused the burrs. After taking a thin grinder blade to the burrs, between the splines, shifting is nice and smooth again. Also replace pto seal while I was there.
Hydraulic lift arms stuck in the up position...
This one really perplexed me for a while. First thing we figured out was that the outer shaft from the controls into the lift cover had broken off right outside the lift cover. Lift cover came off, new shaft installed. The part I was dreading, which was getting the shafts/cams lined back up turned out to be the easiest part. Hardest thing was getting the broken piece of shaft out of the housing it was stuck in. Also the new shaft I ordered did not have a wide enough notch in it to fit onto the lever. Took a bit of time to get that fixed up. After getting everything back together, with the side cover open, I sensed a problem. With the lift cover installed, side cover off, control valve roller on, and minimum hydraulic fluid in the system, I started the engine.
Lift arms went right up. Booooooo!!!! This should not have happened. Nothing I did with the controls would get them down, so I took out the roller and tried to manually move the control valve. It would only move rearward from the vertical position, and I had noticed while the roller was still on that the main linkage arm that contacts the roller would not have any spring tension on it when the levers were set to the all the way up position. This seemed very strange. Also knew that it didn’t make sense for the roller not to move forward. That’s what it was made to do.
I had convinced myself that something was up with the control valve. After watching a couple of YouTube videos, my suspicions were confirmed. The roller lever should move both directions from vertical. Mine would not. So, I threw a Hail Mary and got a super long screwdriver, stood behind the tractor, got the blade of the screwdriver right behind the ear of the lever and popped the snot out of it a few times and all of the sudden, it breaks free! I now had spring tension pushing all the way rearward and could push the roller end of the lever all the way forward. Re-installed roller and she was GOOD TO GO! Control valve must have gotten some corrosion on it somehow, but it broke free and worked beautifully. This totally makes sense of why that position control shaft was broken too. It was stuck internally, and someone tried to force it with the lever. Shaft broken as a result.
Hope this helps someone!
See link below. This is what it SHOULD look like!
Video of my linkage working properly
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