mid PTO not engaging

galaxie428 · Feb 20, 2012

I was working on cleaning up some brush this past weekend, pushing some of it into a burn pile when I noticed my mit PTO light was on. When I checked it, it was not engaged. I got to looking and on the left side of the tractor where the lever goes down on a CT230, there is a bracket that holds a couple of switches for the rear and mid PTO. It was bent a little so the lever when not engaged would not push the button in on the switch so this caused the light to be on. I bent it back a little and the light went off. However, when I went to see if I could engage the mid PTO, I could not. With the clutch in, the lever would not move fw.

I crawled under the tractor to check the linkage and it all looked ok but I noticed where the linkage and the shaft go into the mid PTO housing, it looked like it was pulled out a little farther from the housing than it should be. I took a hammer and lightly tapped it back in but as mentioned above, the lever would not engage. Any ideas on what I need to do to fix it? I don稚 use the mid PTO for anything but I would like for it to work in the event that I do need to use it in the future.

galaxie428 · Feb 22, 2012

99 views and nobody has any thoughts? Come on, this is the smartest group of people I "don't" know. You guys always have the answers!

Canada_CT230 · Feb 22, 2012

Sorry...I don't have a mid PTO. Never even considered it when I purchased as it looked to be a PITA for mounting and dismounting anything. It was $800 that I saved and purchased my rear 3pt mower with.

Good luck though.

Rudevette · Mar 2, 2012

Did you try slowly letting the clutch out while trying to engage the pto? Sometimes they need a little RPM to get the gears to line up so it will go in.

wallace · Mar 3, 2012

Make sure you did not shear off the roll pin.#21
If I am reading your post correctly, I am thinking something got jamed up in there and forced the lever hard enough to bend the bracket for the micro switch. You also mentioned you had to tap the lever (#20?) back onto the shaft #16?.
That really has me thinking you sheared the roll pin.
You will have to remove the lever from the shaft or see if you can shove a drift pin into the hole and feel if the hole is lined up. Dont just look and see if there is a roll pin sticking out of #20 It may still be there but sheared off of #16

galaxie428 · Mar 4, 2012

I tried letting out the clutch slow and that did not help. It was a little cold here today so laying on a concrete floor did not sound to fun. I will slide under there when it warms up a little. I too wondered if I had sheared that pin, I saw it when I looked under there before.

Thanks for your help. I will update this when I get a chance to look at it.

galaxie428 · Jun 16, 2012

I finally got around to working on the mid PTO. I was able to punch pin #21 out and it was not sheared, it was ok. However, I still can't move the lever. In looking at the attachment that Wallace had in his post, I don't recall the small shaft labeled #16 having a crook in it and it looks like it goes directly into the #11 case and there is no piece extruding out like shown in the pic. I was able to move that pin in and out about 1/2" with my hand pretty easily but could not rotate it. I assume that means something inside the case is broken but I can't tell what part from the pic it would be. I don't really want to drain all my fluid out so I will probably wait to look at it when I reach about 100 more hours on the clock but in the meantime, what should I be looking for?