PTO attachment..

[Trev]

This is going to be controversial, and I want to preface this by saying that what I'm about to talk about is almost certainly a dumb idea.. please, nobody try this at home!!

I was hooking up my finish mower the other day, and the PTO shaft wouldn't slip into place. What I finally did was leave the engine idling, and move the PTO lever slightly.. then go back and see if it would slip on. I had to do this about five times before the splines aligned properly to allow it to slide on.

I was careful to make sure no part of my body was near anything around the blades or the shaft, just in case.. for whatever reason, the PTO started to rotate. I just held the shaft gently, pulled back the sleeve, and tried to push it on. When it didn't go, I would go up, engage the PTO for a second to rotate the shaft, and then disengage it again and go back to the mower to see if it would slide on.

Is this utterly stupid? It didn't seem to me that I was at great risk. If the shaft had started to rotate, it would have just spun in my hands and I would have let go and shut her down.

What do you guys think? Is there some other way of getting the splines to line up without having to do things like shut the engine down, reach under the mower and rotate the blades by hand, try to get it on, and repeat until it works?

If one is careful, is it really essential to shut down the engine?

 

[EdKing]

I never shut the engine down when attaching the PTO on my brush cutter. I just set the throttle to idle and hook it up. I put an overrun clutch on my PTO and this makes it easy to line the splines up on the shaft.

 

[RoyJackson]

<font color=red>"Is this utterly stupid? "</font color=red>

It my opinion...YES!!!!!!


Maybe I'm a wimp...but the guys you read about having these accidents are those with years of experience.
No offense to any of my friends at TBN...but if you're working at your PTO with the key in the ignition..you're an accident waiting to happen!

Just my humble opinion!

 

[Bird]

I've seen lots of guys hook up their PTO driveshafts with the engine running on the tractor. No problem; as long as that PTO never accidentally gets engaged. Very slim possibility of ever having a problem, but for myself, why take a slim chance of losing an arm or life when I can kill the engine and take no chance.

 

[Slamfire]

I can turn the mower shaft by hand, which is the way to hook up. The tiller however is a different story. :^(

 

[rancar]

Hey Bob.....

I see you're now a New Member. This isn't right/w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif....you were a Veteran I recall just a couple days ago. What happened???????

 

[Rover]

I could always turn the PTO output shaft by hand rather than have the tractor running.

Did you try that with your tractor?

And yes that is stupid, can think of three people just off the top of my head I know personally with fingers off or having an arm reattached from PTO 'accidents' or 'stupid attacks'.

You only live once, try to make it less painful.

Rover

 

[RoyJackson]

"I see you're now a New Member. This isn't right....you were a Veteran I recall just a couple days ago. What happened??????? "

Looks like he changed his nick name...

 

[TerryinMD]

Bob,

I do not know if the 4300 has the same setup as a 4100, but I can turn my PTO shaft by hand with the tractor running. What I do is to put the PTO selector into MMM PTO mode and then turn the rear PTO shaft by hand to align.

Or, I turn the PTO drive shaft for the implement. It's easy to do on the rotory tiller. The rotary cutter is a different story.

Terry

 

[Trev]

<font color=blue>I can turn the mower shaft by hand, which is the way to hook up. The tiller however is a different story. :^( </font color=blue>

Now that's interesting. I have no trouble with the tiller, but have a bear of a time with the mower.

Here's the drill I use for the tiller, if it helps.

Connect up everything except the PTO shaft. Raise the tiller a few inches up in the air. Shut off the engine. Go back and put the heel of your boot on one of the tines of the tiller. By just pushing down, you can rotate the tiller easily (at least on my JD550.) Now you can easily get the PTO on by just moving the tiller tines until things line up.

Hope this helps!

Bob

 

[Trev]

<font color=blue>"I see you're now a New Member. This isn't right....you were a Veteran I recall just a couple days ago. What happened??????? "</font color=blue>

<font color=green>Looks like he changed his nick name... </font color=green>

Yeah, I created a new account, hoping to fix the problem I've been having with not receiving email when someone replies to my posts. It didn't work. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

Oh well.. was worth a try. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Trev]

<font color=blue>Very slim possibility of ever having a problem, but for myself, why take a slim chance of losing an arm or life when I can kill the engine and take no chance. </font color=blue>

Ok, you've convinced me. No more engine running while anywhere near the PTO.

The people who say they can rotate their PTO shaft by hand, you mean the tractor part, not the implement part, right? I'll have to try that. It simply never occured to me.. I was always trying to move just the implement shaft to get it to line up. Will play with this until I figure it out.

Also, with the mower, I suppose I could lift it a few inches, then reach under and move the blades by hand (with engine shut off of course) until it lines up. I'll mess with this today and let you know how I make out.

Thanks!

 

[snowman]

Bob;

I think it's the implement's shaft versus the tractor's shaft that is manually adjusted. I've never tried to move my tractor's PTO by hand, because I assumed it would not move freely and because it would be very difficult to grasp it.

I have a MMM that I can very easily move the mower PTO shaft on, so it's easy to hook up.

I also have a 3pt tiller that I cannot manually move the PTO easily on. For that, if I can't get the PTO shaft to line up, I will turn the tractor on, engage the PTO in hopes of having it stop in a different position, and then shut the tractor off.

Problems/accidents happen in a split second and I'd rather be inconvenienced for a few minutes trying to line it up versus regretting for the rest of my life that I lost my hand or something because I didn't take the proper precautions.

In addition, in my case, I need to be aware that I'm setting an example of how things should be done for my son (and even my wife).

 

[rf33]

Trev,

I also am not sure that it is such a good idea to be messing with the PTO while the tractor is running. Perhaps if you were to use a large screwdriver through the u-joint on your PTO shaft, you could turn the shaft easier to get things lined up properly. I think this beats the heck out of getting under the mower and spinning the blades. On my bush hog, I use this trick sometimes to get things aligned.

 

[Trev]

<font color=blue>Perhaps if you were to use a large screwdriver through the u-joint on your PTO shaft, you could turn the shaft easier to get things lined up properly.</font color=blue>

Great idea! I'll that next time. Thanks!

 

[budman72]

"Perhaps if you were to use a large screwdriver through the u-joint on your PTO shaft, you could turn the shaft easier to get things lined up properly"

Does your PTO shaft have a safety shield? I can't see the u-joints on mine because of the shield. If you don't have this it can be as dangerous as messing with the PTO with the engine running.

JMHO, Bud

 

[Trev]

<font color=blue>Does your PTO shaft have a safety shield? I can't see the u-joints on mine because of the shield. If you don't have this it can be as dangerous as messing with the PTO with the engine running.</font color=blue>

Hi Bud,

Yes, all my PTO shafts have shields. But, I can see the U-joint at the tractor end of it.. at least I remember seeing it.. perhaps it was when I had it off. I'll have to double-check.

I wish they were all as easy as the tiller. Just push on the tines with my foot while holding the shaft up there and waiting for it to click into alignment. No easy way to do this with the mower. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

I'll figure something out. I'll have to put the mower back on soon, as our weed field, er, lawn, is growing fast.

Thanks for the safety reminder!

 

[Bird]

There's going to be some differences here, I think. I believe at least some of the Deeres have a PTO brake that keeps you from turning the tractor PTO output shaft by hand, but my Kubotas did not. So it was very simple and easy to turn the tractor output shaft to line up the splines, which is what I did. However, it was also very easy for me to turn the implement driveshaft on my brush hogs (first a Bush Hog and later a Howse) and on my Bush Hog tiller. But it was NOT easy to turn the driveshaft on the Bush Hog finish mower; needed to put a big screwdriver or other bar through the U-joint to turn it.

 

[rf33]

You are certainly right about the guards, I would not operate a PTO driven implement without them. I can get to the u-joint at the tractor end of the PTO shaft either by angling in at the end of the guard or through the hole in the guard used to access the grease fitting. I certainly did not mean to suggest running without the guards being any safer.

 

[TerryinMD]

Bob,

Why do you have to lift the tiller to get the PTO shaft on? Doesn't the tiller have skid shoes? I hope that you aren't storing the tiller without lowering the skid shoes for storage. That means that you are putting all of the weigh upon the tines. Over time I do not think that it would a good thing for the bearing and tine shaft.

With my Landpride, When I lower the skid shoes, the tines are more than an inch off of the ground. When I attach it to the tractor, I get the 3PT hitch all set up and pinned and then I attach the PTO. With the tines off of the ground, I can easily spin the tines with my foot to get the PTO splines aligned.

Lifting the implement off of the ground and then placing yourself between it and the tractor with it off of the ground is a little risky to me. All it takes is one misplaced hand and a few hundred pounds of implement is resting on misplaced body parts. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Terry