PTO attachment..

[Slamfire]

When I'm hooking up the rotary cutter there is an overrunning clutch mounted on the tractor's pto shaft. That is not the case with the tiller, and the shaft is a tiny bit too long so when the tiller is attached to the hitch you can't hook the shaft up to the pto. I haven't tried a screwdriver, cause I don't have one big enough to turn the shaft with the tiller's tines on the ground.

 

[dgood1]

Just to add a new twist, have you thought about using one of the new strap wrenches? They sell them at Sears and a lot of other places. That could be used on the collar that slides on the PTO splines. The wrench would give you a much larger amount of leverage for turning the shaft.

" levers don't have to be obvious or straight "

Don

 

[chim]

The PTO shaft on both my Ford and Kubota can be rotated pretty easily with the tractor shut down and the PTO in neutral. When I hook one of the mowers up, I hook up the left 3PH arm, then the PTO, then the toplink, then walk around and do the other arm. For the PTO, I extend the driveshaft that's connected to the mower to meet the output shaft of the tractor, and if it aligns, fine. If it doesn't align, I rotate the output shaft while pushing the driveshaft towards the tractor. The output shaft only needs to turn a little and the driveshaft slips on partway. Then I twist the collar (or push the spring-loaded pin, depends on which mower) and push the shaft on. A tug on the shaft to make sure it catches, and off we go. This takes less time to do than it took to type the reply.............chim

 

[gerard]

Don't see why you should have any trouble turning the imnplement pto shaft by hand. My rotary cutter turns easily but SLOWLY. you should be able to do it, just apply slow steady pressure. Remember while you're moving a lot of metal it goes through a gear box AND you're not moving it far. (Never tried moving the tractor pto - have to try that just for curiosity!) /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Hawkflyer]

I knew a guy once who never shut down the engine when he had something to do at the rear of the machine. He said he didn't see any problem at all unless a person was just stupid. I couldn't help but notice he only had one hand. Seems he "got bit" (his words not mine) once and had been real carefull every since. From my point of view he hadn't learned much from his experiance. I never get polking around at the rear of the machine with the engine running. I enjoy tractors, but I also enjoy a lot of other things which require having all my appendages intact. I agree with the others here who point out that the drive shaft on most things can be rotated by hand (some things can't) but it may require a little "ummff" sometimes. Rarely do you have to go more than one tooth to get things lined up. Also, you can rotate the PTO by hand if the drive system is in neutral. In any case, I would shut the engine off. On my tractor it only takes about six ounces of twisting motion and 2 seconds to restart the machine. Far less effort that a drive to the hospital.

 

[Woody1]

A little story for you here. When I was young, it was my job to haul in the grain from the field and unload it into a hopper which fed into a grain auger. This auger was driven by a Minneapolis Moline UB with live PTO. PTO to driveshaft which drove 2 big pulleys. 2 pulleys had belts on them that went up the side of the auger to smaller pulleys on the side of a gearbox located further up on the auger. This gearbox was ALWAYS in need of oil. Soooo...one time I thought I would save some time, cause I was running behind. Was a good year, and dad was picking and filling wagons faster than I could get them unloaded. So, with time in mind, pulled tractor/wagon(side dump gravity flow box). Opened the wagon, started to fill hopper. Started tractor and engaged auger full throttle. Corn dumping out of wagon fast as it will feed into hopper and tractor/auger going at full blast. Ok...all is well, everything running fine....climb up to gearbox to check and add oil. What drove the auger inside the houseing was a shaft came out of the gearbox into a long shaft supported by bearings that ran clear up to the top, into a pulley that a chain was attached and chain attached to the head of the auger with another gear pulley. (this end dumped into grain bin) anyway, at main gearbox shaft connection, was 2 shearpins. I had a levi shirt on. Didnt realize my shirt tail in front was out. Wind caught it, shearpins caught it and wrapped it up. Round and round it went. Drew me into the shearpins. The upper most pin caught my shirt. I braced my arms against the auger houseing and with ALL my might and strength, stopped the auger. (shirt didnt tear)but before it stopped, the bottom shearpin would hit under my left nipple(thats how close i was). The auger full of grain, and being belt driven saved me. With all my strength and dispite being all bloody by now, and yelling with all i could for help with no-one close to hear me, I looked down to the tractor. Tried to figure out how i could get my shirt off. Everytime i would give a little on my arms to get to take off my shirt, the shaft would pull me in closer. That idea was out of the equation! I looked to the tractor cause could smell smoke. The tractor was still going full blast, but the belts were not moving. i had stopped the whole [censored] thing from moving! COOL! Just stay put and those belts will burn out! Stayed there and burnt them belts out. Took about ten minutes, but they noth burnt out at same time. After the pressure was off, I could hardely move my arms. Took my shirt off, unwrapped it from the shaft. Looked at my tit. Was down to the muscle only. Only broke the skin and fatty under. Wasnt bleeding to bad. Hurt like hell, but was alive! Minor details! Shut things down. Unhooked the wagon where it was, drove tractor out to field to get to dad. He looked at it, administered 1st aid to it. Said, "glad your still here boy! now go hook up that wagon and lets go put some new belts on". (Gee dad, dont ya think I need to go to hospital i thought?) We went up and put a couple of new belts on, finished the wagon that was there, unloaded the one we brought back with us, and kept on working rest of day. To this day, I do not know how I coulkd have had the strenght to pull that off. Guess it wasnt my time. I got a scare under my left tit is all that reminds me of this day.
Point of this story, if you think you can be faster than the PTO, think again! I was VERY lucky this day. This thing caught me in an instant. Do not think you are immune to the PTO. It WILL tear you up and it has NO mercy! It dont care what race,religion,creed, or what you think about anything, or how much you love or hate your tractor. Consider it out to get you if you let your guard down. ( that night , dad took me into town and we went for a rootbeer float at A&W) (town was 33 miles away)

 

[Hawkflyer]

Woody - Great story for making the point. I'm glad you came through ok. I have talked to a lot of folks that have had a near miss like yours, and you are right on target. Lots of folks thing things like snakes, and dogs in a bad mood are fast. Most of them have no idea how fast a PTO or gear set can be. You know in a way it is deceptive. If you stand and look at a PTO shaft, 540 RPM doesn't LOOK all that fast. But like you said get something caught in it and suddenly you know. Complicated machines like the auger you described make things worse. Just too many things going on at once to really watch out for yourself. I am amazed you were able to save yourself. If it had been me, I would probably be dead. And your story also points out the fact that these things never happen in close to the homeplace where someone might see and help out. It's always somewhere in the back fourty, no one around, and the machine is too loud to shout over for help.I am not surprised you didn't go to the hospital right away. We always kept going as long as the injured guy could walk, you know "burning daylight" and all. My dad never stopped for anything. He would pull a rag out of his pocket, wrap my cut or whatever, and right back to work we would go. Mom always gave him "H" when we got back to the house. Anyone who has been there knows that this was not abuse it was just a way of life.

 

[Scott_in_WVA]

Woody,
That is an amazing story.
A lady I know was pulling a manure spreader and was wearing sweat pants and shirt.She some how got her clothing wrapped up in the PTO yanked her clothes off plus it scalped her,her long hair was wrapped up in the fray,and she was able to drive the tractor back to the house minus most of her clothes and a lot of hair and a lot of blood,she ended up having to go to Columbus Ohio for a lot of medical treatment related around her scalp,she ended up wearing a ball cap for a long time.
She is ok now.

Always be careful

 

[Bird]

Some of the stories of accidents can seem funny now, but not at the time. A neighbor said quite a few years ago, he came home from work one day and decided to get on his tractor without changing clothes. In those days, he was wearing double knit slacks. Anyway, his pants leg got caught on the PTO shaft and it ripped his pants right off. He said he sure was glad he hadn't changed into his blue jeans. So he walked into the house in his BVDs and his wife had a neighbor lady visiting; a bit embarrassing, but no injury./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Trev]

<font color=blue> When I hook one of the mowers up, I hook up the left 3PH arm, then the PTO, then the toplink, then walk around and do the other arm. For the PTO, I extend the driveshaft that's connected to the mower to meet the output shaft of the tractor, and if it aligns, fine. If it doesn't align, I rotate the output shaft while pushing the driveshaft towards the tractor. The output shaft only needs to turn a little and the driveshaft slips on partway.</font color=blue>

Hi Chim,

Well, my experience with my JD 4300 and JD 272 rear mower has not been a pleasant one so far. First, I can't rotate the tractors PTO by hand with it shut off and disengaged. Second, I can't rotate the mowers shaft with any success.. what happens is that it would take a very long lever to slip through the u-joint to get it to turn, and it's impossible (for me) to both do the turning and also push the coupler onto the shaft.

Which leaves me with three options:

1) Engine off, assistant reaches under mower and slowly rotates blades until splines line up.

2) Engine off, repeatedly start it, engage PTO briefly, shut off engine, go back and see if it lines up yet.. repeat until it does.

3) Engine running, engage PTO briefly, keep engine running, see if it lines up, then shut down engine and install the PTO.

The last one seems to make the most sense to me. Isn't it kind of hard (like real hard) on a diesel to be started and shut down 20 times in a row while trying to get this stuff in alignment?

Thanks,
Bob

p.s. Back from the "vacation from hell." The last time I went to Key West, they set an all time record for the coldest temps they had ever recorded. This time, in Quebec City, they set the all time record for the hottest temps ever recorded. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

 

[looch]

<font color=blue>This time, in Quebec City</font color=blue>

Did you get the nailed by the smoke, too? May I ask what border crossing you used? It would be really neat to find out that a fellow TBN'er may have past right in front of my house.

 

[Trev]

<font color=blue>Did you get the nailed by the smoke, too? May I ask what border crossing you used?</font color=blue>

I'm ashamed to admit that, with my sense of direction, my wife does all the navigating and I do the driving. I can tell you that we came back into the states via the Vermont border, where it puts you right on Rt. 91 (or is it 95?).. anyway, the one that follows the Connecticut River Valley.. pretty drive. I'll ask my wife for the actual names if you are really interested?

Coming back into the states this way is pretty easy now.. although I have to admit they asked some intelligent questions which would have probably tripped up someone trying to lie their way through.

We never did see the smoke.. just got the horrendous heat. Got lucky, at least in that respect! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[lrunge]

Well Bob, on average the temperature's been fine for your vacations. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif Of course, that's like our rain fall... 6 inches over average in the spring and almost no rain for the last 5 weeks. But we are right on our annual rain for the year.

 

[looch]

<font color=blue>if you are really interested?</font color=blue>

Nah, that's ok, Bob. It sounds like you drove straight South of Quebec City to the closest border crossing. Funny how we yearn for our countries. As a Canadian, I stay in Canada as long as possible when making a road trip. Maybe because getting pulled over by a state trooper for a traffic violation is an experience I'd rather do without.

The 91 is the Quebec/Florida express. The first leg is quite nice through the Adirondacks, although finding a radio station is bit of pain.

 

[dmccarty]

Trev,

When you are turning the PTO shaft, with the engine off of
course, which way are you turning? Clockwise or counter
clockwise?

So far I have not been able to move the PTO shaft to the
MX-6. But I can turn the PTO shaft on the JD 4700 by hand.
Very easy. I think it goes counter clockwise.

It would really suprise me that the 4700 and 4300 would be
so different that one could not turn the shaft.... I have
a PowerReverser tranny so maybe that is the difference.

Later,
Dan

 

[Trev]

<font color=blue>When you are turning the PTO shaft, with the engine off of
course, which way are you turning? Clockwise or counter
clockwise?</font color=blue>

Ahah.. that might be my problem! I really don't remember which way I tried, but I know my natural inclination would be to try clockwise. I think I probably tried both directions, but I'll specifically try counter-clockwise this next time.. thanks!

Bob

 

[EdKing]

Bob,
If your PTO shaft does not turn easily either way with the tractor turned off, you can get a PTO over run clutch/adapter for around $40 to $60 from just about any tractor dealer or TSC. While this device is generally not required on newer tractors, it makes hooking the PTO up 1000% easier. It will rotate freely in one direction making the alignment of the PTO splines a snap.

 

[Trev]

Thanks, Ed. That sounds perfect. I don't mind any of my other attachments, but I dread hooking up that mower! I end up covered with sweat and grease, and this is before I even begin the job of mowing.

BTW, do you guys use that leveling tool that JD (and probably others) sell that measures the blade height from the ground? Or do you just adjust it by eyeball?

Thanks,
Bob