Tractor/pto death

[sleepyhollow]

MJB,

I'm sure you will remember and have done it before, but for anyone else wondering the steps for activating the rear PTO (can't do this with mid PTO) when not in the seat are:

1. While in seat, assuming engine is off, put transmission in neutral
- Gear Models: Fully depress clutch pedal and move transmission gear and range shift levers to the neutral position.
- ePowrReverser: move the reverser lever to the neutral position.
- eHydro: move range shift lever to the "N" (neutral) position

2. Lock the park brake

3. Push the mid and rear PTO knobs to the off position

4. Start the engine and set RPM to 1500

5. Get out of the seat and pull the rear PTO knob to the on position.

Sleepyhollow

 

[Anonymous Poster]

To sleepyhollow's post I'll add:

6. Assume it's trying to kill you, and act accordingly.

I had a friend lose a finger once, and now realize just how lucky he was. Particularly with cold weather coming, loose clothing may be the biggest danger. I have had my shirt sleeve pulled into a bench grinder buffing wheel before, but fortunately I am much bigger than it is and it stalled the motor. My tractor wouldn't even slow down.

 

[NIXON]

It's always bad to hear of such things . While I have very little experience with farm equipment, I do have a lot (22 yrs.) of experience around aircraft . I learned right off the bat to keep my sleeves rolled up , if I had to weargloves ,they were tight fitting with no loose gauntlets ,I never wore a hood . This is even when the weather was COLD . As in Grand Forks N D ! manage to keep all my extremeties ! any piece of machinery ,while making work easier can,and will bite you if you get complacent
Having said that.... I did manage to break my left thumb twice while box blading with a ford 3000 . After that I learned to keep my thumbs away from the steering wheel spokes !

 

[MossRoad]

Speaking of aircraft... who designs those things???

Hmm, lets put the auxiliary power plug on the side of the engine compartment between the leading edge of the wing and the prop!

(7 Years at FBOs, several as line chief, saw lots of scary things, left with no permanent injuries)

 

[NIXON]

they're designed by folks that don't intend to work on them ... TOO Dangerous
My favorite bit of design was the jet fuel starter exhaust on the A-7 . It pointed directly to the ground... the same place the starter dumped it's fuel ,if ground crew forgot to empty the holding tank .... . Got real good real fast with a fire extinguisher ! Happy Thanksgiving to all , John

 

[Soundguy]

<font color=blue>Speaking of aircraft... who designs those things???
Hmm, lets put the auxiliary power plug on the side of the engine compartment between the leading edge of the wing and the prop!

<font color=black>Being an engineer myself, I always get bent out of shape when I see something like you are talking about.. something designed to be a problem.

For instance... I just had to remove/re-install the starter on my 1952 ford 8N tractor. This is one of those tasks that there are legends and myths about. ( about how much a pain it is! )
For instance, right behind the starter is a brass petcock installed in the block to drain coolant. It is so close to bloomin starter that you can barely get a wrench on it.. and then you get about 1/8th inch of travel... but it must come out, or the starter aint. ( the irony is that there is an area about 8" x 4" behind this petcock where it could have been put, and be out of the way....
The starter itself is some sort of evil mechanics rube goldberg device. The 'bendix' does not have a shroud, instead, the shroud is part of the engine casting around the ring gear... and generally, at some time in the tractors life, someone has had to grind part of that casting off to remove/replace the starter, as you have no room to work.. as the steering drag link passes parallel to the starter, and just below and parallel to the starter is the steering radious rod...
Incedentally.. I just had to r/r mine this morning..... If I could have had 5 minutes in a locked room with the eng'r that came up with that configuration....well.. it wouldn't have been pretty...
In my opinion.. bad design is lazyness, or ineptness.... I still can't decide if the ford eng'r was lazy or inept.. ( or both! )

Soundguy

 

[Egon]

Soundguy:

I firmly beleive that all design engineers should be mandated to assemble and disassemble their product with an ordinary tool box in minus 20 F weather with a 20 mph wind blowing.

Egon

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Soundguy I've decided we're caught twixt and tween.

For many many years now I've accepted the fact that design engineers all married girls whose mothers were mechanics. We pay the price.

 

[GlennT]

Decades ago when threshing machines were used for harvesting grain there were some really horror stories about farmers getting caught in belts--especially that big drive belt. That monster could literally cut you in half. Also, the machines would plug up and then it was necessary to open them up and pull out wads of straw. If someone was careless and started up the machine, it got to be a real mess. No survivor benefits for the widows and children, either.

 

[jhburke]

THat is like what I use to hear about airplane mechanics. I was told years ago that after a mechanic worked on a plane. On the test flight of the plane the mechanic had to go along as a passenger. I think that would make a person be very sure of what they did.