New to the forum. Great information source and helped me decide to buy my tractor. I bought a 2000 3206 at 240 hrs with a 54 inch deck and blade. Great tractor, engine runs well and until yesterday the mower ran well too. The 3206 has a vacuum actuated front PTO. I was mowing with no problems, stopped to talk to neighbor, disengaged PTO and killed engine. After restarting engine, PTO will not engage. Finished lawn by forcing vacuum PTO acutator to engage by pushing the black rubber boot on front right of tractor in until I got a complete vacuum. I have checked vacuum lines and have not found a leak. Took vacuum actuator apart to inspect, did not find anything that said this is the problem. Not sure about solenoid, factory sealed unit. The black rubber boot on the vacuum actuator will hold a vacuum if I force it to engage, but will not engage by itself. The rubber boot does not have a complete seal all the way around, not sure if it was like this before, no reason to look before this. I believe that maybe the black plastic piece that holds the rubber boot may have cracked, but does not look like a new fracture. Priced a new unit on the net, partstree.com?, and not ready to dump $120 into new vacuum actuator.
Anybody else with a similar problem in the past? Any ideas?
Thanks.
Anybody else with a similar problem in the past? Any ideas?
Thanks.