Branson 4720 PTO failure

[North_Pole_Branson]

Greetings,
I have searched through some of the threads and have not found my particular problem listed with a resolution. seen some comments about bad pto's but never a followup to tell us how it ended.
well I have a new branson 4720 and just boughtlast fall (65 hours now) and a new 50" pto tiller from the dealer. We ran the tiller for about eight hours and it seemed to work great. The next morning the tiller worked "OK" for a couple minutes then stalled out whenever it encountered any kind of resistance. The dealer came right out and consulted the factory and thought the control valve was bad so they changed that after a few days of waiting for parts, this made no improvements. They hooked up a pressure gauge and set the pressure up to I thought they said 210PSI, still made no improvement. consulted factory again, they told him either hydraulic pump or clutch pack. Dealer thinks it's the clutch pack cause the loader still works good. new clutch pack on order and is suppose to have it back tomorrow maybe. any thoughts as to why a new clutch pack with eight hours on it would fail like this, if that is what it is? running the tractor in first/first just crawling along, the tiller seems to chew it's way through the dirt.

 

[GEB]

Not much of a clue here,
you say it will work if the trans is in 1st gear along with the axle being in 1st gear?
Are you able to to shift the pto from 540 to 1000 rpm
Surly your running the pto at 540 rpm's and your engine rpm's @ around 2500 rpm's?
I have a 4720 also thats been very good to me.
Gene

 

[North_Pole_Branson]

I should hear some more from the dealer today, they were going to replace the PTO clutch pack and hope that fixed it...
not sure about the 1000 rpm and the 540 rpm.. mine has 540 rpm and 540E for a main setting and on the RPM gauge it has a band where the 540 rpm setting is suppose to be run at. I don't see a band for the 540E setting, any idea what rpm to run the 540E at? currently I use the 540 and set it mid power band on the RPM gauge (can't remember what it is offhand).
currently it does not work in any gear combination, it powers out with any little obstruction. I did run it in first/first with in the 540RPM range. This provided a nice slow ground speed and allowed the tiller to fully chew up the ground without overloading it.
Is it possible that the PTO clutch pack was bum from the begining? So far I love the tractor, use it for any tack that I could think of around the property..

 

[North_Pole_Branson]

Got the tractor back this afternoon from the dealer. He got the new PTO clutch pack installed and the hydraulic pressure set. I tested it for a few hours tonight and it is working as advertised. He figured the problem started when the hydraulic pressure was initially set to low allowing the clutch to slip. After several hours of use with it slipping it was shot. Will run the tractor all day tomorrow tilling several more acres and let you all know how it turns out. so far it appears as though the problem is resolved.......

 

[GEB]

Good to hear, hope it's trouble free.....
these are very good tractors with very few issues.
I think you'll be fine.
Gene

 

[EddieWalker]

Interesting thread and a nice job with the dealer taking care of you. It's nice to hear that when it happens.

Keep us updated if the problem returns.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[DavesTractor]

Got the tractor back this afternoon from the dealer. He got the new PTO clutch pack installed and the hydraulic pressure set. I tested it for a few hours tonight and it is working as advertised. He figured the problem started when the hydraulic pressure was initially set to low allowing the clutch to slip. After several hours of use with it slipping it was shot. Will run the tractor all day tomorrow tilling several more acres and let you all know how it turns out. so far it appears as though the problem is resolved.......

We test the hydraulic engagement pressure on every Branson during our pre-delivery inspection. Unfortunately it is very common for them to be set way under specs from the factory. If the PTO is used much in that manner, it prematurely wears the clutch packs. We learned that on a couple of them when they first went to the iPTO. Since we have started doing the adjustments we have had zero failures. I would think most all dealers check for this, yours must have slipped through the cracks. Now that it is fixed, I doubt you will ever have a problem with it.

 

[Lunk]

We test the hydraulic engagement pressure on every Branson during our pre-delivery inspection. Unfortunately it is very common for them to be set way under specs from the factory. If the PTO is used much in that manner, it prematurely wears the clutch packs. We learned that on a couple of them when they first went to the iPTO. Since we have started doing the adjustments we have had zero failures. I would think most all dealers check for this, yours must have slipped through the cracks. Now that it is fixed, I doubt you will ever have a problem with it.

Dave,

Your insight is always welcome here. Some Dealer's only post to promote their product lines (if possible), while you always seem willing to help.


Thanks!

Lunk

 

[North_Pole_Branson]

All of your post are greatly appreciated, my reason for posting this problem is that maybe in the future it will save someone some time if they have a similar failure.
I have been running the tiller for the last few days with no problems, it feels strong and is crewing right through the soil. Look forward to years of use from this tiller and PTO.

 

[MMG]

Could we get an update on the PTO performance? Mine just did the same thing I think. Where did they adjust the pressure?