3-Point Hitch How to remove pto shaft cover?

[Pilot]

Shaft is on a Bush Hog mower. Big plastic covers on ends of shaft surrounding the yokes. Need to remove the cover so I can take off the yoke for repair. It appears that the shaft and cover are Italian made, if that helps anyone. So if I learned how to attach the pic, you can see the small gadget on the small end of the cover. A screwdriver can rotate it so the slot is in line with the shaft. In either position it can move just a little bit parallel to the shaft, but not enough to remove the cover. There are 4 of these and I am afraid if I use much force they will break.

So, how should I remove the cover?

 

[Gary Fowler]

Can you not separate the shafts then slide the covers off the detached ends. It may need a bit of help (force) getting the bell ends off the universal joints.

 

[Big Barn]

Good luck. I hate those things.

 

[AchingBack]

Once you have turned those, simply pry them out with your screw driver.

 

[ruffdog]

You can google "remove pto shaft cover" for videos and pictures. All the makers use different secretes to slide the cover off....it's like solving a puzzle.

My PTO shaft tips

 

[TBone]

Good luck. I hate those things.

Me too. Mine is rolling around in the back of my truck. After removing it to grease the joints a few times I took it off and will not be putting it back on.

 

[Big Barn]

Me too. Mine is rolling around in the back of my truck. After removing it to grease the joints a few times I took it off and will not be putting it back on.

What I’ve done on some is warm up the plastic with a heat gun and use a sharp knife to cut an access hole for your grease gun nozzle.

 

[fatchance]

You need to pop those clips up.

 

[hosspuller]

Looks like the two knobs should be squeezed together then the latch will pass up. Repeat for the other latches. Then the whole cover slides on the shaft away from the joint.

 

[mwayne]

Because of frustrations with the OEM guard and some damage I bought a Bare-co cover for my Bush Hog, it was expensive but is easy to take off for greasing etc.

BareCo PTO Safety Guard - YouTube

It functions almost as easily as in the video.

 

[redman135]

From the look of the sun damage you may be better off writing this cover off and repairing the yoke ,and fit a new shaft cover.

 

[Overtaxed]

I just had the same wrestling match with my BW12 mower. What a PITA! I spent about an hour doing all the universal joints (a job that should have taken 5 minutes) and, on that machine, there are 6-8 (IIRC) of those shaft covers that to release. I've never had an implement that had shielding like that before, and I spent at least the first 30 minutes looking at it thinking "this can't be right, I must be missing something". No.. I'm not, I really do need to get some tools out to get at the u-joints to grease them. That aftermarket guard looks nice, wonder why they don't come from the factor that way?!?

I might remove my guards entirely. On some (small) number of machines, I do think the guards make sense. The best example is the wood chipper, your walking around near the shaft all the time and working outside the tractor 100% of the time the shaft is spinning. But on something like my BW12?? I mean, if I'm standing where the shaft could catch me (on the mower or between the mower and the tractor) while the PTO is running well.. I think I've got bigger problems than the rotating shaft! Why on earth would you be standing there while the machine is running?! In fact, why would you run the PTO at all off the tractor using something like bush hog (or frankly, most other PTO implements)? Seems like safety has taken a front row seat ahead of "logical dangers" associated with various implements.