LS 2740 PTO will not engage

[Ca Rancher]

Hello,

I am trying to engage my PTO for a Brush Hog by pulling the PTO gear shift lever and when I do I hear grinding gears and it does not engage. The tractor is new to me but previously worked. Question is what am I doing wrong? Should I be in Neutral, a certain gear or rpm? Manuel says 540 RPM but that did not seem to work.

Thanks
Mike

 

[tree farmer]

welcome to the site. Which gear your tranny is in does not matter. Depress the clutch completely and lightly move the pto lever to the rear of the tractor, then slowly release the clutch pedal. You may have to coax it into gear by briefly engaging and releasing the clutch. It should drop right in. Also, only engage pto at idle speed. Don't jamb it or grind it into gear, as I've heard the gears are pretty soft material...........Dan.

 

[Ca Rancher]

Tree farmer thanks for the advice. I did try what you said and still did not have luck I will keep playing around with it. I did try something that worked was turn off the tractor, pull back the PTO lever and push in with my finger the button that is normally needing to be in to get the tractor started. The PTO engaged and everything was fine. Is that an okay method or is that too much strees on the engine?

 

[tree farmer]

Glad you got it working, sort of. I just went out and tried your method on my 2740 and it worked as well. Don't know what the temperature is at your location, but you may have issues with cold gear oil causing interference with shifting. Try holding the clutch pedal down for a few seconds before trying to engage the pto lever. A slight grind as it engages is pretty normal on mine. Another thought is, does the pto shaft stop turning when you disengage the clutch fully? If not, maybe an adjustment is needed on the pto clutch linkage. Hope this helps....Dan.

 

[Ca Rancher]

Thanks Dan. Pretty warm in Southern Ca. so should be okay. I will work my way through the tractor maintenance and get to the clutch.