PTO attachment..

[Trev]

This is going to be controversial, and I want to preface this by saying that what I'm about to talk about is almost certainly a dumb idea.. please, nobody try this at home!!

I was hooking up my finish mower the other day, and the PTO shaft wouldn't slip into place. What I finally did was leave the engine idling, and move the PTO lever slightly.. then go back and see if it would slip on. I had to do this about five times before the splines aligned properly to allow it to slide on.

I was careful to make sure no part of my body was near anything around the blades or the shaft, just in case.. for whatever reason, the PTO started to rotate. I just held the shaft gently, pulled back the sleeve, and tried to push it on. When it didn't go, I would go up, engage the PTO for a second to rotate the shaft, and then disengage it again and go back to the mower to see if it would slide on.

Is this utterly stupid? It didn't seem to me that I was at great risk. If the shaft had started to rotate, it would have just spun in my hands and I would have let go and shut her down.

What do you guys think? Is there some other way of getting the splines to line up without having to do things like shut the engine down, reach under the mower and rotate the blades by hand, try to get it on, and repeat until it works?

If one is careful, is it really essential to shut down the engine?

 

[EdKing]

I never shut the engine down when attaching the PTO on my brush cutter. I just set the throttle to idle and hook it up. I put an overrun clutch on my PTO and this makes it easy to line the splines up on the shaft.

 

[RoyJackson]

<font color=red>"Is this utterly stupid? "</font color=red>

It my opinion...YES!!!!!!


Maybe I'm a wimp...but the guys you read about having these accidents are those with years of experience.
No offense to any of my friends at TBN...but if you're working at your PTO with the key in the ignition..you're an accident waiting to happen!

Just my humble opinion!

 

[Bird]

I've seen lots of guys hook up their PTO driveshafts with the engine running on the tractor. No problem; as long as that PTO never accidentally gets engaged. Very slim possibility of ever having a problem, but for myself, why take a slim chance of losing an arm or life when I can kill the engine and take no chance.

 

[Slamfire]

I can turn the mower shaft by hand, which is the way to hook up. The tiller however is a different story. :^(

 

[rancar]

Hey Bob.....

I see you're now a New Member. This isn't right/w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif....you were a Veteran I recall just a couple days ago. What happened???????

 

[Rover]

I could always turn the PTO output shaft by hand rather than have the tractor running.

Did you try that with your tractor?

And yes that is stupid, can think of three people just off the top of my head I know personally with fingers off or having an arm reattached from PTO 'accidents' or 'stupid attacks'.

You only live once, try to make it less painful.

Rover

 

[RoyJackson]

"I see you're now a New Member. This isn't right....you were a Veteran I recall just a couple days ago. What happened??????? "

Looks like he changed his nick name...

 

[TerryinMD]

Bob,

I do not know if the 4300 has the same setup as a 4100, but I can turn my PTO shaft by hand with the tractor running. What I do is to put the PTO selector into MMM PTO mode and then turn the rear PTO shaft by hand to align.

Or, I turn the PTO drive shaft for the implement. It's easy to do on the rotory tiller. The rotary cutter is a different story.

Terry

 

[Trev]

<font color=blue>I can turn the mower shaft by hand, which is the way to hook up. The tiller however is a different story. :^( </font color=blue>

Now that's interesting. I have no trouble with the tiller, but have a bear of a time with the mower.

Here's the drill I use for the tiller, if it helps.

Connect up everything except the PTO shaft. Raise the tiller a few inches up in the air. Shut off the engine. Go back and put the heel of your boot on one of the tines of the tiller. By just pushing down, you can rotate the tiller easily (at least on my JD550.) Now you can easily get the PTO on by just moving the tiller tines until things line up.

Hope this helps!

Bob