PTO light is on but it will not engage

[livemusic]

Mahindra 5010, the way I engage the PTO is I push a button on the right side of the dash and that button's red light comes on and it engages the PTO. Currently, the light comes on but nothing happens at the PTO. I finally gave up trying this and that and thought that maybe the hydraulic oil is low? It should not be because I had a tree limb hit a hose months ago and it all drained out and I fixed the hose and refilled with 9 gallons of hydraulic oil, which is what its capacity is. If it's gone, it leaked out or somebody stole it. I actually did have someone steal my gas from my log splitter recently. I never heard of stealing hydraulic oil out of a tractor but I guess it's possible because it is $65 per 5 gallons. I do not see oil on the ground. Last time I used the tractor, a month ago, it worked fine, I clipped the pasture. I parked it and now this.

Question... I could not see ANY hydraulic oil on the dipstick which is atop the left rear axle. I started adding hydraulic oil and checking it, nothing. I finally added the entire 5 gal bucket. Nothing on the dipstick. I don't understand this... should I be able to readily see oil on this dipstick even thought the oil is new and, you know, not very dark color? Would I need to add almost 9 gal before I could see anything on the dipstick? Another thing I don't understand... the FEL and the rear 3 pt hitch work fine. If the hydraulic oil is gone, why would those raise and lower normally?

It it's 'something else,' no telling what it is. But I hope someone can answer those questions in the paragraph above.

I have owned this tractor, used to me, less than a year. And I am no expert, just decently adept and fairly simple fixes and maintenance.

 

[ericm979]

What kind of oil did you use? Tractor fluid has additives to make it work properly with wet clutches and brakes. Regular hydraulic oil does not. But it seems unlikely that you'd have damaged your PTO clutch right away.

If you engage the PTO at idle with no pto driveshaft attached, does the PTO stub on the tractor turn? If not then its likely that the solenoid valve that operates the hydraulic PTO clutch is not working. Your tractor may take the hydraulic flow to operate the PTO clutch from the steering pump. That's common in modern CUTS. They have two pumps, one for steering and PTO and one for all other hydraulics. You can check that in your shop manual. If that's how it works and the steering is still working then you know that pump is working.

 

[seville009]

It can be hard to see the clear fluid on a dipstick; what i do is press the dipstick against a paper towel to see where the level is.

That being said, I don’t have a dipstick for my hydraulic fluid; just a siteglass in the rear about knee level.

Hydraulic fluid also should not get darker as it is used; engine oil does though.


Regarding the pto, my MF tractor has a lever to put the pto in neutral. I don’t know if your tractor has one too; if so, make sure that the pto is not in neutral.

 

[Jchonline]

Electrical maybe? Safety switch relay? Doubt its hydraulic fluid level, but that would have taken less time to check than for you to time all of that out.

 

[duffer]

Even though I have a different model than you, Mahindra does a lot of consistent things thru-out their line up.

Look below your PTO button, and see if there is another manual switch that says Auto/off/Manual. If that switch is "off" that will prevent your PTO from starting, even though the red PTO button is engaged.

Also, you may have a manual "gear-shift" lever next to your seat that will disengage the PTO gears, even with all of the PTO elec switches on. It's used primarily to disengage the PTO shaft while stopped to spin the PTO shaft by hand to line up the splines with your implement driveshaft. On mine, the lever needs to be pulled back all the way.

Hope that helps.

 

[emcvay]

Did you figure it out? I had the same issue and had it fixed when mine was in for a blown axle seal...then recently I went to use the PTO and waddaya know the PTO won't work again! I am guessing maybe a relay or fuse but and looking for options to check next time I'm there.