I put a small dent in the outer part (female part) of my PTO shaft with the FEL bucket, so it's bent slightly. It still works but vibrates a bit. If I put this thing on a hydraulic arbor press, do you think I can straighten it and improve things? Or should I just forget it.
3-Point Hitch Straighten PTO shaft?
- Thread starter BeezFun
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I can't speak for the success rate of straightening a hollow, shaped shaft.
If you can find the right size shaft stock and take it to a place that builds truck or such drive shafts it would cost you about $40-50 total. I bought a chipper that came with a bent PTO shaft and I payed $18 for the stock and another $20 or so for the replacing of bent stock. A bit of hunting was required to find a place that sells PTO shaft stock in the right size for my chipper.
Edit: My first suggestion is that you should not run it with the bent shaft. My guess is that vibration could cause premature "U" joint or some other failure. It costs a lot more money to replace an extra "U" joint or even more for the whole assembly.
If you can find the right size shaft stock and take it to a place that builds truck or such drive shafts it would cost you about $40-50 total. I bought a chipper that came with a bent PTO shaft and I payed $18 for the stock and another $20 or so for the replacing of bent stock. A bit of hunting was required to find a place that sells PTO shaft stock in the right size for my chipper.
Edit: My first suggestion is that you should not run it with the bent shaft. My guess is that vibration could cause premature "U" joint or some other failure. It costs a lot more money to replace an extra "U" joint or even more for the whole assembly.
What have you got to lose by straightening it. Straighten it and if it vibrates then think about replacing pieces. If you can still run it I doubt it has been bent enough to affect integrity of the shaft. I would be somewhat concerned about the sliding fit between the male and female portion of the shaft.
We used to balance car drive shafts by just using a hose clamp and a metal weights and do a trail and error to see where it smoothed out. Sometimes we tack welded a weight on the shaft and other times we just left the hose clamp and weight on it. It's not rocket science at 540 rpms on tractors.
We used to balance car drive shafts by just using a hose clamp and a metal weights and do a trail and error to see where it smoothed out. Sometimes we tack welded a weight on the shaft and other times we just left the hose clamp and weight on it. It's not rocket science at 540 rpms on tractors.
art
Super Member
As a dealer keep running it!!!! It's sure to take the gearbox and depending on the angles will probably take the PTO out of the back of the tractor!!!!
Those shafts slide back and forth the whole time it's running unless they are in perfect aliagnment and will take ot the next weakest link.
We see plenty of people replacing broken well lubed u-joints but they have never spent the time to grease the tubes that have to slide!!!!!
Those shafts slide back and forth the whole time it's running unless they are in perfect aliagnment and will take ot the next weakest link.
We see plenty of people replacing broken well lubed u-joints but they have never spent the time to grease the tubes that have to slide!!!!!
lilranch2001
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my vote is to weld on a new outer shaft, I am fairly good with metal and I tried to fix a small ding and all it did was waste my time, still vibrated even at 540 RPM
KubieTwo
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Beez, I think you are trying to do the right thing and you realize you should not run something with abnormal vibration. Art and several others have given you good advice that agrees with your own intuition. There are various ways of repairing it, and even replacing it will in the long run be far cheaper than running it bent. Some time back there was a very lengthy thread with several BX owners running decks with vibration bad enough to shake all the bolts out of the spindles....repeatedly. Some spoke of the different types of nuts they had tried to keep the bolts tight, but very few were concerned about addressing the source of the vibration that was shaking them loose. As Art conveyed, an ignored vibration will take out a lot of expensive things in pretty short order. This is an easy one as you already know the problem.
crazyal
Super Member
Either replace it or take it to a place that builds drive shafts. Around here there's one that builds drive shafts for trucks that has a very large lathe. They put the shafts in it and can find the run out and straighten them and add weight to balance them as needed.
I believe you are getting good advice about taking your shaft to a shop that specializes in PTO and drive shafts.
Having said that, quite a few of the shafts we balanced and straightened were brand new PTO shafts from "reputable" dealers and manufacturers. I did/do have a lathe to spin some of these shaft on. The lathe was also heavy enough (26" x 8.5' between centers) to perform the straightening process right on the lathe. It was unbelievable the amount of run out found on some of the PTO shafts. PTO shafts by their very nature with the sliding fits to hook up and vary length will not run perfect.
Most of the PTOs had a short section of square drive on the female end and I doubt you have hurt that section
KubieTwo
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I agree with you it can be very reliably repaired and thought that was what I said above, except I think they will probably just replace the bent part on something that short. If they have the tubing it might take less time to cut and weld than to straighten...again depending on the condition. After looking at the shaft they would propose the repair, whatever that is.
Not sure how, if it is either replaced with a new one or the bent section is cut off and replaced by a reputable shaft shop that "...when you least expect it, half the shaft will fail.(transit)" If that is true, then a new one it is I suppose. I don't think a good shop would repair it if they didn't think it would be reliable, but that is just my opinion. I have had all kinds of shafts repaired, shortened, lengthened, balanced, etc with never a problem, but maybe I have been very lucky. It I ever had a shaft that could not be economically repaired the shop told me and I went to plan B. Guess I missed something somewhere.
lawn_king
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Very good advise here, pro machine shop or scrap pile!
Thanks for all the feedback. I think I'm going to measure the runout on this shaft to see how much it is. The two halves still slide freely, so it's possible that just the outside of the tube is dented, and it's not really bent. I'm not really sure this vibrates any more than my generator, which has it's own (undented) shaft.
So I checked the shaft, the runout was so irregular I put a straightedge along the outside of the outer tube, and it's about 1/4" out of straight. There's also so much slop in the fit between the inner and outer tube that they still slide freely even though the outer sleeve is bent and the inner sleeve is not. So I'm not sure it would help to straighten it. This shaft is about 50 years old, maybe it's time for a new one. The good news is I found a driveline shop about a mile from my house, so I'll drop it off and find out the best course of action.
Chilly807
Elite Member
IMO, unless it's something you can't get easily, it isn't worth trying to repair. I bent the female shaft on my rotary cutter this spring through an error on my part. The new half shaft cost me $67, which was for the tube itself. Removed the old one, installed the new in about 20 minutes, cut it to length and never looked back.
I kept the old one for a cheater pipe for flex handles.
Sometimes you're better off just to take your licks and go forward.
Sean
I kept the old one for a cheater pipe for flex handles.
Sometimes you're better off just to take your licks and go forward.
Sean
I took it over to the shop, they said that little bend is the least of the problems. It's 20 years beyond it's service life, the slop between the inner and outer tubes is so excessive it can't be worked on. So they're building a new shaft with the existing ends on it (one is special for the slip clutch, the other is what I need for the PTO spline), new crosses. They dynamically balance it after they build it. $380.
lilranch2001
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I have never priced a new shaft, but have you looked into it?
Seems a little steep for a rebuilt verses a new one
Seems a little steep for a rebuilt verses a new one
Chilly807
Elite Member
I'd say that was expensive, but when you add up all the parts piece by piece and add labour, it's probably not that bad. I have seen other posts here where someone has gone to TSC as an example and got a complete shaft for $150. Mind you, I suspect that shaft might not fit directly on to the slip clutch without machining and welding.
edit- I just checked their website, anywhere from $99 to $229 depending on HP and length. It might be worth looking into unless you're already committed. You might as well price up dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant while you're at it, because I'm pretty sure that at those prices you'll be contributing to the economy of our Chinese brethren.
I priced up a couple of driveline components I would have liked to replace after mine had it's "episode" this spring. I decided the old parts would be OK, if not pretty, after hearing the price of the new ones.
Sean
edit- I just checked their website, anywhere from $99 to $229 depending on HP and length. It might be worth looking into unless you're already committed. You might as well price up dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant while you're at it, because I'm pretty sure that at those prices you'll be contributing to the economy of our Chinese brethren.
I priced up a couple of driveline components I would have liked to replace after mine had it's "episode" this spring. I decided the old parts would be OK, if not pretty, after hearing the price of the new ones.
Sean
It is a new one. I have one end that has a yoke welded to the connecting plate for the slip clutch, they have to remove that and put it on the new shaft. They also reuse the yoke on the other end that has the spline that matches my tractor. So they have to take out both crosses and replace them.They mount the shaft in this thing that looks like a huge lathe and balance it. It also includes shrouds, something I didn't have on the 50 year old one it's replacing.
It's still steep, but I've got 10 projects the control tower is on me to finish up, I can't spend a day staring at the shelves in Farm and Fleet to find the right parts, then come home and try to put it together, then drive back to F&F to get the real right parts.
Chilly807
Elite Member
I know the feeling.. SWMBO gives me lots of wiggle room, but sometimes I just look at what else I want to do that day, and say "And that's why I work, so I can afford to let someone else do the work once in a while."
Sean
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