PTO Shaft Maintenance - Don't Neglect This! (#117)

welcome back to diy my way today we're going to be talking about pto shaft maintenance there are a number of different designs of pto shafts and it so happens that i have two of the most common kinds this one goes on my brush hog and this one goes on my wood chipper so today as i go through the routine maintenance of both of these pto shafts i'll show you the variations in the design of each one and therefore the slightly different way in which you approach in maintaining them this is a messy job so i'm wearing nitrile gloves these ends of the pto shafts connect to the tractor pto and have universal joints to allow them to operate at a range of angles from the pto the couplers on each are two of the most common kinds you'll likely see the brush hog pto shaft has a slip collar that releases when the collar is pulled back and the wood chipper pto shaft uses a spring loaded release pin i start the maintenance by wiping dirt and grease off the universal joint grease zerks next i give each zerk several squirts until i see fresh grease oozing from the [Music] joints [Music] then i wipe the excess grease off and as much dirt as i can get to there's a little more to do to this end which you will see later in the video these ends of the pto shafts connect to the implement and they have perhaps two of the most common shear pin designs starting with the brush hog shaft the sheer pin is a half inch by three and a half inches long grade two bolt with a nylock nut on the end by the way most shear pins are grade two bolts so that they are soft enough to shear when needed any higher grade than two would be too hard and your tractor's pto won't be protected from the shock of hitting a large rock or stump with your brush hog possibly causing serious damage the coupler is smooth as is the shaft on the brush hog gearbox the shear bolt runs through the implement shaft to mechanically couple the pto and implement together this greaser lubricates the coupler and implement shafts so that if the shear pin does shear the coupler can spin freely on the implement shaft there is also a grease circle on the back side of the universal joint which is accessible when the protective shroud is disconnected and pulled back you'll see how to do this shortly finally there's a snap ring that goes on the end of the bush hog gearbox shaft which keeps the coupler from backing off if the shear bolt shears however the gearbox safety shroud makes it almost impossible to put the ring on and take it off the shroud also makes it hard just to connect and disconnect the pto shaft from the brush hog making it next to impossible to change the shear pin in the field to get around it i'm going to replace the gearbox shroud with one that i'll build that will make it easy to service the pto shaft that will be covered in an upcoming video the wood chipper pto shaft has a 5 16 by two and a half inch grade two bolt for the shear pin which transfers the rotational power from the universal joint to the six blind coupler section this is the coupler release button and this is the shear joint grease cert and this is the universal joint grease zerk the shear bolt shears here where the universal joint coupler section meet allowing the coupler section to turn freely yet stay connected to the universal joint this design is easier to service in my opinion now's a good time to grease the shear point zerk and the universal joint zerk [Music] besides the difference in the coupling and the shear bolt design the shrouds themselves are actually different and come apart differently but they're two of the most common kinds that you might encounter so i'm going to show you how to take both of these shrouds off because the next thing we need to do is inspect the shafts themselves and then re-grease them make sure they're in intact and they're well lubricated both pto shafts have the plastic sleeve bearing with a grease zerk in this case and then just a grease port here meaning that on this one you can actually attach a grease gun to it you have to use a needle and squirt grease in there this one you can actually attach the grease gun to we won't grease it just yet because i want to take them both apart and show you how they're put together this one's fairly simple you just have three snaps you have to push out of the way at least i did this earlier in rehearsal let's see how lucky i am this time i don't like this one as much as the other one as you'll see and of course it didn't go well this time with the camera running it can be difficult to get all three snaps to release without the others re-engaging finally the universal joint is pretty clean so i just removed some of the excess grease this is one of two plastic sleeve bearings that allow the pto shaft to rotate independently from the safety shroud there's a split in the bearing to allow you to remove it inspect it and replace it if necessary this one looks fine so i put it back on the shroud on the brush hog pto shaft is held in place by three plastic fasteners that you remove by turning counterclockwise a quarter turn then prying them out with a screwdriver [Music] [Music] this lead bearing is also split but it is so stiff i'm afraid it might break if i pull it off so i inspect it in place however the universal joint is dirty so i clean it up a bit with a paper towel [Music] so now that we have the shrouds disengaged from either end we can take the halves of the shafts apart so we can inspect them and lubricate them i'll start by separating the sections of the short pto shaft [Music] now is a good time to inspect the two sections of the safety shroud [Music] other than one end being slightly misshapen they are fine no visible cracks chipping or abrasion i inspect the outer section of the shaft for any damage warping or excess of wear it looks good and straight likewise with the intersection all does well other than some grease it looks clean so i don't wipe it off now for some fresh grease i squirt a line of grease along the shaft then rub it all around the shaft [Music] another line of grease on the neck side and again i spread it around as evenly as possible [Music] and i repeat for the third side [Music] next it's time to snap the larger diameter shroud section onto the larger diameter pto shaft section these snap back on a lot easier than they came off [Music] repeat for the other section [Music] then slide the two sections of the pto shaft together the cross-section of the pto shaft is such that the sections will only go together one way i grease the first sleeve bearing using a pencil point adapter and then spin the shroud section on the shaft to spread the grease around a little more grease for good measure same song second verse for the other end the process is the same for the brush hog shaft except i wiped the dirt and old grease from it like before i apply fresh grease to the inner shaft section and spread it around since this shaft gets so dirty i push a rag through the shroud sections with a broomstick after inspecting them then i reattach the shroud sections by lining up the holes installing the plastic fasteners and giving them a quarter turn clockwise greasing the sleeve bearing on this shroud is easier because it has an actual greaser same steps with the other section [Music] and then i reassembled the shaft the last steps for this pto shaft are to clean and grease the coupler ends perhaps a poor choice of fingers in this case and finally i use some oil to lubricate the release collar like with any of your tractor equipment the best way to ensure that you have the longest and safest life out of your pto shaft is to maintain it regularly i hope you found this video helpful if you did i'd appreciate you click that like button leave a comment and by all means please subscribe and if you want to know when i post new videos click that little bell and as always thank you for watching you

Channel: DIY My Way

Views: 10,608

Rating: 4.9873219 out of 5

Keywords: DIY My Way, Rural Living

Id: 2uNx3DSgUHc

Length: 12min 2sec (722 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 21 2021