Tips for a seized PTO drive shaft?

[cmjust0]

Bought an older post hole auger at auction the other day, knowing full well that the PTO shaft that came with it wouldn't 'telescope'.. :roll: The couplings/ujoints at the ends were a little rusty, but the shaft itself looked pretty clean.. I thought it was probably just a little light surface rust holding it up, and figured for sure I could just chain it between the tractor and a something solid and it jerk it apart...

Not so... Hooked it up between the tractor and the bottom of an old fence post, and it almost brought the post outta the ground.. I put a little slack in the chains a couple of times to 'shock' it with the tractor, and it still just jerked the post around...

I'm going to hose it down with PB blaster tonight and maybe try the chains again Saturday, but I'm not too optimistic about it.. Anybody got any tips, tricks, or ideas on how to get this puppy apart??

 

[dun]

If you can see inside of the protective covers, see if the shaft is still the correct shape and not smashed. If it's ok, lube the snot out of it, let it set and try to pull it apart again. While it has a strain on it but not enough to pull the post out of the ground, tap the exposed part of the shaft with a hammer.
Had the same problem with a brushhog and that worked for me.

dun

 

[D.R. Cattle]

Tractor Supply carries replacements. I just had that problem and ended up buying a new one there. PTO's are made with chincy materials in China nowadays. Doesn't take much to bind up the Chinese PTO. It's basically a tube inside a tube, where the old ones used to be a nice solid square stock sliding into a square cutout in a thick piece of round stock, with a grease fitting. Don't see many of those anymore. Not even on the Rhino bushhog I bought last year.

 

[cmjust0]

Thanks, dun.. I hadn't really thought of any deformities hiding under the plastic sleeve doohickey (whatever those hateful things are called), but now that you mention it...... I eyeballed the bolt cutters a time or two while I was working with it, thinking I might just snip that sleeve off to get a better look.. I think I'll do that now..

And, yes, as bad as I hate trying to re-attach driveline sections or replace shear bolts with the sleeves on there, I'll be sure and purchase another one before I use the thing.. :lol: I'll never get over being slightly afraid of farm equipment, because if I ever find that I AM getting over it, I'll make a point to read enough horror stories to scare myself again...

And there are no shortages of horror stories, from what I can tell...

 

[cmjust0]

D.R. - Come to think of it, I can't remember whether or not this one was a three-bump round shaft or a square one.. The digger was made by International Digger Corporation, and looks like it's got a few years on it.. It also looks to be considerably heavier duty than the power units sold at TSC now.. Shaft could be either kind, honestly.. All I remember seeing was that the shaft itself looked pretty clean, and thinking "that'll be a piece of cake!!" :roll: :lol:

I'll look a little closer tonight..

 

[jw]

I had one sieze up last year. Tried all I could think of. Took it to a welding shop. After a few minutes of intense study the man took one end and secured it very well to a fence post and took a come-a-long on the other end and very slowly pulled it out. Said something about air getting in it and forming a vacuum. DUH!!

 

[ga. prime]

Tie one end to a tree(not a fencepost)that you don't care too much about and the other end to tractor drawbar. Snatch until something gives. This after liberal use of the pb blaster. If pto shaft breaks or becomes otherwise unusabale, go to welding shop, get another, about $80. P.S., if it's bent it probably is unusable, unless you're very good with a press.

 

[Bez!]

Heat it, soak it in a pail of diesel, bang on it, throw it away.

Worst case scenario - cut the cover off - press the telescoping pieces together or apart - buy a new cover.

case scenario - all else fails - they are cheap enough to replace if nothing else works.

Git a new'un.

Bez!

 

[farmer4620]

we had one sieze up we heated it put truck on it and pulled while hitting with sledge hammer and heating it with torch after an hour of steady hitting and pulling and heating we got a new one...she was in for the long haul

 

[cmjust0]

Took a closer look at it last night and it's not a square shaft, but not the cheap-o kind like the one that came new with my brush mower... It's fairly heavy duty, it seems, and after looking it over a little more closely I decided that I really want to recover it. I think it's a mission now.. :lol:

I took some bolt cutters and nipped away at the sleeve until I could see where the two pieces meet.. Didn't really look all that rusted, but it certainly wasn't clean.. I shot it w/ plenty of PB blaster (about half a can) and it did seem to be seeping down in between the sections of the shaft.. I'm going to hit it again tonight w/ PB, and then try again to seperate it..

Someone mentioned a come-along, which sounds like a good idea.. I'm thinking I'm going to take a similar route this time.. I'm gonna shackle my HiLift jack to the truck, then the PTO shaft to the jack, and then a tree to the PTO shaft.. Then, I'm gonna crank. If I bend the jack, I'll buy a new PTO shaft..

And HiLift.. :lol:

 

[J]

If you can get to the open end of the shaft that is inside plug one end, put a fire extenguisher in and blow some in there. It will freeze it causing it to contract, then it will be easier to pull out. Don't freeze the outside one cause it will just make it tighter. We did this before on a bearing that was seized onto a shaft at a candy factory one time. We tried every imaginable way to get that darn bearing off, even had hydraulic jacks rigged to it, there was so much noticable pressure that we stopped that fast. An old man put a rag in one end of the shaft filled it up, we went to lunch and when we came back almost slid it off with our hands. Worth a try if you want to save it. This way won't hurt anything.

 

[cmjust0]

Hmm.. Not sure if there's a hole at the end of the smaller shaft section or not.. That's a great idea, though, and I was already planning to check for a hole there for another idea I had.. If there is a hole, I'm gonna pack it full of black powder and light it.. That should blow it apart, right??

Just kidding.. (or AM I?) :shock: :lol:

But seriously, it's supposed to get really cold this weekend and I've wondered if there would be any way to use water/ice to my advantage.. For example, if there were holes where I could fill the thing with completely with water and plug it, would the pressure of the freezing water force the two shaft sections to break loose?? I figure if it actually burst or became misshapen instead of breaking loose, then I'd at least know that the rust was stronger than the steel itself, and that it was definitely a lost cause anyway..

Then again, I get all kinds of really stupid ideas all the time, and this might well be one of them.. It's hard telling sometimes.. :lol:

 

[Bama]

If its bent forget it and buy a new one. Otherwise put some heat on it first to loosen the rust.get as much penetrating oil in it as possible. Heat the center of it again as this will draw the oil to the heat. Repeat if necessary, get all the oil in it as you can. Let cool. Pound with a hammer to shorten it a little, not really trying to shorten it, just to get it to move. Now go to the tree and winch. If it still wont move use the ice on the inner tube as it will contract. Put a little heat on the outside part with a torch. Do this rather quickly as the heat will transfer to the inner tube. For this to work the inner tube will have to be cold and the outer one hot. While it is still under tension from the winch hit it with the hammer to shock it. good luck.

 

[Saltydawg]

If its bent or dented I wouldn't bother. Either way you're gonna have a heck of a time.

If you think its rust, try heating as much of the outter tube as you can to cherry red.....then drop it in a bucket of cold water. The sudden contraction will break most rust bonds. You'll probably have to do this a couple times working your way down the tube.

This works on almost anything that has a rust bond...you just don't want to do it with case hardened parts like axle spindles and bearing races(if you're planning on reusing them)....PTO shaft is fine though.

 

[cmjust0]

Ok, here's an update on the PTO shaft problem for anyone who cares.. I quit worrying about it for a while, as I had other projects to put my effort into.. Anyway, I cut the remainder of the safety sleeve off of it, and it looked straight.. I hooked one side of it to a 12-15", concreted black locust post, and the other side to the hitch of a 4x4 4.0L I-6 Jeep Cherokee (good torque).. I laid a blanket over the section most likely to give way, as I didn't want a broken or unhooked chain to come flying through the back window of the Jeep..

I'd give it some slack, gun the Jeep, and it would stop dead in it's tracks when it caught.. I did this over and over and over again, and FINALLY.......

I went to TSC and bought a shaft that fits like new money... Put $15 worth of new cutting tips on the bit, and the whole rig works like a champ..

So, yeah, the auger that I got a good deal on at auction ended up only saving me about $50 on what a new unit costs at TSC, but I also had a chance to look their units over over... After that, I didn't feel bad at all.. For $50 less money and a little more aggravation, my auger makes their augers look like something you'd get in a cereal box.. :lol:

 

[jw]

See, it just took a little patience and a trip to the Tractor Supply!!

 

[cmjust0]

See, it just took a little patience and a trip to the Tractor Supply!!

...like most problems around here... :lol: :lol: