So I was just back in the woods trying to bush hog some saplings and video that for you when,
what I believe happened is, I drove over a sapling and instead of it going under my wheel
or off to the side a little bit, it came right down the middle and grabbed this collar, this
sleeve on the drive shaft, and when it did that, it yanked my drive shaft right off
the PTO and now I can't get my PTO back on. Now, a confession, when I first got the tractor
and I was simply changing the implements out, I had a problem where I couldn't get the shaft
back on, when I broke down and read the manual and found out that my problem was that
there's a collar on this. There's a collar that you're supposed to push forward that
releases three bearings on the inside of this collar so that you can slip it on your PTO.
On your PTO there's not only grooves going horizontal, but there's also a groove that's
perpendicular to that that those bearings catch on, but to get to that groove, you have
to release the bearings to slide it on and then it'll snag and keep your drive shaft on your PTO.
Well, it's not working this time. I just cannot seem to get that collar to release the bearings
so that I can slide it in, so I called up the tractor shop and they told me that sometimes
the bearings, in the kind of situation I explained to them what I thought happened, sometimes
the bearings can, I guess the spring mechanism or whatever's on the inside that helps them
retract and, expand is not the right word but for lack of a better one, sometimes it
can get off kilter or a piece of dirt can get in there and you've just got to get them
back on track. You've got to pop them. You know one can get stuck is basically the best way to say it.
So, their suggestion was to try to put a screwdriver down in there and see if I can get the bearings
to release so that I can slide it back onto my shaft and then, if not, they said I need
to bring in this front half of the drive shaft and they can replace this collar mechanism.
So, since I just spent $5 repairing the pin for my top link, I really don't want to have
to take it in there, because I am pretty sure that's going to run me a bit more than $5.
So, I'm going to tinker with it and let you guys know how it goes.
Now I just want to let you guys know how much I think of you, so I'm still going to put
this on YouTube rather than delete the videos and act like it never happened. This is the
front half of the drive shaft for my bush hog and this little slip collar here is what
I was trying to adjust so that I could slip it back on. I know you won't be able to see
this, but maybe with the light you can see the groves and down in three of those grooves
are the ball bearings. Now here's what I was trying to do, I was sliding this forward.
When I do that, I can feel a spring pressure and it seems to me, it gives you the feeling
like that's what you're supposed to do to release those ball bearings. Well, after about
a half hour of frustration, phone call to the tractor company and another few minutes
of frustration, taking this thing completely off of the bush hog, which actually wasn't
as difficult as I thought it was going to be, I realize that a spring,
wait for it,
has two sides, and that maybe, the other sides not solid. Maybe you can push on the other side.
So I spent about a half hour pushing this forward, and using a screwdriver to try
to adjust these bearings and make them pop back into place just like I was told and then
I discovered that I can do this
You see the front half of this comes back and that releases the bearings. So, I'm going
to put this back together, I'm going to slide this PTO back on and I'm going to get back
to work, but just in case somebody else out there ever has this problem, don't try adjusting
this collar from the back, adjust it from the front.
Okay, so what I was trying to do is push this collar forward. You see when I'm pushing forward
and I try to slide it on nothing was happening, but now I've pulled this collar back and it
went on just like a charm. Well, one hour of learning for a lifelong knowledge, I guess
is worth it. Let's get going.