Help!!Stuck PTO shaft

[Jaybird]

When I went to take my bush hog off the tractor (M5400) I could not get the mower shaft to disengage from the PTO. It looks like the shaft has gone further up the tractor PTO than it should and is stuck. The release pin won't budge.
I've tried hitting it with a heavy hammer but can't get a good angle to do much good. I'm stumped!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[RCW]

Jaybird -

May not be much help, since not well-versed with bush hogs, but here goes:

Can you get the shaft off the 'hog's gearbox side?

If so, pull the shaft apart, and use the square side of the split shaft to pound or pull on, maybe with C-clamp?

Or maybe a loop or hook of racket strap through U-joint at stuck side on tractor? Be careful something doesn't go flying if the nylon strap recoils....

Other thought is a good pry-bar on the tractor side, just being careful not to crack housing at tractor's PTO spindle.

My other thought as to the cause; wondering if your PTO shaft between tractor and 'hog is too long when fully raised - causing the coupling to jam into the tractor. Could have caused damage at both the tractor PTO and mower gearbox...hope not the case....

Gosh, my best wishes for a good outcome!!

 

[Diydave]

Soak the shaft in Kroil or your favorite penetrating oil.

Then chain BH to a big tree.

Disconnect the TPH attachment points.

Use your tractor, to pull the 2 halves apart.

If you have to, remove the remaining part if it is stuck to the tractor, by soaking with penetrating oil, and or, pulling it off with the same method as above, or by cutting a slot, in the female coupling with an exhaust cutter, and then pulling...

If your shaft has slid forward, it begs the question, was it too long, in the first place?

 

[Bulldog]

Look at the yoke and see if the tractor pto shaft is sticking all the way thru toward the u-joint. If it's right it should be about flush. If not something has let it go to far on the shaft.

 

[Daren Todd]

If the shaft has slid forward further then it should, then the locking pin is probably bound into the metal on the tractor side of the slot. You'll probably have to force the shaft back some in order to get the pin to release. After the pin is back into the slot, you may have to look into removing the pin in order to get it off the shaft. But that would depend on the damage to the pin.

I agree with Dave, if the shaft was too long when raised, it would have put the shaft into a bind. Hitting a good bump while in a bind would cause it to put pressure on the shaft and could have forced the coupler forward.

 

[Jaybird]

Great ideas, appreciate them all. I will start trying some of them in the morning. I do have the bushing off the hitch and the shaft into two pieces from the bushing. So now I just have a short section of the shaft connected (stuck) to the PTO shaft. It has definitely gone on too far. I'll start working on it in the morning and let you guys know how it goes. Thanks!!

 

[Russell King]

Be sure you understand that the pto yoke can slide forward and backward along the pto shaft of the tractor- as long as the pin is pushed in (the correct amount).
I have tapped the yoke forward to release it when stuck, after soaking with penetrant.
The pin should be in the depressed position if it is moved from the locked position but you may have some other lock than a pin.
Don't put too much force on it since that will damage bearings inside the tractor.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Jaybird]

Success!! Thanks so much to everyone that took time to try to help. I wrapped a chain around it and got it to come off.
Now I'm wondering why it happened. This is the second issue I've had with the PTO shaft on this bushhog. Last summer it broke the release pin and the shaft came off while running. I replaced the pin and now this.
I'm now having second thoughts about using it again. May need to replace the shaft???

Thanks everyone. This is a really nice resource.

Jay

 

[D2Cat]

My guess is your PTO shaft is a tad too long. When you raise the mower the shaft gets in a bind and jams the release pin into the tractor's shaft.

The first time the pin breaks and now this.

WITH THE TRACTOR ENGINE NOT RUNNING....When your mower is attached to the tractor 3pt arms push the PTO shaft towards the mower. Determine the length left between the release pin the the groove it is suppose to fit in on the tractor spline. Now when you raise the mower that length will shorten, which is what seems to be causing the jamming problem.

Let us know the results.

 

[Bulldog]

Check the yoke real close. I had to replace 2 on my batwing last year. Both looked fine on the cutter but when I went to replace the u-joints the yokes were twisted. Driveline shop said this was very common.

 

[Ramos]

Wondering if your driveline is too long. When the tail end of the mower and the front end of the tractor both go up, like crossing a depression, the driveline becomes shorter. If the inner and outer shafts bottom out on each other, something has to give. Just a thought...

 

[Benhameen]

On my finish mower my shaft is close to being too short (story of my life). I have noticed a couple times that the pin on the shaft will stick letting it slide past the groove on the pto shaft. So I can see a scenario where this is not noticed, the mower get used like this, then the shaft becomes stuck further up on the pto shaft than it should be. Most of the time I end up pushing mine further than it needs to go then pulling it back until the pin pops into place.

When I got my tiller the shaft was pushed to far up and it had been used quite a bit like that and its now twisted on the shaft. I have not been able to remove it, which makes it a pain in the neck when I need to hook it up.

At what point do you guys hook up the shaft to the tractor, before you put on the implement or after? I hook up before then, except with the tiller of course, hook the shaft to the mower.

 

[Ramos]

Most of the time, I hook left arm, right arm, pto shaft then top link.