This week we found the root cause of our PTO issues. Prior to our purchase of the 18 Auto the pivot pin on the front of the crank bearing broke off. Someone then replaced the pin with a bolt in the end of the PTO engagement lever. This worked by having the PTO pivot off of the PTO bearing carrier. As the parts wore over the years this worked less well.

After posting my previous videos to several tractor forums I suspected this was the issue. I found a replacement crank bearing carrier which had the correct pivot pin on ebay.

So in order to fix things correctly we removed and inspected the PTO. We attempted to drill out the broken off pivot pin unsuccessfully. I’m now debating drilling and re-tapping the old pin and using the new pin off the replacement plate or replacing the crank bearing carrier. Opening up the engine looks simple enough but you never know what you’ll run into when you start removing bolts.

I’ll need to get the new crank seal and shims if we do open things up.

Here’s the clutch parts we removed and cleaned up.

While disassembling things I thought the PTO bearings were serviceable. It turns out these are sealed bearings. They are tight and spin freely (one more then the other) so I do not need to service them. My plan is to paint the parts to keep them from rusting and grease the springs and shaft as the manual calls for.

After inspecting the clutch plates the cracks I saw before do not do all the way across the plates. So I am going to post the images on several forums and see if these call for replacement. If they do I’ll drill the old rivets and replace the clutch material.

Stay tuned…