pto engagement lever

I've run across two of these in my lifetime, both tractors that had been parked for a number of years. With the first one I fooled with the lever and the spring loaded popet, thinking that use may free it up, never did. If this is the case, you'll have to pull the PTO unit. This is not a difficult task, just drain the transmission and PTO, remove the bolts on PTO casting, it slides right out. Freeing the sliding shaft is not difficult either. I just held mine by the hollow shaft and hammered on the solid shaft with a 2x3 hardwood. They both came much easier than I expected. The lever does not give great mechanical advantage, thus it didn't take much rust to hold it. The hollow shaft is made up of two machined areas at each end, that make actual contact with solid shaft. Between those the hollow shaft is a bit larger, probably giving 1/16 to 1/8 inch space for rust and crud to build up.

I have the Blue Ribbon service manual on these, if you need any advice once you get into this just shout, my e mail is always open. Don't rule out lever and popet. The popet is not a ball, but rather a small cylinder device with a ball end, and is behind that plug designed for blade type screwdriver. There is a flat plate on shift lever shaft with two detents. One holds engaged while the other is disengaged.

You don't say if the shift lever will move or not. Does it move but not do anything, or will the shifter just not move?

If the latter, it couldn't hurt to pull out the spring and poppet to see if that's somehow holding the shifter from moving. If taking it out allows the shifter to move, that may be your problem.

If the shifter moves now, though, I wouldn't bother about the poppet just yet.

The parts drawing doesn't show enough detail to be able to see whether the poppet will come out with the spring or not. There should be a spring immediately under the plug, and the poppet is at the other end of the spring. If it doesn't come out with the spring, you might try one of those little pen-style magnets and go in there and see if you can pull it back. With your problem, it's altoethr possible that it isn't there, ut I'd try wiggling the shifter a little, just to see if it will loosen without the spring pressure if it is there.

If that little assembly does come out okay, then you want to try shifting. With the tranny in neutral try shifting the PTO in. If it goes, you should be able to turn the shaft and feel it turn the gears in the tranny. A good check at that point would be to put the tranny into any gear and try turning the shaft. If it doesn't turn, then you know that it is in gear and shifting okay, and that that poppet is your problem and the rest of the shifting mechanism is okay. (An oddball possibility would be that the poopet etc are okay, but there would be a problem with the lever on the other side with the detent that the poppet fits into.)

If she still won't shift with that poppet assembly out, or your shift lever moves but doesn't engage the PTO you've got a different problem.

Where you say it hasn't been run in so long (good information), there's a good chance that nothing's broken in there, just stuck in place from years of no motion and lack of lube.

How experienced are you as a mechanic? I ask because the other advice I have can bust something if you're not careful, or even if you think you're being careful. How hard have you tried to force it with the tractor not running? It does sound more like something's stuck, not broken, and the idea is to just free it up.

First, I assume you've tried shifting the PTO into gear either with the tractor running, or while turning the shaft by hand with the tractor off. Just to make sure that the gears have had a chance to mesh and aren't just bumping up against each other.

Second, the Hammer Rule: "Hit it with progressively bigger hammers until you break something, then back down one size."

Read the Hammer Rule over two or even three times, consider the irony, and please keep it in mind.

If it's the detent/poppet sticking, neblinc's idea for trying to sneak some lube in there will help loosen it up. Dwizzle a penetrant in there, several/numerous doses over a couple of days, then try a couple soft blows (I call those "tunks.") in both directions down low on the shift lever with a light hammer. DON'T smack it! You don't really want to move the lever into gear with the hammer blow, just nudge anything that's stuck. Follow that up with some earnest Armstrong tugging on the shift lever, toward the rear as if trying to put it in gear. Repeat several times as required, with adequate time for the penetrating lube to soak through in between.

If you can get it to free up that way, I'd add a quart or more of kerosene through the fill hole on the PTO, which will fill the PTO box and the excess will drain down into the tranny. I'd then run her in place for an hour or two and let the thinned out gear oil splash up onto that shifter and the internal part of the PTO shaft. Over that time, alternate every 15 minutes or so with the PTO in gear, with 15 minutes out. That will help rinse off/lube the parts both in and out of gear.

You should drain the PTO and tranny after that and refill with new gear oil. 5 qts for the tranny plus a pint into the PTO. As long as it's been setting, the oil that's in it now is probably near jelly from condensation, and needed replacing anyway, especially if it's congealed oil and crud instead of rust holding that shifter in place.