PTO shaft length question

Hi all,

I was given an old 'pull along'-type snowblower that had been sitting in a fence line for a long, long time. The PTO shaft was seized, as was the collar, plus it was about 2" too long for my MF230 anyways.

I was able to get the old shaft off, and am planning to buy one today to replace it. I measured from the edge of the PTO to the face of the bearing on the blower, and I get a measurement for 54" on what would be the shortest distance. It might get a few inches longer when raised to the transport position.

Would I be OK to get a 48" PTO shaft then? That would leave 42" - 35" of 'overlap' at all times.

Or do I have to be more precise about size?

Also, my tractor (MF230) is a 30hp tractor, which means I should be able to get away with a series 4 shaft. However, I'd still like to use this blower if I upgrade to something in the 60hp range someday, so should I look at a series 5 shaft?

Have you priced a new shaft???? I would be trying to loosen up the old shaft with diesel fuel/penetrating
oil and heat to get it sliding again. Even new yokes are expensive.

In answer to your question.... buy long and cut, keep it as long as possible. Might even check tractor and
equipment repair places, they usually save all salvage PTO drive lines.

Google to find out which shaft style you have.... seems like there are at least 100.

Bill

I can't say I'm eager to pick up the extra cost, but I'm concerned about time - If it was summer still, I'd probably try to fix the old shaft. At this point, time is not on my side with the snow coming (well, already here!).

Plus, even if I can get the shaft freed up, the collar is well and truly seized. I have some serious doubts about freeing it up.

You would be surprised at how those old collars will come loose if you work on them a bit. Well worth the effort as shafts are very expensive. If it were me and I could not or would not free up the collar, I would take the old one to an ag service place that makes shafts to order and give him the measurements. I have all mine made at a place about 30 minutes from the farm. It is cheaper than TSC and they are a better fit. Pretty much anyplace there are farms, there are guys who can do this I would think. The advantage is that you do not replace the entire shaft...just the parts that do not work. They can shorten yours and put a new collar on it...save $$$. I have actually had my guy come back out from the shop and tell me he had freed up my collar when I could not budge it...$5-10. Shop around.

(quoted from post at 08:32:46 12/18/17) You would be surprised at how those old collars will come loose if you work on them a bit. Well worth the effort as shafts are very expensive. If it were me and I could not or would not free up the collar, I would take the old one to an ag service place that makes shafts to order and give him the measurements. I have all mine made at a place about 30 minutes from the farm. It is cheaper than TSC and they are a better fit. Pretty much anyplace there are farms, there are guys who can do this I would think. The advantage is that you do not replace the entire shaft...just the parts that do not work. They can shorten yours and put a new collar on it...save $$$. I have actually had my guy come back out from the shop and tell me he had freed up my collar when I could not budge it...$5-10. Shop around.

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I'll look around - I'm all for trying to get stuff done cheaper, I'm just on a timeline. Looks like I'll be out blowing with my push-behind this afternoon anyways at the rate the snow is coming down, so I might as well stick the collar in a bucket of ATF + diesel, and squirt some into the shaft.

Unfortunately, this will all be an unheated barn in -10C weather (14 Fahrenheit), so I'm not sure how quickly the penetrating oil will work.

I bought an old auger that the shaft was seized on, I tried the simple stuff with penetrating oil and a hammer. Then I tied it between 2 big
trees with a come-a-long and started heating and tapping, it popped apart rather quickly. I was just using a small propane torch.

DITTO freeing old pto shaft so it will operate correctly.There are U-tube videos demonstrating the correct procedure for altering pto shaft lengths.

I googled that question once, don't remember what the name of the company was, but they make shafts and they said to have at "least" 1 1/2 inch of play and at least 9" of shaft overlap. Don't take my word for
it, but I did that on my machine and it works just fine.

I just got this PTO shaft a week or two ago (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077F2Y142/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1) Selling for $160 now, but I got mine for $140. Was shocked to find one WITH clutch for that price, but they're out there. Seems well made but I haven't taken anything apart yet to look at it.

(quoted from post at 22:38:20 12/18/17) I just got this PTO shaft a week or two ago (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077F2Y142/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1) Selling for $160 now, but I got mine for $140. Was shocked to find one WITH clutch for that price, but they're out there. Seems well made but I haven't taken anything apart yet to look at it.

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Wow, I live in Canada. I can't even imagine being able to order something like a PTO from Amazon...