Mini rant

I hate it when I post something and then
spend the day working, only to come home
and find that several folks have answered
my post and asked questions. I sit down
and answer the questions , but because
the topic has dropped to page 2 I never
get to a second set of answers. Oh well.
If y'all wanna find " sad day ford 960" I
answered y'alls questions. Thanks. This
site is a great help to us.

30 years ago when I was chained to a desk and phone most of the day I checked YT Tales often and could not figure out how The Red could work and post so much. I am not on the phone much anymore and customers don't want to be on the phone to talk. Email or texting that don't require a desk full time for most in my world. At my age I don't have the connection with all the subjects now and only check some posts on some days. When I post it may be a day or two before I look for it and after the second page I move on.

It is the nature of asynchronous communication. (I learned that the hard way this spring as my students were required to do all assignments from home for lab courses). Both the "modern View" and "Classic" have issues with "Finding Nemo". With Classic, things at least stay in the order they were placed so I can retreat to find them where I left off. In modern, they only stay close to the front if they stay popular and get responses. Some do, some just mix in with the crowd rather innocuously and fade to obscurity. Jim

From looking at your responses, and the cutaway, it appears that the rattle may come from the components you can't see or wiggle inside the top shaft. Like the PTO drive shaft, and bearings inside. Have someone put two pipe wrenches on the PTO shaft in opposition to one another and (with it OFF, and PTO in the ON position) reef it forward and back to see if make it rattle for more precise location assessment. Jim

Jim, tried that with cover off. Couldn't make it clunk like it does with mower running. It's a tough puzzle

That's classic view for you.

The people who are using modern view have no issues seeing your responses to the questions, and following up if they have input.

I did look at your first post but what your comment was just now makes me wonder if the PTO shaft is out of time or sticking so it doesn't slide in or out.

Can you explain " out of time"? Thanks

I just finished making a 861 useing unknown trans. I put new seals on shafts and put in. It has rattle when in neutral, pushing in clutch to put in gear it stops but no noise with just pto engaged. Have seen reverse idler gear bushing worn causeing it. Checked that and its tite. For no more use than it may get I am going to let make some noise.

BarnyardEngineering has nailed it. Use modern view. As long as people are replying to your post it will remain on page one. Easy to find.

Did you have a shaft connected at the time?

I think what Roger is referring to is U joint phasing. The cross pieces all have to be lined up or it does weird things as it flexes, causes variations in speed and can make the noise you're hearing.
U Joint Phasing

Wow. Something I never knew. Will look into it.

PTO universal joints must be in "phase" or "timed" the action of a single Ujoint is complex, it provides perfect one to one rotating motion only when it is absolutely straight from input to output. All other times the input shaft is turning at a constant speed (rotationally) but the output shaft changes speed accelerating and decelerating twice per revolution. I am sure you have found this to be the case when using a Ujoint socket adapter, some spots on a revolution are easy, while others are hard and try to tip the socket off the nut. This change in velocity is increased every time the angle of the joint increases. To diminish this, a second Ujoint is used in the drive shaft (cars and trucks included) that reverses the lost rotation exactly as the middle shaft is increased, the second (final) output shaft is decreased. This neutralization of rotational variation is accomplished by having the input yoke, aligned with the output yolk. Also the middle shaft has its yokes aligned as well. The illustration depicts this issue. The U joints should be angled the same on each wnd when turning so the equilization is uniform, but not always possible. The phasing is effected when even one spline is not where it belongs by one spline. Especially in vehicles that can have 3 thousand RPM speeds. Jim

As said, Modern View bumps the post to the very top every time there is a reply

Can you get online with your phone? Problem solved.

Use modern view! No need to rant.