PTO shaft replacement

[JohnnyHville]

Regarding a 1946 2N.

Tired of messing around with leaky old pto that requires an adapter to run anything. I want to change over to newer 1 3/8 style.

Is this really as easy as:
park front end on a steep downhill,
remove four bolts,
slide out shaft,
clean off old gasket,
put new gasket on,
slide in new shaft,
re-install four bolts?

Any issues I should be on the look for?

I don't suppose there is such thing as a replacement shaft with a ORC built into the bearing housing?

BTW, last spring I honed out the lift cylinder and replaced the seal, inspected the pump, cleaned everything real good. Lift and pto works great. Will hold an elephant 3 ft off the ground overnight. Other than leaking and being incompatible with all my equipment.

I love the simplicity of this tractor. This machine is great for teaching kids the basics of mechanics and internal combustion engines.

 

[Bruce (VA)]

Resist the temptation to save 5 minutes by parking it nose down in a ditch instead of draining the fluid. The front transmission seal was not designed to be totally immersed in oil. If it's defective, you will fill the bell housing with oil and then you will get to replace the clutch.


Loosen the 4 bolts and pull the shaft out. The seal has two spring clamps around it. Take your needle nose pliers & remove the one in the front. Then, hang the shaft & bearing housing in your vice & tap the butt end of the shaft; the bearing cap will come off (and the shaft will land on your foot). Then, remove the other spring clip from the other side of the bearing. At this point, remember that you never bought a seal driver & go get a BF socket & drive the seal out. If you have the new style seal, the white side goes out. (open side to the oil) Put some grease on it. See tips 3 & 4 regarding draining the fluid.
75 Tips

 

[HFJ]

yes, it's that easy, unless the splines at the front are twisted. if the old one comes out smoothly, the new one should go back in easily.

the first thing i did when i got my 2N was to convert it to 12 volts. the second thing i did was to replace the PTO shaft - not because of leakage, but because of size. it was as easy as any mechanical job i've ever done.

 

[Tom Bowman]

+1 to Bruce's recommendation to drain fluid, rather than using the "park downhill" method. I've seen the exact problem Bruce described.
The rest of Bruce's instructions are for changing just the shaft itself.
When I replaced the PTO shaft on a Ferguson TO-20 (same job), I replaced the whole assembly: shaft, bearing, housing and all, because I didn't want to do what Bruce described. Price isn't that much different, and you don't have to beat on anything, or drop anything on your foot. :wink:

 

[JohnnyHville]

Thank you, I'll watch to move my foot out of the way.

But, am I missing something? It looks like the replacement shafts I'm seeing on line come with housing and seals preassembled.

 

[John Deere D]

I purchased my first "N" tractor last Fall,2018...1945 2-N..

Drained oil into container so as to visually view oil....

Removed 1"3/8 PTO shaft from my "Ferguson TEA-20" parts tractor 1950 model....installed In Ford 2-N...

Tractor PTO operates perfectly??

Also Installed foot boards and foot pegs on 2-N off Tea-20 Ferguson Parts Tractor...direct fit....


Bob....


Bob...

 

[HFJ]

no, you're not missing anything. that is correct - mine came as a complete unit, ready to install.

 

[Bruce (VA)]

" But, am I missing something?"

Nope.

I did!

Missed the part about replacing it w/ the bigger shaft.
75 Tips

 

[Caryc]

I got a new 1 3/8" PTO shaft from right here on YT. I comes complete with everything you need, including the gasket. It comes with the whole housing on it ready to install, even comes with a screw on PTO cover.

You just remove the four bolts and pull out the old shaft (after draining the fluid) then slide the new shaft in.

I did run into one problem. The collar on the new housing that goes into the hole in the casing was too large and would not fit into the hole. You see in the picture what part I'm talking about.

What I did was take a big mill file that I had with no teeth on its sides and file down that part on the flange until it fit into the hole. The file with no teeth on the sides worked well and did not damage the gasket mating surface. I could have taken a drill motor and a rotary file and worked on the hole in the tractor casing but was afraid of getting metal filings in there.

Anyway, I did get it to fit in the hole and it wasn't much of a problem.

 

[JohnnyHville]

UPDATE:

Thanks to all for the pointers. Last Saturday I was able to pull the old shaft and replace with a new one with zero problems. Took longer to drain the fluid than to do the job.

In fact, was able to have the whole thing done before my 78 y/o Dad could finish his beer - and he is one of those guys that won't use a koozie because he finishes before it gets warm - in 100F Texas! I think he was a little disappointed because it was so easy, there wasn't much entertainment value in it.


It had been leaking so bad, I was constantly having to add new fluid. As such, the stuff I took out was still very clean. So I filtered it and put it back.

But, did have a bit of a dumba$$ moment in that I forgot to check to see how full my bucket of fluid was. Ended up a couple-3 gallons short. Normally, because it's so dang hot here, I normally run a mix of 2gal 90w mineral oil, and the rest M2C134D. But, all I had in the barn was the generic all-purpose TSC special stuff (label said it was compatible with M2C134D, and about 4 billion other types). After which, when I put a load on the lift, it was knocking.

Hoping this is a too-thin-fluid issue. Got my 2gal jug of 90w mineral last night. Plan to siphon out a couple gallons of that generic crap and replace w/the 90w.