WORKSHOP: It goes without saying that an unshielded or broken pto shaft may cause considerable damage and injury. And while this may sound like ‘teaching grandma to suck eggs’ here we explain what checks to make and if you have the confidence and tools how you can make a trusted repair.
When visiting farms Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors often find faulty pto guards. However, the condition of the shaft itself, as well as the guard, contributes to safety issues. Also, if a pto shaft doses fails the entire machine will come to a stop. In most cases it will not be possible to find a replacement quickly, especially for implements that require high drive power, because the pto shafts are matched to the machine.
Lutz Katerbaum, owner and managing director of Landtechnik Möckern in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, advises his customers to have shafts serviced annually. His company is a dealership for both Bondioli & Pavesi and Walterscheid and offers maintenance, repair and conversion work for pto shafts and overload protection clutches.
Fitting size
Driveshafts transmit immense forces from the tractor pto to the implement and to do so reliably are matched to the power requirements of the implement. The dimensions of the universal joints and tubular shafts, as well as other components will be calculated by the implement maker, so if you do end up having to replace the all or part of the unit you will need to match is with like for like.
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