The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

In an effort to stop my PTO from jumping out of gear, I took the clutch/pto lever hub assembly out and inspected the ball and spring. Before I removed the pto lever it did not have any "feel" to it. It would just move back and forward with a fairly smooth movement. While I had it apart I noticed that it had three notches for the ball to fall into. I don't understand why there are three instead of two. It would seem that you would only have "engaged" and "disengaged". The lever will not move into the third notch, but it will go past the second, or engaged, notch. Going forward, or disengaged, the lever stops at the first notch. I am afraid that my pto gear is not going into the full engaged position. As soon as the gear begins to engage, the lever falls into the second notch position. Could the drive gear that the moving gear slides into be full of gunk, which might stop the full engagement? How much travel should the pto lever have? This is hard to explain, I am not sure what I wrote will make sense to anyone.
I have changed the differential oil and put 15-40 Shell Rotella in the rear end. When I had the lift cover off I saw the sliding gear, it did not appear to be badly worn. If I have to take the lift cover off again, what are some areas to check concerning the pto drive?
Thank,
Terry

Hi Terry,
no replies, so thought I'd put in my 2 cents worth.
When I had the lever apart to replace the seal, I can remember it was possible to put the lever in upside down, took a bit of figuring out . Any chance that has happened? I'm talking about the lever that engages the pto shaft. I can remember the lever goes in then curves up (i think). It is possible to put it in so that it curves down, which would probably restrict its travel.