PTO Disengages by Itself

Hi Guys,

The PTO on my hooklift disengages on its own, about half way through the load/unload cycle. This is on a manual tranny. I can watch the cable pull handle inside the cab slowly creep in, the indicater light goes off then the hoist stops in place until I mash the clutch back in and pull the PTO handle back out.

If I apply constant pull to the handle while cycling, then everything is fine. But, its a pain tto be bending over to pull the handle while watching the bed and rollers to ensure they are lining up.

Any idea why my Chelsea PTO 'creeps'?

 

Check to see that when you pull the PTO cable out to engage the unit, that the lever on the tranny is all the way engaged and not just half way. Unless you haev the full gear pulled across the transmission gear, it will creep back every time.

We have all live shift PTO's and it solves the problem altogether.

 

Thanks Bill,

I'll check that.

Would over-racing the PTO cause wear that causes this problem? There have been a couple of times I've driven off, forgetting to disengage. Once it was five minutes or so with, presumably, engine revs up to 2300 which is my typical shift point. The manual warn against doing this but can you get away with doing it a couple of times before frying it?

Ed

 

I have seen where people forget the PTO is on and just start driving. what usually happens is you have a very difficult shifting gears and it is very noticiable. But in the case where you drive I have seen where the gear face gets some additional wear it did not need to see.

I'm still placing bets on the transmission arm not being fully pulled into place.

 

Bill, Your assessment was correct. I had to remove the cable retaining bracket, pull the arm to fully engage, restore the retainer.

BTW, in this case it wasn't enough to simply loosen the cable bracket, pull the cable then retighten. On this first attempt I was able to pull the cable an additional 1/4" which helped by slowing the creep rate...but still not fixed. I believe the plastic coating on the cable prevented me from fully adjusting it.

It wasn't until I removed the cable retainer altogether and pulled the engagement arm almost 3/4", that it was fixed properly.

Thanks again.