520 PTo trouble? I have no clue.

[papaglide 541]

Well I was out cutting grass for an hour or so with out a problem. When I turned the PTO off, a scraping kind of sound was coming out what seemed like the left side of the engine. I engaged the PTO again and it stopped but the red PTO light lit up on the dash. Disengaged, it happened again. It is pretty loud as well.

Can anyone help me identify the problem and how serious is it?

Allright, I have no clue. Here is what's happening:

The engine runs nice when not under load.

when the PTO is engaged the engine starts to surge.

When the PTO is disengaged, a loud scraping sound comes from what seems to be the driver's left side of the engine.

The PTO light went on earlier when this started, but didn't the last time it happened.

[papaglide 541]

I think that I found the problem. The clutch isn't disengaging all the way and moving out. It is making a scraping sound due to staying in contact.

Any ideas as to how to remedy this?

Not the problem

[papaglide 541]

More info: the scraping sounds like its coming from behind the black screen that has "toro" written on it. It doesn't happen all of the time though.

I have a clear fuel filter on and when the engine is running only about the bottom third of it is full of gas. Is this normal?

[papaglide 541]

Now the tractor is starting on the "run" position in addition to the "start" position.

It is a grinding sound. Could this problem be from a starting to go bad starter?

[Horse Fanatic 49]

The fuel filter not being "full" is normal. I still think your surging problem (which is now only under load) is a carb problem, either a jet adjustment or a dirty carb issue. I think moving the govenor rod masked the carb problem (not positive of course, hard to diagnose without seeing it).

As far as the grinding sound, I would say that is a separate issue from the surging, it could very well be the starter. In fact it's probably likely based on what you have written.

[papaglide 541]

Thanks Glenn.

With the carb, would that entail taking it all off?

I took the cleaner off last time and blew air down and also use carb cleaner. Apparently that didn't work out too well.

Just where is the starter on this Onan?

[papaglide 541]

I just checked Toro and the starter for this tractor No Longer Available, at least on-line.

I need some suggestions.

[Horse Fanatic 49]

As far as the carb, see if pulling the choke out a bit smooths the engine out. If so, you definitely have an issue with the carb. There should be a high speed jet that can be adjusted to smooth the engine out under load. If that doesn't work, you do not need to remove the carb from the intake, that is too much work anyway. Try the choke test first.

Someone else needs to comment on the starter. You may not need a need a new starter or a whole starter but just the solenoid. So don't go shopping for parts yet, you need to do some testing, hopefully someone chimes in on that.

[Duff 206]

I'd take the starter off and clean the drive really well, then relube it with a dry lubricant. May not be retracting properly....

JMHO....

Duff