D-Series PTO

[JamesBe1 84]

A couple of weeks ago, I took my D-180/FEL out to the large compost pile on the edge of my property to use the bucket to turn some of it over.

Long story short - it got stuck and it took me two evenings to get it out. In the middle of digging it out, the FEL hydraulics died (bad timing that). After I got it out, I found pieces of the PTO clutch disk in the dirt. I didn't come close to hitting anything. Not sure why it decided to break just then, but it did. I ordered two new PTO clutch faces with the intention of replacing both the front and rear clutch faces. After comparing the new pieces to the old, I find that they are nearly the same thickness with the old one being only slightly thinner from wear.

Now I am pondering replacing just the rear one (the broken one of course), and keeping the second new one as a spare since they will likely stop being made in the next few years.

Anybody have any opinion as to why the clutch face decided to break while the tractor just happened to be stuck up to its axles in very soft dirt?

Any opinion as to what might have caused it to break?

Is there any downside to just replacing the one clutch face?

Anybody here done this before with any good to know pointers or tricks?

It seems pretty straight forward. Drill out the old rivets, and pop rivet the new one in place.

[JamesBe1 84]

Took the rear pto plate off of the tractor (actually called the collar in the parts manual) to replace the clutch face. I found that the two metal dowels that stick out of the sides of it that are held in place by the engagement bar, are missing. Interesting. I looked at the pto on my other D, and one of the dowels is missing. I don't think I am going to get very far without them.

Anyone have any ideas?

[wheeledhorseman 579]

Not sure about the reason for the failure but at a guess it could be related to the dowel pin issue or maybe the rivets were becoming loose alowing the plate to twist a bit when the clutch was engaged.

I can't see why you can't just replace one lining as its a very simple clutch that's either engaged or disengaged but I really wouldn't use pop rivets! You can get the correct brass ones from clutch relining people, the problem I see with pop rivets is that there's always a piece of steel left inside the rivet which will score into the metal plate if the lining wears down. An alternative is to use epoxy adhesive to bond the lining on.

Re future availability of the OEM linings. It's not really an issue as clutch relining outfits can supply linings based on the dimensions you give them so I'd take the opportunity to measure OD, ID and thickness from one of those OEM linings and make a note for the future.

Andy

[JamesBe1 84]

Excellent thoughts Andy. I think I'm going to switch to brass rivets instead of the standard aluminum ones with the steel center. I might even have some brass rivets somewhere in my barn. Now I just have to find one of those compression thingers to install them. Shoudln't be too expensive. I'll post a couple of pics.

[JamesBe1 84]

Darn, the rivets that I found were hollow rivets. I don't think they are really strong enough for this application. I'm pretty sure I don't want to take the chance and be wrong about something like that. I am 99% sure that wheel horse uses 1/8" brass rivets, but I'm not sure as to the length.

The clutch facing has circular holes cut about 1/4" into the plate to take what a figure are flat head washers on that side, and the back of the clutch plate is countersunk at about 45 deg.

Anybody, please correct me if I'm wrong, but the length of the rivet should be long enough so that when I compress it, it fills the countersunk area on the back of the clutch plate. Does that sound about right?

Anybody wanna guess at the rivet length?

After considering it, I don't really want to buy a rivet press just to install four rivets, so I'll probably use a vise or hammer to install them.

[JamesBe1 84]

I ordered 3/4" rivets from McMaster, and along the way, I noticed some Two-Piece Press-Fit Tubular Rivets. I figured - what the heck, they are cheap, and might be just the thing. I ordered them in addition to the regular rivets.

I also picked up some two part epoxy that the local store, and finally got around to putting it all together last weekend. I decided to use the two piece press fit rivets as they looked to fit almost perfectly.

After epoxying the heck out of everything, I put it together and tapped the rivets together with a tack hammer and let everything dry. There were a few epoxy drips, but nothing to worry about.

Throughout last week, I did a little each night, and finally got it all reassembled today. After running the engine for a minute and engaged the pto and it worked perfectly. I now have FEL hydraulics again. Woohoo.

Thanx for your help Andy!