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318 Front PTO randomly disengaging

2K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  Smug 
#1 ·
Hello, I am new to the forum. I recently purchased a 1984 318 with what appears to be the original B43 motor. Mowed for the first time last weekend and after a short time mowing my front PTO kicked out. I was able to re-engage it and continue for a short time. It randomly kicks out, sometimes under load and sometimes not. There seems to be no pattern as to when or why it disengages. I then installed a jumper on my PTO switch and tried to finish mowing. I was almost finished when the motor died. I restarted it and tried to engage the PTO and it died again. I waited a couple hours and the PTO engaged just fine. I was trying to find the correct schematic for my tractor online but am unsure of the reliability of the ones I have found. So far I have checked all fuses and the one blue wire that feeds the PTO looking for a short. I haven't had much time to mess with it this week, but need to figure it out soon. Thanks in advance.

- Chris
 
#2 ·
Are you sure its gapped correctly?

ohm out the coil when cold and then engage it with motor running for 15 minutes and ohm it out again

also if the engine died when you engaged it, it could safety switch causing it or the coil is burnt out
 
#3 ·
Smug.
You need to set the air gap on the PTO. It is drawing too many amps,causing the excessive load to kill the engine. SOMETIMES SETTING THE COIL AIR GAP HELPS. UNFORTUNATELY, WHEN THEY GET TO THE POINT YOU ARE DESCRIBING THE COIL HAS OVERHEATED ENOUGH TIMES THAT IT MAY BE SHORTED OUT INSIDE. Dang cap lock. Sorry, not yelling at you!. They are about 125.00 or so at Deere. Ohm it out like Knotty suggested and see. Plenty of threads hers about it.

Dominic
 
#4 ·
Knottyrope and Dominic are correct. I too have been down this road, if gap is not set correctly and maintained that way, you will end up with many problems. Overheating causing pto to disengage, failure to engage when hot, and TDC module issues just to mention a few of them
 
#5 ·
The engine only died after I installed that jumper wire. Before I did that the PTO would kick out and the engine would continue to run just fine. I will check the air gap this evening. Also I am not exactly sure what it is you are wanting me to check with an ohm meter.
 
#6 ·
remove connector from the coil and measure its resistance cold and hot

if its too high when hot then there is your issue
 
#8 ·
Sorry I forgot to mention that the battery light was flickering. I found a bad connection at a butt connector that definitely wasn't from factory. I fixed that and adjusted the PTO. Mowed for twenty minutes. seemed to take care of everything and battery light stays off now. puled some connectors apart too and cleaned and greased them. seemed to do the trick. guess the real test will be this wknd. Thanks everyone.
 
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