# PTO engagement Bolens 1050



## krkil

I recently purchased a 1966 Bolens 1050 with a snowblower. I now have everything working except the PTO engagement lever. 

The lever moves from indent to indent but the idler pulleys do not move away from the belts. I can disengage the PTO manually, by pulling them out, but unless I secure them they vibrate back and re-engage.

I am hoping that someone can help by explaining how it is supposed to work. A review of the service manual and the parts manual was not very helpful. 

It appears that a good amount of disassembly work will be needed in order to get a good look at the control mechanism. 
Before I start taking things apart, to see what is wrong, I am hoping to get a better idea of what I will be looking at and maybe some ideas of what to look for.

Any help will be very much appreciated!


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## aguysmiley

It sounds to me like you have a sheared pin either on the handle or the idler arm. Judging by the attached picture, both of these are pinned to the shaft running through them.


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## guest2

Or a broken, weak, incorrect or missing spring.


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## aguysmiley

Sixchows

Good call. I had forgot about that.


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## krkil

Thanks for the ideas. I see the roll pins in the parts diagram but thats part of the problem. I will not be able to determine what should be pined to what, and if it is, until I take it apart. Also the parts diagram shows two springs. I can only see one and I am not certain that it is hooked-up property. 

Sounds like I need to take it apart.


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## guest2

krkil
I don't think you need to take anything apart. Look at the shaft at the pulley end. The bracket that comes off the shaft and has the pulley bolted to should be welded to the shaft. If you move the lever from on to off and the shaft rotates without the bracket that holds the pulley moving then the weld has failed. See part # 133 in the diagram. If it needs to be welded you can do it without removing anything. Just be careful not to ignite any grease, oil or gas.


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## krkil

Thanks, sixchows & aguysmiles, for your help. I have a better understanding of what I am looking at now. Unfortunately, I will be busy this weekend taking the PTO control unit apart. 

The inner shaft, the one sixchows mentions above, must be broken or disconnected in some way as aguysmiles suggested. When I move the PTO control lever from OFF to ON or vice versa the welded end that sixchows mentioned does not follow the control lever. I can feel some tention on the bracket and it does move some but it does not follow.

Again thanks for taking your time to educate me. I have a better understand of what I will be taking apart now. I will let you know what I find


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## guest2

krkil
I still don't understand why you need to take it apart. The shaft for the PTO runs from the lever to the pulley. On the pulley end is a bracket welded to the shaft. The PTO pulley is bolted to the bracket. It's a straight line from the lever to the pulley. The roll pins in the diagram hold the engine drive belt tensioner bracket and pulley on this shaft. They really have nothing to do with the PTO engaging. Your problem has to be one of two things. Either the weld to the pulley retaining bracket is broken, or the pin that connects the shaft at the lever end is broken. You should be able to see the shaft move when you move the lever from off to on. If you don't see or feel the shaft move then the problem is at the base of the lever


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## krkil

I agree! The weld on the end of the shaft is not broken so I plan to start with the control lever. I may find the problem after I remove the bracket with the on/off detents. But I don’t think I will - based on what I can see now. The problem is not straight forward at least not to me. Because:

(1)	When the idler pulley is out, in the OFF position, and the control lever is moved from OFF to ON the shaft, at the pulley end, does not move until just before the lever goes into the ON detent. At this point the shaft moves and the pulley jumps in – to the ON position. I am thinking that this must be spring tension but why does the shaft move at all if it is broken or disconnected? I am not sure because I can’t see what is happening to the shaft. It is inside another shaft.
(2)	No movement of the control lever from ON to Off moves the shaft at the pulley end enough to disengage the pulley. 
(3)	Although the shaft at the pulley end moves with movement of the control lever it does not move in proportion. I am thinking that something internal is broke or disconnected. 
(4)	The shaft at the control lever end, this would be the outer shaft, moves in direct proportion to the control lever. The inner shaft does not move until it jumps and even then does not move in poortion to the outter shaft or the control lever.


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## guest2

krkil
There is no inner and outer shaft. The shaft that see at the pulley is one piece all the way back to the lever. The parts that the shaft passes through are the parts that the drive belt bracket connect to.

Put your finger on the end of the shaft where it's welded to the pulley bracket as you move the lever. The shaft and bracket should move together. If you feel the shaft moving before the pulley bracket the weld is broken.


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## krkil

The weld is not broken. The shaft and the pulley bracket move togrether.


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## guest2

OK That's good! Does the pulley make contact with the belts in the "on" position? When you lock it in the "on" position, can you pull the pulley back away from the belts? If yes follow along the shaft to see where it's moving, probably under the lever.


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## krkil

The pulley makes contact and the belts turn - at least without a load on them. I think that part is okay.

With the PTO control lever in the ON position I can pull the pulley away from the belts. 

I agree based on this and our previous discussions that the shaft is broken or some how disconnected at the lever end. 

When the lever is moved the large diameter shaft it is connected to also moves. This shaft passes through the sheet metal body and a steering column support then ends and a smaller shaft continues. The smaller shaft passes through some other supports and finally is welded to the pulley bracket. I can not see how the smaller shaft attaches to the larger shaft because of the sheet metal body and the support that is in the way.

Again thanks for taking your time to help me. I really appriciate it !


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## krkil

I took the PTO control shaft apart yesterday. The job was not as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting to find the shaft broken or at least a roll pin broken or something similar. Nothing was found broke. 

I did, however, determine why the PTO is not engaging. There is no direct link between the PTO control lever and the shaft the PTO idler pulley is mounted on. The PTO control lever relies on friction between the pulley’s shaft and the control lever caused by a small spring. The spring is collapsed against the shaft when the control lever is moved forward.

My problem was corrosion between the PTO shaft and the drive train idler pulley support bracket that the PTO shaft passes through. The corrosion was causing more friction then could be developed by depressing the spring. As a result the PTO shaft did not move when the control lever was moved. It appears the corrosion was caused by battery acid dripping on the shaft. 

Thanks for the help!


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## guest2

krkil
Glad to hear to you got it fixed!


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## henrylimmer

krkil,

I was having a very similar problem with the PTO control on my 1556. I took the shift lever mechanism apart and tried every which way to figure out why my PTO would not turn off and stay off when it worked fine when I first got the mashine. After almost an entire winter of having my snow blower never really turn off and having to grab the PTO pulley and pull it away from the belts just to start the tractor, I decided to dig deeper and make it work again.

I took all of the sheetmetal off to get a better look at everything and to let me at all the parts and pieces. After inspecting the PTO tensioning spring that is right at the rearward end of the shaft, I realized that there was something missing from the equation. The spring nicely applies a torque to the shaft to rotate the pulley into the "engaged" position but nothing applies a torque to the shaft in the opposite direction to rotate the pulley to the "disengaged" position. All of a sudden something caught my eye right between the spring and the cast shifting arm that the plastic block connects to. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a broken off pin in the main shaft between the arm and the spring. I figured out that this pin is supposed to directly push on the arm when you shift the PTO lever to off. As you shift the PTO lever to on, the arm immediately looses contact with the pin and then the arm tensions the spring which rotates the shaft. So, the shifting works by applying spring tension for "on" and applying direct force via this pin for "off". I drove the pin out and found it to be a "grooved pin" versus a roll pin or anything else. I ordered a pack of 25 from McMaster-Carr online for not too much money. It was hard to get the pin in the shaft on the correct side (counter-clockwise side) of the arm and to keep the spring out of the way at the same time. Once I got the new pin in, the PTO shifting worked great. It makes the interlock now and turns all the way off and stays off.

I took the opportunity to replace all the wiring, give the underhood area a good cleaning, rework the exhaust piping back to original, replace a bunch of incorrect, mismatched hardwage, put two new idler pulleys on and generally give things a good going over.

The part number for the pins at McMaster-Carr is: 98400A114 and a pack of 25 (min order) is $8.33.

I believe my pin was sheared right at the shaft when my PTO idler pulley seized early last winter while running my snow caster. When the idler seized, the belts whipped it around towards the engine and ultimately all the way clockwise till it was no longer contacting the belts. I replaced the pulley with a used one right away but the PTO never disengaged right since. If something like this has happened to your 1050, I'd bet your pin is broken.



> _Originally posted by krkil _
> *I recently purchased a 1966 Bolens 1050 with a snowblower. I now have everything working except the PTO engagement lever.
> 
> The lever moves from indent to indent but the idler pulleys do not move away from the belts. I can disengage the PTO manually, by pulling them out, but unless I secure them they vibrate back and re-engage.
> 
> I am hoping that someone can help by explaining how it is supposed to work. A review of the service manual and the parts manual was not very helpful.
> 
> It appears that a good amount of disassembly work will be needed in order to get a good look at the control mechanism.
> Before I start taking things apart, to see what is wrong, I am hoping to get a better idea of what I will be looking at and maybe some ideas of what to look for.
> 
> Any help will be very much appreciated! *


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