345 PTO bearing noise help

You could do what I do and that is to either drill a small hole in the seal of the bearing and fill the bearing full with grease with a grease needle and put some silicone on the drilled hole to help keep out dirt *or* you could gently remove the seal with a small screwdriver and put grease on the balls of the bearings and gently slip the seal back in place.

There is a website where a guy replaced the bearings in his L120 PTO but I am not sure if its the same design/setup as your 345.

dardamar said:

You could do what I do and that is to either drill a small hole in the seal of the bearing and fill the bearing full with grease with a grease needle and put some silicone on the drilled hole to help keep out dirt *or* you could gently remove the seal with a small screwdriver and put grease on the balls of the bearings and gently slip the seal back in place.

Click to expand...

I thought about doing just that, as I have done it in the past, but this bearing sounds pretty bad, and I think it may be beyond just being dry. I guess it wouldn't hurt to give it a try and if it doesn't do the trick then either try figure a way to replace the bearing or bite the bullet and by a new PTO.

glader, I went through that last summer when the PTO clutch locked up, causing my circuit board to fail also. Couple years before that the bearing was making some noise when disabled. As you probably know your PTO bearing has been getting noisier and noisier each time or year of use. It will finally fail. Getting the PTO clutch off the engine shaft was nothing but trouble. I use two cans of Blaster and that didn't help, so I finally ended up cutting the straps that are riveted on and use a hub puller to get the two separated parts off the shaft. Once the PTO clutch came off it was good to go from there.

FD611V said:

glader, I went through that last summer when the PTO clutch locked up, causing my circuit board to fail also. Couple years before that the bearing was making some noise when disabled. As you probably know your PTO bearing has been getting noisier and noisier each time or year of use. It will finally fail. Getting the PTO clutch off the engine shaft was nothing but trouble. I use two cans of Blaster and that didn't help, so I finally ended up cutting the straps that are riveted on and use a hub puller to get the two separated parts off the shaft. Once the PTO clutch came off it was good to go from there.

Click to expand...

FD611V, since you took your PTO apart, did you notice anyway to remove the bearing without destroying the PTO? I hope my PTO is not stuck on the crank so tight it requires destroying it to get it off.

It is a mother to get off, had 2 different impacts wrenches(air and electric) would not even budge it. Half inch drive torque wrench , giant C clamp, and a wheel puller finally got it off. And yes 2 cans of blaster. So if I was you I would take it off now, put a new one on with anti seize and be done with it. Cause it will not be long before it goes out right in the middle of mowing season and you will kick yourself for not changing it.. http://www.shopgreendealer.com/completeptoclutch.aspx and they are cheaper than your local dealer charges.:thSick:

glader, What Interrex wrote is your best solution to the PTO clutch problem. I don't know if you can remove the lower part of the clutch from the upper half. That is what I tried to do and wasn't successful. If you could get it done, the bearing can be replaced. I would do as I did, buy the new PTO clutch from the web site Interrex showed. That is where I got mine from. Do as Interrex suggested on how to grease and replace.

Interrex, thanks for the link to the good price for the PTO part. I'm going to attempt to replace just the bearing since I have nothing to loose. I'm a little concerned and don't want to disable my tractor with snow season here so maybe I'll attempt it after winter and before mowing season. I have a snowthrower for it so the PTO has to stay working. I just hope the PTO doesn't fail in the middle of a snow storm.

After looking at the bottom bearing in the PTO a little closer, it looks like the only thing preventing the bearing from coming out is 4 small ridges below the bearing. It looks like if these ridges were ground off, the bearing could be knocked out with a long punch from the backside. After a new bearing is installed, a couple of small weld spots would be needed to keep the bearing from falling out. I'm just guessing at all this since I have not even attempted to take the PTO assembly off yet.

I just hate paying $150 because a $8 bearing failed. :banghead3

Re: 345 PTO bearing noise help FIXED!!!

Since we haven't had any snow and are not expecting any I decided to fix my noisy PTO.

I removed the PTO and diagnosed that the bottom bearing was bad. I replaced the bottom bearing and the noise is completely gone. The bottom bearing only spins when the PTO is disengaged. The top bearing spins all the time. So if there is noise with the PTO engaged or disengaged the top bearing is bad. If the noise goes away when the PTO is engaged, the bottom bearing it bad.

The good news: the bottom bearing is very easy to replace. The bad news: the top bearing doesn't look as easy to replace, though I did try to replace it since mine was not bad.

I fixed this on 2 different tractors. A 2000 325 and a 2001 345. Other models and years may differ in design so this procedure may not be applicable to your model or year. I got the bearings for under $15 each at my local bearing shop. I took a few pictures along the way so others may benefit and not need to buy a $170 PTO because a $15 bearing needs to be replaced. The bottom bearing takes much more side load than the upper bearing which is closer to the crank; therefor is more likely to fail.

DIY takes all of 15-20 minutes if you have all the right tools.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Un-Plug the electrical connecter from the PTO to the fame rail.
Remove the bolt holding the PTO onto the crank. (I used a air impact gun)
Remove the PTO form the crank.

Bottom of PTO with C-clip holding bearing in


Take the C-clip off.


Hammer out the bearing using 1/2"extention w/3/8" adpater





Hammer spacer out of the bearing




Press the spacer in the new bearing with a socket and vice.


Hammer the spacer and bearing into the PTO pulley using a socket and extension.


Put the C-Cip on


Check the air gap on the PTO for .012-.018 and adjust if needed.
Put some anti-seize on the crank shaft so the PTO will come off next time.
Put some blue locktite on the PTO bolt
Bolt the PTO back onto the crank shaft.
Plug the electrical connect back up.
Enjoy your quiet PTO...

nice work!

just knowing it came off the crank so easy is good news. Seems like geting it off was the problem for the others???

$15 is better than $150 but even $150 isn't bad if it comes off!

Getting the PTO clutch off the engine shaft was nothing but trouble

Click to expand...

did yours have antiseaze on it?



.

glader, I would say you were fortunate (lucky) to get the whole PTO assembly off the crank shaft in one piece. Before I taken the task in trying to remove mine on the 345, I called the local dealer and talk to the shop foreman on what was in story to remove the PTO., he said "about 2 hours and $150.00 worth of cussing" to get one off that had been on there 10 years or more. I must agree with him, as it was all two days of work to get the one off on mine.

However, there's something strange here. Mine PTO only had the one bearing, and that was in the lower section. The top section has no bearing.. as it goes on the crank shaft with a woodruff key. There's no bearing in the upper section to need a bearing.

Hi Guys, Sorry to bardge in, I was looking through this thred, I happen to have a new Ogura Clutch (170056-912) This dosn't fit my Craftsman mowers, and has been setting on my bench taking up space for years. Shaft size is 1-1/8. If this is of use to you...
PM me with an offer, I guess around 20 or so for shipping, kinda heavy
I would say $50.00 is not unreasionable.

FD611V said:

However, there's something strange here. Mine PTO only had the one bearing, and that was in the lower section. The top section has no bearing.. as it goes on the crank shaft with a woodruff key. There's no bearing in the upper section to need a bearing.

Click to expand...

Mine has a sleeve with keyway pressed into the upper bearing. What year tractor do you have. Maybe the earlier models didn't have the upper bearing. You can clearly see the upper bearing in my pictures. Also the sleeve with keyway on mine looks like a hardened steel, which may have prevented it from seizing onto the crank. My guess is they changed the upper keywayed sleeve with some less corrosive steel to aid in the removal. Both the 345 and the 325 PTO fell off once the bolt was loosened.

some say hours to get it off, some say it falls off.

which is it? or are there two different setups??


.

My 345 is a 1999 model year, and it only has 684 hours. It only has the housing with the keyway...no bearing. Once I cut the straps on the PTO there was no way I was going to use the assembly... The reason I had to replace the PTO wasn't the bearing, it was the clutch that was bad causing the PTO to lock up and burning out the Ignition circuit board. Which by the way is also a very expensive piece of ...something. My new Ignition circuit board now has a green light for "normal" PTO voltage, and a red light that the PTO is not working or going out, which is very helpful when looking to see what any problems nay be.

FD611V said:

My 345 is a 1999 model year, and it only has 684 hours. It only has the housing with the keyway...no bearing. Once I cut the straps on the PTO there was no way I was going to use the assembly... The reason I had to replace the PTO wasn't the bearing, it was the clutch that was bad causing the PTO to lock up and burning out the Ignition circuit board.

Click to expand...

Did the replacement PTO have the upper bearing? Do you have a picture of the old PTO showing the housing without the bearing? I'm curious what it even looks like.

We just did the bearing on my friends 1998 345 and it had the upper bearing. His did not come off as easy as mine but a overnight soak in some PB blaster and a gear puller, then it came right off.

MXZRXP said:

some say hours to get it off, some say it falls off.

which is it? or are there two different setups??


.

Click to expand...

It looks like it may depend on the style of PTO. Mine had a bearing on the top and it fell right off. FD611V says his had no bearing on top and had to destroy it to get it off. I wounder if FD611V had the c-clip on the bottom bearing, if not, then maybe that's an easy way to tell if it might come off easily since you can see the c-clip from under the tractor before even attempting to take it off.

Now that mowing season is here where I live, my friend starts his mower and it had the dreaded PTO bearing noise. He was asking me if I every heard of the problem. I told him I fixed 2 already by just replacing one of the bearings on the PTO. He has a 2000 345. I told him to pull the PTO and bring it over. I had an extra bearing and was able to change his out in less than 15 minutes. He took it back home, installed it and couldn't believe how quiet his mower is now. He's so happy, he thought he was going to have to buy a new PTO. I told him he owes me a new bearing and some :trink40:.....
The bearing gradually gets worse and louder over time so you kinda get used to noise.