[Akghound]

Greetings Forum.
Being new to the forum I'm not sure if this is the correct area for posting in regards to an L275 Kubota, hope so.
Anyway, the splines on the front crankshaft PTO of my tractor are about worn out. The flex shaft is totaled. I took the engine end of the coupling off the flex shaft, turned it around so the best of its splines meshed with the best of the crankshaft splines. Then I built a short solid stub off the damaged end of the coupling and placed a Lovejoy coupling on the end of it. From there out with a jackshaft mounted in a couple pillowblocks. Off the jackshaft is a pully that belt drives a generator.
If you followed all that I'm the lucky one. Anyhow, all that is a temporary solution to getting power from the crankshaft which finally brings me to my question. What is the solution to coupling onto the crank when the splines are totally gone?
Kubota L275 bought way back in the 1900s, (1984)
Ken Gardner

 

[Volfandt]

Welcome aboard Ken. Your at the right place
Is there anyway you can post some pics of the setup & problem ?

Theres quite afew talented fabricators that post around here, I expect you'll see some suggestions

Dave

 

[Akghound]

Splines on engine. Image somewhat unclear do to grease on shaft.

Splines on old flex shaft coupling. Like on engine, almost worn out.

Old coupling with stub and Lovejoy. Set screws to help hold it stable on engine shaft.

Output shaft mounted on shelf with pillowblocks.
Hope this helps.
How do you guys attach to the engine after the splines are worn out?
Ken Gardner
Edit: Rats, don't look like the pictures came through. I'll try again later.

 

[Akghound]

Well I am having a fine time getting this post done right. The second picture in the above post is titled wrong, it is actually a 2nd picture of the shaft coupling showing how bad the splines are.

This is a picture of the coupling on the engine shaft. the setscrews are to help hold it in place.

Old flex shaft coupling with solid stub and half of Lovejoy
Ken Gardner

 

[Volfandt]

Figured you'd see more responses. Holidays coupled w/an unusual problem probably has alot to do with it.

Since the stripped teeth are actually part of the crankshaft, this unusual problem is actually perplexing in that NO one wants to replace a crank under such circumstances, correct? So an "engineered" solution is warranted.

My "engineered solution" is going to be based on how those aftermarket ORC's (rear pto overrrunning clutch) are mounted. They slide over the OEM pto shaft similar to your front shaft but, the tractor's pto shaft has a hole through it as does the ORC, once the ORC is slid on a spring dowel pin is driven in to hold and secure the ORC to the shaft.
I ran one of these setups on an old Ferguson TE20 for over 15yrs w/narry a problem.

With the above layed out, perhaps you could 1st clean up the teeth as best you can w/a drimmel tool then take your cleaned up flex-shaft and slide it on. Remove those set screw-bolts and once you have the flex shaft where you want it, take a punch and mark on the pto shaft where you can then remove the flex-shaft and drill a hole all the way through it. You can either size the hole for a spring dowl pin or a shear bolt.

Anyways it's a thought.

Looks like your driving a generator off of the front pto, is this correct? Is there a reason why you couldn't drive off of the rear pto?

Let us know.
Dave

 

[Akghound]

Thanks for the reply Dave. I will be looking into that.
Why the front you ask. Well most of my decisions are made based on what I have laying around to work with and what it will cost to do. I am usually broke so cost is a big factor. I already had the pullys, got the pillow blocks for $25 off ebay, the iron mount is scrap, and the large shaft cost me about $20 to have turned down. So far so good, then the origional flex shaft broke and I discovered the worn out situation of all the splines. But I digress from the question. Powering from the front allows the engine to operate at 1800 RPM with 1 to 1 pulleys where if I used the PTO off the rear with a conventional gear box I would have to run at 2250 (I think). At any rate it would run faster. Also running of the front allows for a quick and easy pulley change option, which I'm thinking of doing.
I need to mention that the tractor is not moble at this time. It was damaged in a fire then sat out in the pasture from winter 2006 until this summer. I plan to completely restore it some day.
Well that sure was a long answer ........
Ken Gardner