340 Utility Rear Lift frozen

I have an IH 340 Utility tractor (gas) and when I tried to lower the rear lift with the bush hog on it, the handle snapper off. I am not able to move any of the linkages of shafts attached to this, so I cannot lower the piston to get the bush hog down to cutting level. Any ideas on how to get around this situation? Thanks
 
As a temporary fix, If you have the external cylinder 3-pt. With the tractor shut off, you could SLIGHTLY loosen the hose fitting and let some of the oil seep out. That would allow the hitch to drop. The problem is that once you re-tighten the fitting and restart it might return to the previous position depending on where the controls are stuck at. BE VERY CAREFUL OF WHERE YOU ARE POSITIONED if you do that. Pretty easy to get a face-full of oil or dropping the implement on your leg/foot. Not the best solution, but it would at least get you to a safer state to make repairs.
 
Take the weight off the hitch using a jack and blocking at the hitch if it is simi mounted and has a tail wheel on the ground now. if it is a fully mounted cutter, take
the pressure off at the rear of the mower, and block with wood cribbing. Once blocked, loosen the fittings on the cylinder to assure no pressure in the system. The
levers are prone to snapping and stripping a spline at the pivoting shaft. Take the plate off the valve and see what is going on. Jim
 
Nicholson's suggestion is what I would do also. In addition, it gives you room to work. As an alternative, you can remove the sheet metal covers over the valve assemblies and try to move the connecting rods by hand to lower the bush hog.
 
This happened to me on a 240, which has the same setup on the right side of the seat, if I'm not mistaken.

The shaft runs under the seat and connects to a mechanism which averages out the position of the lever with the position of the hitch. From there a rod runs forward to the control valve.

You're going to need to take it all apart to repair/replace the shaft anyway, so I would just go ahead and get that started. Once you have the mechanism separated from the shaft, you can then manually operate the rod to raise/lower the hitch.

Just make sure to do this from in front of the tractor. You won't know which way to operate the rod until you try it, and you wouldn't want to get pinched in between the tractor and the mower.

I had a machinist friend turn me a new shaft on his lathe. Could not find a good used one.
 
I have to second Janicholson's thoughts on this matter. That is a safer approach. I suppose I got ahead of myself. Stay safe, Good luck.
 
Thx. If I separate the rod from the linkages on the left, will that free up the linkages so that the piston can go up and down and free up the lift? At present, nothing moves.
 

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