ferguson TO 30 PTO stuck

My neighbor has a nice Ferguson TO 30 that he left at his rental property for a few weeks. It worked fine when he left it but when we went to pick it up the renter had used it to brush hog the property and the PTO would not engage. We had to drag the 4 foot brush hog out of the garage to disconnect it to drive the tractor home. We got it home and can not get the PTO to shift towards the front which I think engages it. This tractor has always worked excellent until now. I nor the owner know much about these and the service manual doesn't say much at all about servicing the PTO. The only thing it does say is that the tractor needs to be broken apart and that is NOT something we can do. I see a round plate that the PTO shift lever is in so I'm wondering if taking that off will allow access into the case to figure out what may be the problem? I don't know but assume the fluid would need to be drained at least some if removing the round PTO shift lever cover as well?

yes, drain the fluid-[be ready for 4-6 gal, not sure. pull the cover with shift lever you are talking about. it has a spring loaded detent ball, locating the lever in or out. make sure this works proper. if ok, reach in & see if the gear that it operates slides freely. if not, the spline on pto shaft is prob. twisted.

I had identical problem but with a MF WorkBull, try this

jack up the rear tire on the PTO lever side to move the trany oil away from the cover, center the lever and carefully remove that round cover trying to keep the gasket intact

inside that round cover the PTO lever has an arm that drops down into a groove in a sliding collar

if you are lucky the tip of the arm has simply come out of the groove, reinsert and reassemble (much easier said than done)

if you are unlucky the tenant broke off the tip

if gasket was ruined you should replace the gasket, rednecks will use RTV blue to seal things up

Sometimes when you get them in GROUND DRIVE they are hard to disengage. I think all the way back engages the engine driven PTO. Likely nothing wrong

The PTO lever can not be moved either forward or backwards. It appears to me to be stuck more towards the back then the front. The TP lift does not work nor does the PTO shaft turn and we had to drag the brush hog out to disconnect it from the TP hitch to drive it home.

(quoted from post at 15:44:42 10/26/14) The PTO lever can not be moved either forward or backwards. It appears to me to be stuck more towards the back then the front. The TP lift does not work nor does the PTO shaft turn and we had to drag the brush hog out to disconnect it from the TP hitch to drive it home.

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jack up the rear tire on the PTO lever side to move the trany oil away from the cover, center the lever and carefully remove that round cover trying to keep the gasket intact

inside that round cover the PTO lever has an arm that drops down into a groove in a sliding collar

if you are lucky the tip of the arm has simply come out of the groove, reinsert and reassemble (much easier said than done)

if you are unlucky the tenant broke off the tip

I finally got around to removing the round cover and the PTO lever. Drained the fluid out and removed the cover, found the lever and arm to appear to be in good condition but didn't know exactly how this thing operated. There is a rod with two ridges in it coming from towards the tranny that appears the end of the shift lever fits between. The shift lever has wear marks on the end where it is flat that makes me believe this is how it shifts the PTO in and out. I also see a "U" shaped metal bracket around that as well as all the other shafts in the case which has a spring at the bottom just inside the drain plug that I have no clue of what it is for but it doesn't appear to be involved with the shift lever arm. The manual my neighbor has doesn't speak too much to PTO shifting problems and fixes other than it says that a problem there means the tractor will need to be broke in two at the back of the tranny. I can't see anything broke in the housing and I tried to stick my fingers in to see if I could manually move this rod with the ridges or groove in it but couldn't move it even prying lightly with a screw driver. Does this look like a break in two problem?