John Deer A

:shock: Can any of you tractor nuts help me? I recently bought a 1950 John Deere Model "A" - found out that the PTO shaft is "intact" but "disabled" for safety reasons- is there an easy way to hook it back up? Thanks Banjoman09

Depends on what they did to "disable" it ? Even better chance it is broken and "disabled" sounded more PC

Try and get more info from previous owner if you can.

Is the PTO lever there on the floor engaged or not?? Some had like a rod with a flat on the end you could turn with a wrench.

John T NO warranty, its been years since I owned an A, it may not even be like that, I get all those two bangers mixed up grrrrrrrrrrr

Disabled for the safety of the seller. For the sake of making the sale,it was safer to tell the buyer it was disabled than to tell him it was broke. LOL

I'm betting your right on the money with that diagnosis.
I worked on ALOT of 2 cyl. and have yet to see one that was disabled "not working" that was not broken in some form or another.

It could be disengaged and he just referred to it as disabled.

We had a 1950 John Deere "A" on our farm when I was just a kid. If I remember correctly, there was only one way to engage or disengage the PTO as it was not a "live pto". To engage the pto, you moved the "L" shape rod lever which was on the right side of the transmission console/box to engage the pto. The PTO shaft would not turn unless you had the transmission out of gear and clutch engaged or in gear and the clutch engaged. Either the seller was covering for an inop pto due to internal damage or he was just telling you the pto lever was not in the operational/engaged position. Move the lever to the opposite position and see if the pto is turning. Don't try to engage with the clutch engaged or you may damage the internal gears and make sure there are no people near a turning pto. If you have an operators manual, it has a good discussion of how the pto works. The 50/60/70 and newer John Deere tractors had an optional live pto feature with a pto clutch system that you could engage/disengage without the transmission in neutral and with the clutch in any position, basically on demand pto capability. Live PTO worked wonders with balers, combines, field choppers, brush cutters, etc.

"<font color="#6699ff">[b:654c4848f0][i:654c4848f0]found out that the PTO shaft is "intact" but "disabled" for safety reasons- is there an easy way to hook it back up?[/i:654c4848f0][/b:654c4848f0]</font>"

Agree with [b:654c4848f0]Tx.Ricefields[/b:654c4848f0] statement "[b:654c4848f0][i:654c4848f0]It could be disengaged and he just referred to it as disabled.[/i:654c4848f0][/b:654c4848f0]"

Take a look at the diagram below.



Note the shifter lever (Key 58).

Take a look at the photos of the shifter lever below on "Old John" our 48A.



If the shifter lever is position to the far right, then the powershaft (PTO shaft) is "disabled".



If the shifter lever is position to the far left, then the powershaft (PTO shaft) is "enabled".

Hope this helps.

Indeed that may be it, same thing I was talking about below also. You say disengage I say disable like the old song lol

John T

Hey thanks guys...we "did" move the lever and nothing happened....it was running and in "neutral"...I will go check further...... thanks for your help!!!

sorry....guess I have been talking on page 1.....I get confused.

Hi, my paint is ok...but if I want to "repaint" is there a special green for that year? 1950...of just JD green?