Front pto not engaging properly
 

I was mowing yesterday and noticed that after cutting 15 feet beautifully, I wasn't cutting anymore. So I investigated and found a stick lodged between the deck and blade. Pulled it out, made sure both blades were spinning by hand and tried again. No dice...belts were moving very slowly. So I adjusted the length of the pto engaging rod (2 threaded rods with thingy in middle). Spun nice and fast for a second then very slowly.

Do you think that I just need to keep adjusting the rod until it's length is perfect? I just want reassurance before I keep messing with it...don't want to damage anything doing something stupid. And excuse my ignorance when it comes to these machines. I do hvac work for a living, so I'm pretty handy. But I've never worked on anything like this and would love to learn.

Now that I'm actually thinking about it, maybe it's as easy as tightening up the belt tension?

Yes, it sounds like a belt tension adjustment is in order and not your front pto. That or you need to buy a new belt, if you smoked the old one.

Cub Cadet 123

Cool. It's raining so I will check it out later today or tomorrow. It "was" a brand new belt before I got a hold of it, but I'm going to order replacement belts all around to keep on hand just in case.

Start with belts, then diagnose PTO.

When engaged the pto throw out arm shouldn't be contacting the pto button at all so it shouldn't matter what the adjustment is on that. Only for shutting the pto off does that matter.

Nice weather today, so I decided to tinker with the 123. PTO not engaging at all. Pulled front off of 123 (what a PITA to get to a couple of the bolts), and this is what I see:

[IMG]http://s6.postimg.org/9imp9f5fx/cc_001_2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://s6.postimg.org/f82xtqbm5/cc_002.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://s6.postimg.org/7gqt8wwul/cc_004.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://s6.postimg.org/aq58fdky5/cc_003.jpg[/IMG]

One of those three screws was very loose as well.

That top pressure pin doesn't look right, and the thing that depresses the thrust button looks totally worn. Any advice?

thrust button is GONE- you need a new one. It probably wouldn't hurt to pull the PTO and pull it apart to see if anything is worn (like the fiber disk in the center or how the clutch ends look where they meet said PTO.) If everything checks out ok, putting it back together with the template and it should work good. You may end up having to do a rebuild of the PTO.

On my 147 the PO had worn off the thrust button (like yours) so he kept tightening the turnbuckle down to disengage the PTO. He did this to the point that it completely destroyed the throwout levers/fingers, blew apart the fiber disk AND the sealed bearing underneath. So please don't let it go that far.

I'm guessing that there must be damage to the PTO already as is wont even engage. I don't want to get in over my head, but guess I will have to pull the PTO.

Getting to know this machine was my plan for the future, not my plan after getting one mow out of it :)