Front PTO Belt

I bought a (used) Pow'r Max Simplicity tractor couple days ago. Complete with FEL and Backhoe attachment. 

 

Tore up some earth yesterday and today. Was super happy. Then......like boating or racing.....sadness.

 

Thanks to this forum I have learned I have a Allis 720 (Please all I am new, so feel free to correct, advise, and teach!)

 

The belt on the front PTO broke. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get a new one on there. No tensioner? No way to remove the bottom pulley? I cannot figure out for the life of me how to get the new belt on without removing everything.

 

I looked in the manual. Did I miss it somewhere?

 

Anyone out there willing to help out a newbie?

LostDog88 wrote: I bought a (used) Pow'r Max Simplicity tractor couple days ago. Complete with FEL and Backhoe attachment.    Tore up some earth yesterday and today. Was super happy. Then......like boating or racing.....sadness.   Thanks to this forum I have learned I have a Allis 720 (Please all I am new, so feel free to correct, advise, and teach!)   The belt on the front PTO broke. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get a new one on there. No tensioner? No way to remove the bottom pulley? I cannot figure out for the life of me how to get the new belt on without removing everything.   I looked in the manual. Did I miss it somewhere?   Anyone out there willing to help out a newbie?

The FEL was manufactured by another company, you;ll not find instructions in the AC manual, what you have is an ARC loader.

And your backhoe is probably a Brantley Model 603A

I also recently acquired an AC 720 with the FEL but its not home yet, the Simplicity 9020 is the sister tractor.

From research I found out that the FEL has a separate hydraulic pump that attached to the front of the engine or possibly driven via the belt your looking to replace.

Since I'm unable to give pictures or instruction by looking at my tractor directly I'm going to assume that the Simplicity engineers of the time used the same technique to tighten the belt as they used for the snow blower jack shaft.

The pulley underneath the front of the tractor rests on a pivot that allows the pulley to swing up or down, on this pivot bracket there;s a long threaded rod with a spring sleeved over it.

There;s a pair of nuts on the treaded rod you loosen and have to back off to gain enough slack to put the new belt on.

I suspect the hydraulic pump used fro the FEL would be of a similar arrangement.

Nothing special has to be done to slip the new belt over the electric clutch pulley at the front of the engine, that pulley sits forward of the magnet.

While you changing the belt it might be a good time to adjust the air gap on that front electric magnet pto clutch.

If your AC 720 has not been re-powered and still has the original Onan engine the front pto clutch has four studs each with a spring that sit behind the face plate.

The faceplate has  four slots this is where the you place the .010 feeler gauge to set the air gap. Do not insert the feeler gauge more than 3/16" . You make the adjustment by either tightening or loosening the four nuts on the outside of the faceplate.

To prolong the life of the electric clutch only engage it at low engine rpm. This will minimalize friction during engagement.




Edited by rustydollar - 14 Sep 2017 at 10:40am

More pix.

No clue the year. The best I can figure is that it was produced sometime between 1975 and 1980. Made by Simplicity, it was marketed and sold by Montgomery Ward.

Nice unit.  I think you were quite fortunate to get this combo. Really cool that you are able to make such good use of it without major maintenance = before you can even use it, that often comes with a purchase like this !