Oil Leaking From PTO

Hi- I was out mowing with my Dad's WD45 and noticed oil leaking from where the PTO comes out of the transmission...  I have no idea how much leaked out and really know very little about the tractor.  I'm hoping somebody on here can help me out with what type of oil to add and also where to add it.  I bought a manual online, but it's not much help.  I would also be interested in any advice on general maintanence that we should be doing...  Any info is appriciated! Thanks,

If it's leaking from the PTO gear box under the tractor it could the seal or the box could be cracked from having water in it and freezing. You check the oil on the left side of the transmission behind the side frame. There are two square headed pipe plugs, one bigger than the other. These are where you check the oil level. the oil should be about to drip out the housing at the plug hole when at the proper level. It has two plugs cause it takes a while for the oil to flow through the bearings so you can add at both places. I use 80w90 gear oil.

Thanks guys, that helps.  It's leaking from the gasket.  The bolts that hold the Pto to the transmission came loose.  Can I just remove those bolts and drop the pto down to replace the gasket, or will I cause trouble with something else if I do that?  I saw in the manual that I bought that the transmission capacity is something like 18 quarts... is that really how much fluid it takes?

^^ Guess you figured it out...

I just put a new seal in ours. If you search somebody posted the National # for the seal on another forum. I got my at Advance auto parts for around $9. Took a good bit to get the rubber and felt seal out (both were together in like a canister). I put the new seal in and cut the canister apart, cleaned the felt and sandwiched it back together. Doesn't leak a bit like that. I put the felt seal so that the inside piece can be tapped to tighten the felt around the stub shaft. You could probably run 2 of the rubber seals? Thats how most jetskiis are, just pack them with grease so they don't burn up.

Need to be careful you don't damage the shims if you do take it apart. I put teflon dope between all the shims and plug after they were wiped with solvent. The paper (or whatever they are) gaskets between the shims leaked the first time I put it back together (without the new seal). Only leaked after the stub shaft was repaired.


Edited by bluebanshee - 19 Apr 2011 at 10:03pm

Thanks for all the info!  I got a chance to take the pto off of the transmission and there was only (what was left) of a paper thin gasket, but I didn't see any shims. 

It's been this way for over 25 years, because that's how long we've had the tractor, so I would think I would be ok putting it back together the same way and everything would be alright.  How do I check the backlash?  Is that just based on how much play is in the pto shaft after everything is put together?

Thanks for all the replys, a few more questions though...  I put the PTO back on with just RTV (basically how it was before), but there is really no play in the pto that way.  What do you guys mean by backlash?  Just the amount of play in the pto shaft?  I don't want to get this back together and wind up with a box of full of gound up silver particles like freck had menioned :).  Also trying to figure out what is the actuall fill point for the transmission and what is the filler plug.  Along the left frame rail there is a dipstick that it looks like is for the rams, and right behind that and slightly lower is a square head plug.  I also see 4 drain plugs under the trans... One in the Pto, and one right in front of it, then two further back.  What is the one right in front of the pto for?  I drained that one assuming is was the same as the pto, but the fluid didn't look the same...  Sorry for all the questions, thanks for the help!

Thanks for the reply, but you lost me... Where I'm talking about is where the PTO housing bolts up onto the transmission, not where the PTO shaft comes out of that housing.  (I've never touched that bearing or seal)  Right now if I grab the PTO shaft that comes out of the housing it will not wiggle at all if the PTO lever is engaged, but it will spin freely if the lever is dissengaged.  Is that what you are talking about?

Ok- That makes more sense!  I thought there was some confusion about that in some of the replies before...  So it's normal for there to not be any play in the pto shaft?  Anybody have any input on the drain plugs?  I'm thinking that the PTO drain and the two behind that are all for the transmission and rear end, but I'm still unsure what the plug right in front of the pto is for.  Also still a little unsure about how many fill ports there are if I do pull al those drain plugs.. Don't want to leave anything empty and find out the hard way!  Figure while I'm replacing some of the fluid I may as well take care of it all.

The front drain plug is the hydraulic fluid and should be replaced with any good transdraulic fluid, the fill point is the dip stick cap on the left side of the transmission. All of the other (3) drain plugs are for the tranny and differential. The tranny and diff (all one compartment) are filled from the square headed plugs on the left side of the housing, behind and a little below the hydraulic fill dipstick. Fill tranny and diff to the point of running out the fill hole. I used hytran fluid in both systems and have been doing so for most of 30 years on the same tractor without any trouble. The book calls for gear lube in the tanny and diff but if the hytran works on high horse power new tractors it can't hurt your old one.