peter lena 8,583 #1 Posted July 26, 2020 just looking around for a possible answer to the violent electric pto clutch ,engagement, came across this , https://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/soft-start-control-allows-clutch-to-safely-slip-20007006 , it might not be the total answer you want , but its a start to soften up that screaming pto start issue, pete Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
daveoman1966 3,745 #2 Posted July 26, 2020 I've had an electric PTO on my Bronco 14 for many years and have never encountered the 'screaming' you refer to. The screaming comes from a mal-adjusted belt in my opinion....too loose. If you would look at the internals of the E-PTO, you'd better see why it is not designed as a gradual slip-clutch as with fiberous clutch discs. The E-PTO slams together two steel plates immediately to keep them from slipping and preclude wear-out of those plates. With proper belt tension and GOOD belt, screaming would be minimal. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stepney 2,325 #3 Posted July 26, 2020 They are abrupt, yes. But haven't really had any issues to speak of either. Most problems stem from loose set screws or belts. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
clueless 2,976 #4 Posted July 26, 2020 (edited) A few years back I was checking on a price for the electric clutch for my JD GT262 at my local dealer . The parts guy said we my be able to rebuild the old one and asked one of the tech about it. The guy was an older fellow and he said yea they can rebuild it, as the parts guy walked off the tech gave me a name of a company and said you can get the same clutch for less than half of ours, (gott'a love them old guys) He told the best thing you can do for these small engine PTO electric clutches is to back off you throttle to about mid RPMs when engaging and disengaging them. My Hustler Z-turn guy told me the same thing a couple of years ago. Edited July 26, 2020 by clueless 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ZXT 2,401 #5 Posted July 26, 2020 1 minute ago, clueless said: the best thing you can do for these small engine PTO clutches is to back off you throttle to about mid RPMs when engaging and disengaging them. I don't even engage my manual PTO tractors with them above about 1/2 throttle. It's unnecessarily rough on everything involved. I wouldn't want an electric clutch that wasn't "abrupt". They're designed to engage abruptly.. Slipping just creates heat and will wear out the clutch lining prematurely. A/C clutches are the same way. They engage harshly, and go from 0 to 1000-6000 RPM in a nanosecond... and do this for 200,000+ miles. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tractorhead 9,064 #6 Posted July 26, 2020 I had a problem after engine swap. sometimes i was not able to re engage the electric PTO if engine run‘s a longer periode. I checked the PTO and found out, that it get‘s very hot on longer mowing. The problem in my case with the electric PTO was never the Starting, it was a slip on the Frictionplate of the clutch itself on higher Load. The Clutch was rated for a 12HP Engine, but after Swap i had 16 HP what seems to much for the PTO. After the clutch was melted while mowing a wider Area, i diagnostic what was the cause and find out, that the mowing in higher grass overloads the Friction possibilities between magnet plate and friction plate and it gets extremely hot while it slips continousely. after exchange the electric PTO with a Highpower version rated up to 22HP that issue is stopped since. Even if the Grass is up to the Top of the Hood you just can feel the Engine must work harder, by chewing that much but the Clutch doesn‘t seems impressed by, It just gets handwarm even while mow a larger Area with that Grass height. Another issue was the belt spanner on my deck, what was a bit strong working, so i disassembled it completely, and cleaned the Bore and the spannershaft, reassebled it and greased it. Since i did this regulary i had no longer issues with Beltwear or even with troubles on the mowerdeck. It doesn‘t really matters how high the grass is i have to mow. a regulary cleanup after mowing is recommended. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
peter lena 8,583 #7 Posted July 26, 2020 I do not have an electric PTO on my horses, but there a lot of people around me with typical big store " lawn tractors " that do have the electric set up , they are violent and noisy with all the issues stated above. especially heavy belt squeal and rough starts . without a doubt , they probably all suffer from belt, rust, and lack of any lubrication issues. as stated above , probably never cleaned up after mowing , or any deck cleaning. i prefer the manual set up , pete 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
