Great tips on extending the life of your Rockford™ and Twin Disc® PTO
This Tech Tip, follows earlier tech support material we have published regarding NACD®, Rockford™, Twin Disc® and WPT Power® PTOs. Please take a look at:
- Tech Tip #48: Maintaining Your Twin Disc, Rockford, NACD or WPT Power PTO, and
- Tech Tip #73: How to Make Your Twin Disc or Rockford Power Take Off Last Longer .
This Tech Tip focuses on the pilot bearing, an often-neglected part of your PTO. Most of us know that the pilot bearing presses into the flywheel and supports the input shaft of the power takeoff clutch. This low cost item is like a mushroom: it lives covered in grease in a dark area and it is often neglected and rarely changed. See for example our Tech Tip #67: How To Remove A Troublesome Pilot Bearing for info on how to remove a stuck pilot bearing. Unfortunately, people often grab the cheapest bearing they can find to fit their flywheel or worse, don’t bother to replace it when they change the clutch pack or other worn parts in their PTO. Here is another idea, an idea that may just further prolong the life of your PTO clutch: Supersize It!
SUPERSIZE IT. We think power take off users should super size their pilot bearings if there is the space to do it. For example, if you are running a Twin Disc Model CX110HP4 or a Rockford Model 4-11256 PTO, the factory advises you to use for the pilot bearing Twin Disc PN M224A or Rockford PN 2-0743, depending on if you have a Rockford or a Twin Disc PTO. This is acceptable if you have a light duty application without much side load on the power takeoff or frequent engagement/disengagement of the PTO. Please note that while the factory recommended pilot bearing for the Twin Disc 10” PTO (and even the 11 ½” PTO) is a single row bearing, the Rockford PTO takes a double row bearing which is far superior. But if you want to get longer life out of your bearing an PTO you should consider upgrading to a better, wider bearing. We recommend that for the 10” power take off application an easy upgrade is use a double row pilot bearing that fits the larger 11 ½” PTO. We do not recommend that you use a single row pilot bearing for any application. Moreover, we recommend that you use one that is double sealed, one seal per side to retain the lubrication grease. While the entire pilot bearing will not fit in the flywheel housing bore, it will give you more support, run cooler because it has more lubrication, preserve your input shaft and be easier to remove when it comes time to change it. All in all it is a real win/win situation.
If you are running a larger power takeoff clutch, we can often offer similar upgrades to help you get longer life out of your PTO. Call us at (508) 753-2979 ; We want to help!
Manufacturers names, symbols and numbers are for reference purposes only and do not imply manufacturing origin.
