Thanks Ewest, and good points; well taken. Dski and I treat the PTO like it's the stick of death (mostly cuz it is).
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I must add that none of this stuff was plug and play. Yeah, the tractor was fully functional, but I drained every ounce of fluid and changed with fresh, lubed every joint, replaced a bunch of deteriorated rubber parts (stuff like rubber boots, fuel lines). This was all part of the cost to play. Even the brand new stuff from my Chinese factory had quirks. One of the cylinders on the FEL had a rolled seal that I had to pull and replace. The gearbox on the auger had a rolled oil seal that I had to replace. I had problems getting the backhoe to work with full pressure, but got that worked out. The real blessing was that the China factory was right there and sent me parts as I proved out the failures. The only down side is that I had to wait a couple of weeks for parts from them...and....I had to put them in. Like I said; to save a bunch of money means some sweat equity.
My real point on this thread is to point out that there is a low cost way to get stuff like this. It just requires a different approach and a committed mindset to maintenance.
ps; for those interested, the tractor is a Foton 404. 40hp, manual 4wd, 8 fwd and 4 rev speeds, 4200# of beast.
