Dug this out of the ground on some land I bought. No clue how long it had been there - several years at least. Gear box turns smooth and appears to be good. Three point boom can be fixed easily. Auger may still be ok - not sure.

PTO shaft is missing, unless it’s one of a few that are in a shop. Those all have broken yokes or are missing some parts. They also appear to be much smaller than the other shafts and yokes on my other equipment.  I want to use this on the pictured 85 HP tractor.

Advise would be appreciated as to whether I should:

1) Try to fix these old yokes / universal joints. New to me but I can figure it out. Concerned that this is undersized for my tractor and could fail catastrophically. Will have to figure out what sizes I have on hand. No safety guards around.

2) Buy a new shaft.  What series do I need?  I see some from Agri Supply between $100-$150 that look like they could work but they have a 1 3/8 six spline tractor-side and a round receiver with a shear pin equipment-side. This gearbox has a six spline connection. I might find an adapter or just switch it out.  If it do that am I ok without a shear pin or will the one on the auger suffice?

Pics:

Honestly I think you would be better off looking for a used one in decent shape at a few farm auctions. I bought a new one big heavy duty off brand thing but don't think it cost that much compared to a lot of other stuff.  I didn't use mine much and realized that a skid loader is a far better tool for punching holes.

Looks like a Continental Belton.

We used one for years on a 40 HP tractor. But I would keep the RPM's very low on a 85 HP tractor.

I would just buy a new shaft that fits and run a slip clutch on it.

Updates...  it’s all back together. Dumped a tiny bit of water out of the gearbox but it was mostly dry. Filled it back up with 80 weight. The drive shaft was the challenge. I pieced together enough working pieces from old equipment sitting around the farm. This was a learning experience to figure out how to take apart u joints and repack/reassemble them. A vise helps a lot.

After getting it hooked up I found that the shaft was about 5” short. So I cut it and welded an extension.

I tried a couple test holes with marginal success. The auger wasn’t getting good purchase and just made a smooth packed bottom about 4” deep. The points may need to be sharpened and or add some ballast to the boom for this. Next hole went better but I think I erred in just going straight down instead of pulling forward after the hole started causing the angle to be off. So that’s just operator error.

Other problem is that the case is leaking around the drive shaft seal quiet a bit. I may just live with this and add cheap oil regularly.

Anyway, other than 10-15 hours labor I’m out about $7 for some bolts and spray paint. More to come when I get time to play with this more. Need to build a stand for it too.

It's missing the guide handle for keeping it straight. You can get cutting edges at the local farmers Coop. They are barely better than hand post hole diggers. You will find you still have to use a rock bar. And you really need a slip clutch. Mine had a shear pin. The Hydraulic models are much better that use a skidsteer attachment mount.

This is what I replaced my old digger with and it's daylight and dark difference.

If you get a chance to pick one like this up I'd highly recommend it.

That’s some awesome equipment. Our neighbor helped us recently with a project and brought over his skid steer with an auger. It absolutely was night and day how fast and well it worked. Some day I’ll get one, but for right now I’m hoping this fixer upper will beat digging by hand in our black gumbo clay.

Had to look up what a guide rod is. I’ll have to check if there’s a mount on the gear box or if I can otherwise rig something up.

They bolted to one of the top bolts. Mine bolted to the side.