Posted by Lyle Van Wert on October 05, 2000 at 10:12:47:
In Reply to: Flat belt pully PTO for a PW posted by Dale on October 05, 2000 at 08:47:54:
For the best information talk to Fred Coldwell. He can tell you about the manufacturer and historical details. He may see this and offer up more info here. A number of years ago he started a list of serial numbers of all the Belt pulleys that surfaced. Remember the rear PTO and Belt Pulley were each separate options, even though it is obvious you would need the former to have the latter but not the other way around. Many trucks have the rear PTO and not the belt pulley. When you find a truck that has a rear PTO try to back track the owners because it is possible that the first owner took it off and tossed it into a corner of a shed or under a bench when no longer in use (they are really in the way when you have it on the truck, plus the pintle hitch option used the same hole in the rear cross member, so you couldn't use both at the same time). Then the owner dies and the auctioneer or heirs don't realize that it should go with the truck when it sold. The Ford tractor belt pulley is similar but different and there was disscusion many years ago about that in the PW Advertiser (see Greg Coffins index for possible research on that or again ask Fred). I don't recall if anyone was successful in adapting one of those but it certainly would not be original. You would be a lucky guy to find one as this would be the most rare and sought after PW bolt on equipment option. One other rare and quite often over looked option is the draw bar, not to be confused with other hitches, it was designed for draft pulling of ground implements such as a plow. I have one installed on my one of my trucks and if sometime in the future I un-bury it from the back of the shed I will take a digital picture and post it for your further viewing enjoyment. I may even have a picture of my 58 W300M pulling a 3 bottom plow with this option (second gear low range faster than you can walk). One other note; when a truck was equipt with the rear PTO there was a cast iron cap that was used to cover the PTO splined end when not in use. It has 4 bolt holes in it and you can find a rather nice stainless steel machined version I think else where on this page where things are for sale. The point is everyone should be on the look out for these caps in places like under the seat of trucks with the rear PTO or at least ask when buying such a truck. A nice cast repro was produced about 10 years ago by a guy in I think Conn. but I haven't heard of him in years. I do think I still have his address because I bought one from him. On a historical note, my nieghbor used to deliver fertilizer to farmers in the 50s and he recalls seeing at least one PW with the rear PTO. He says the farmer prefered to use the PW for running the silage blower because aside from the extra horse power over the tractors of those days the PW had a very sensitive governor. The advantage of that was when a slug of silage was introduced to the blower the governor would respond to the power demand and kick the throttle. Most tractors had more of a delay and it often caused a nasty plug up in the blower. The PWs respond time was quick and avoided this problem. I need the King Seeley governor (it looks like an emisions pump with a lever on it) so if anyone has one out there and wants to sell or trade for PW parts you might just save me a nasty plug up one day. Happy hunting and good luck.