Posted by Harris Neil on September 21, 1998 at 23:57:40:
In Reply to: Re: whats that for posted by jose alberto on September 21, 1998 at 17:22:40:
Jose,
The power take off (Or P.T.O.) is a set of gears, in a gear box, attached to either the transmission or transfer case, to run some supplementary appliance. The most common is a winch, but any number of devices can be driven by a PTO. For instance a pump, a wrecker boom, drilling equipment, etc. Generally the power is transmitted down a drive shaft and uses a worm gear, to the device. The advantage to PTO equipment, versus the common alternative, electrical equipment; is that it uses engine power, and therefore does not need to be used intermittently, and generates much more torgue.
On these (older Dodge) trucks, the PTO is connected to the transmission.
From the way you describe the position of your lever, it sounds like you have a PTO drive bolted to the right (passenger) side of your transmission. Or at least there was one, and someone left the lever. I am not sure about the WM-300 though I think that the factory winch drives, for front mounted winches were on the left (as it is on my M-37). If that is the case, your PTO lever should be relatively close to the acelerator pedal. If it is on the other side (With the PTO lever to the right of the transfer case control) I suspect your truck may have had something rear mounted, like a pump, or boom.
The way it would normally work is that a drive shaft would run from the PTO Drive, to the winch. You would typically put the transmission in neutral, then depress the clutch, then use the PTO lever to control the direction you want the winch to turn, then let the clutch out, and it would start to move the winch.
Any way, you should be able to quickly tell if there is a PTO drive on the transmission, by simply crawling under the truck, and taking a look. I assume if you had a winch, curiousity would have caused you to figure it out by now. So if you have the PTO drive, you probably need the drive shaft, and winch itself. If none of these parts are there, you can assume your truck had one, that some one removed. If these parts are there, but don't work, perhaps you just have the lever disconnected. Or you could have more significant problems. Basically the PTO sytem is pretty straight forward. If there is a problem it is usually easily solved with the application of money.
I believe the Braden LU-2 was the standard winch on that truck. I see them advertised frequently on this board. If your's is missing, and you feel the need for one, I'm sure someone here could help you out.
Feel free to E-mail me if this has failed to bore you to tears.
Harris