PTO longevity without fluid

[Majestic]

How long will a PTO live without fluid in it? I just picked up my 2013 from having the PTO/transmission serviced due to a slight clunk I was experiencing when going into overdrive. Shop manager tells me the transmission is fine but that the PTO was bone dry. They filled it up and the "clunk" is gone but now I'm concerned the PTO might be on its way out. The technician didn't seem to think it was too big of a deal and they told me to bring it in every 15k miles and they'll check it for free.

I've never had a leak, smelled the propane stink or heard any grinding. But I'm perplexed how it could be completely empty. They seemed to think the fluid had simply evaporated.

 

[76FoMoCo]

Over time the heat literally cooks it down into a thick paste. No telling. Get the oil changed again in a few months and look for metal flakes in it. A few is normal but if it looks full of metallic well...not so good.

 

[yaycandy]

Without oil the roller bearing will overheat and the cage will rapidly break down or melt and the hardened rollers will be free. Free to go into the blender. The gears have no chance against them as they are stronger. Then the gears will become not aligned anymore and when you steer it the case will bind in either direction and just go bang. And hopefully not destroy the bell housing it’s crammed next to. The rollers can then be found with little damage. Working in roller bearing factory in my early days i seen them wreck 500 ton presses from not being aligned in the tooling correctly. This one fell over longways and its bad damage but 500 tons had to do that to it.

Actually the roller bearing acts also as a tolerance ring against the radial forces it sees under load. Its free to walk but only a certain amount in its allowed tolerance. So the actual clunk that can be heard is the bearing not being lubricated when load is either released from it or placed on it rapidly. Bearing cage would rapidly wear without oil to keep it cool under load. Only real way to tell if its damaged is to pull it and inspect it or just ignore it. If it continues to clunk sometime later with oil. It may be best to just get another unit. The ptu is known to take out engine on the police cars. As thats what the shop told me to scare me into changing out mine before it went bang.

 

[kryptto]

How long will a PTO live without fluid in it? I just picked up my 2013 from having the PTO/transmission serviced due to a slight clunk I was experiencing when going into overdrive. Shop manager tells me the transmission is fine but that the PTO was bone dry. They filled it up and the "clunk" is gone but now I'm concerned the PTO might be on its way out. The technician didn't seem to think it was too big of a deal and they told me to bring it in every 15k miles and they'll check it for free.

I've never had a leak, smelled the propane stink or heard any grinding. But I'm perplexed how it could be completely empty. They seemed to think the fluid had simply evaporated.

 

[SM105K]

Fill it and send it.