Countax K14 power take off pulley detached

[farmroad38]

Hello all!  First post here, I'm hoping someone can help.

I bought an old Countax K14 off eBay.  It's in fair condition for its age, and for the first couple of months ran well with no problems. 

However, the last time I used it, the grass collector stopped working. I finished cutting anyway, then started to drive it back to where it's kept.  When I tried to change gear to get there faster, the gear lever wouldn't move, and it started making a horrendous grinding & knocking noise.

I took a look at it, and one of the belts connecting the engine to the rear axle was loose.  When I followed it back, the pulley the belt wraps around is completely loose - free floating, not connected to anything!  From the parts diagram I have, this is the power take off pulley, hence why the grass collector doesn't work.  The grinding and knocking I assume was the pulley rattling around back there.

I can't find any videos or manuals to indicate how I can access the area in question to check if a shaft has broken, or what else might have happened.  I can't see how I might get at it other than dropping off the rear axle, which scares me - I'm happy to have a go at most things, but I'm worried I'm just going to end up with an expensive collection of spare parts sitting on the garage floor.

Can anyone help?

[Mick]

Hi and welcome to TGMForum

Well not sure what's happened to your machine, I suspect either one of the bolts holding the lower PTO pulley has fallen out, or you've had bearing failure on that shaft.. Only a guess though. 

Trouble is the bottom bolt and the gearbox input shaft run pretty close to each other not allowing much if any access.  If it was me I'd drop the gearbox to be honest.

Do you have a parts list to hand, there's one here which might be of use. https://www.diyspareparts.com/parts/countax/diagrams/k-series-lawn-tractor/fdbe4834-df83-4a89-a90b/