184 Lo Boy clutch ??

I've picked up an additonal 184 Lo Boy with a 3160 attached mower. Ran and mowed good for a while until the clutch went out (pedal with no resistance) in the worst possible place, on a hill. Dragged it home with the other tractor.

I'm thinking that the fork has spread and overridden the T/O bearing carrier, but for the life of me I can't see the fork to determine what's going on.

What's the easiest way in to the clutch, R&R the PTO belt and pulley assy. or R&R the mower deck and go in from the bottom? Both look either labor intensive or heavy! I'm one for the KISS theory.

Any other diagnosis?

Thanks!!

I put this together earlier and thought it would be useful to others as well.

1) Remove Mower deck
2) Remove side covers and flywheel cover. Tunnel cover can be removed as well, but is not required.
3) Unhook steering shaft at rear and rotate out of way
4) Unhook clutch fork adjustment rod at and remove the clutch fork (PAY ATTENTION TO WHICH SIDE IS FRONT)
5) Use a 3/4" open end to move the belt tensioner in and slip the PTO belts off toward the front of tractor (unloading tensioner spring)
6) Remove the rockshaft and tensioner spring - A floor jack helps lower it without injury (This is greasy, need lots of towels)
7) Use Snap Ring Pliers to move snap ring forward on the driveshaft (by the U-Joint carrier)
Loosen 4 allen head set screws on U-Joint and slide it forward off the transmission
9) Slide the driveshaft down, back, and out. (Easiest done from underneath the tractor)
10) Relocate PTO belts off the pulley and slide them back, up, and from the top pull them out of the way. This is a good opportunity to replace these but these MUST be a matched pair. Recommend purchasing FROM IH.
11) Remove screws from the clutch pressure plate and PTO Belt Drive (Easiest done from underneath the tractor)
You can get to 3 screws at a time, rotate engine by hand to access the next 3.
12) Push PTO Belt Drive upward and back to let the clutch and pressure plate fall out the bottom between the PTO Belt Drive Mounts. Then wiggle the PTO Belt drive out the bottom.
13) Remove the flywheel if needed to reface flywheel or to replace the pilot bearing.

Note: When reassembling, do not tighten down the screws for the clutch pressure plate and PTO belt drive until after the driveshaft is installed.

Work from the bottom primarily. It will save you time.
There aren't many shortcuts, though HamiltonBobsCubs recommends putting in a second set of belts on standby for the future.
The fork is easy to get to, but anything further will require removing the rockshaft (which means removing the mower)
May as well just do that first.

Thanks for the help, fellas. Looks like that there is no KISS way, which is what I was hoping for.
I'll just be glad to get it where I can see what the blazes is going on (or not) with the fork. The mower looks like it will be a BIG pain the buttocks to get out from under the tractor.

Thanks for the help, fellas. Looks like that there is no KISS way, which is what I was hoping for.
I'll just be glad to get it where I can see what the blazes is going on (or not) with the fork. The mower looks like it will be a BIG pain the buttocks to get out from under the tractor.

it's not that bad, I just did mine, had I not given attention to many other things such as the rear main seal and creeper seal, I could of done it in 3-4 hrs, but mine had many other issues and it quickly snowballed and it still is..lol

If you have a cement pad (driveway or garage) and a 4-wheeled furniture dolly it's not difficult.
Remove drive belt
Lift deck with hydraulics & place furniture dolly under rear of deck.
Lower deck onto dolly.
Separate the deck from the suspending components.
Lift hydraulics to highest position
Roll / slide deck out from under tractor
Lower hydraulics to lowest position (may have to help it down)
Remove remaining suspending components
Take a break!

WOW! My PTO clutch belts have rolled on me and this procedure to repair/replace them is soooo intimidating! Can the belts be gotten at NAPA? I don't have access to the IH Dealer on the weekends.

WOW! My PTO clutch belts have rolled on me and this procedure to repair/replace them is soooo intimidating! Can the belts be gotten at NAPA? I don't have access to the IH Dealer on the weekends.

don't use cheap belts, use IH BELTS, TRUST ME!!!

The IH belts for the 184 PTO appear to be made of a "tougher than normal" material. They're quite stiff, when new and even a little shiny on the outside. They're a bit of a pain to change, so put the right stuff on the first time. You can order them from Ken, at Carter & gruenwald and he'll have them to your door in pretty short order.

If you are only replacing the PTO drive belts on the 184, then you can skip a lot of the steps.
You would need to do the following steps:
1,2,5,7,8,9,10
Add a new step:
Count the # of exposed threads on the 3 studs holding the PTO Clutch together so that you can put them back on to the same tightness. The PTO clutch will try to come apart when you remove the nuts from the studs. I would recommend trying to fish the belts out one stud & nut at a time.
Remove each of the nuts from the PTO clutch and remove and replace the belt.

Yep, decided to get the LoBoy up and running and try it out to see what It'd do with the turned belts. Sure enough.....I turned the PTO on and it whirled away just fine.......until about 10 seconds, THEN THEY BOTH BROKE! Tried engaging the PTO switch only with nothing to happen but a click. Got off tractor, took off side cover, and sure enough there lay a pile of "ashes", and the 2 belts. I pulled them right out! I will share pictures of them tomorrow. They seemed pretty hard and dry like they were simply worn out. Probably the original set of belts. Looks like I'm gonna be ordering some new ones now and tackling that tough job soon.

Now that the belts are out of the way you can continue analyzing the engine and transmission.
Check it out really well before you tear into replacing the PTO belts. That way you have a good reference for how things ran and felt before tearing it apart.

The engine and transmission seem to operate just fine. Why would I need to analize them?

Back on course with my original question.

Thanks to all who've responded with tips.

Back on course with my original question.
Thanks to all who've responded with tips.

Did you get it fixed? What issue was found?