Posted by David Sherman on Tuesday, September 13, 2005 at 2:41PM :
As I was under my M37 checking the gearboxes for oil, I decided to finally scrape the dirt off the nameplate of the auxilliary rear gearbox that somebody added to this truck. It claims to be a Dana/Spicer 16-B "PTO". It's not really a PTO because it doesn't mount onto the transmission. It's just an auxilliary gearbox. The input shaft to it comes from the back end of the transmission PTO. Two shafts come out of this gearbox. One goes forward though a long cobbled-together drive shaft with very sharp angles and worn-out U-joints to the front winch. The other shaft goes out the back and has a chain sprocket on it. There are two lever-type controls so each output shaft can be engaged separately. The only possible purpose of this contraption is because somebody used to have something on the back that was driven off the sprocket, but whatever it was is long gone. I suppose it could have been a rear winch or a hydraulic pump. I don't think a chain would want to run fast enough to operate a generator/welder.
Does anybody know anything about this unit? I couldn't find anything on the internet about it. It looks like it would be really handy for something someday, though I'd probably take it off of this truck and hook the winch driveshaft back up the way it's supposed to be. As it is, I can't get the filler plug out of the tranny because the front U-joint of the shaft going to this gearbox is right in front of the filler plug.