1872 what is this hole for?
 

On the drive shaft cover, above the label, left of center, there is a "D" shaped hole, the kind you'd mount an electrical switch in so it doesn't spin.
There's a dull ring in the paint around it, so something was there, it's a factory punched hole and paint is still intact.

Of all of the thing I will have to do to get this machine mowing again, this is what I'm most worried about; these are the kind of things that keep me up at night.

How about posting a picture of this hole...??

:bigthink:

Here it is, you can just make out the ring around it in the pic.

You have an oddity...... but we have seen it before. I had actually forgotten about this. But there was a tunnel cover that was made for a 3rd PTO switch.

Read this:
http://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=47681

Thanks for the link, that clears up what the hole is for. I had noticed the 2 holes for the extra switch and fuse holder on the tower when I first unloaded the tractor.
None of these hole have ever been occupied by a switch; the paint would be marred if the had, I'm going to assume the dull ring around the hole on the tunnel cover is from a blank-out of some sort to keep rain water out.

I would assume the tractor had a rear PTO and someone removed it.

OR....someone swapped tunnel covers.

I have an 1872 with the extra hole in the tunnel cover.

Looks almost like there was something mounted in the hole when painted, difficult to see but there is no yellow close to the hole. This shows up better in the last picture.

The red circle is around print stating Model 1872, 2072 on the bottom half of the tunnel decal.

My label is too far gone to read much of it, I see your tractor has 2 fuse holders which is part of the 3 switch setup if I'm reading right.

What I can't figure out is in what situation one would use front and back PTO at the same time? Of course I don't know what all of the available implements were.

The directional PTO Switch on these SGT's was "one or the other". It was never setup up to run both.

I guess I misunderstood how the front PTO switch worked, I thought it was "front-off-rear", but it's actually "start-off-run". I still don't fully understand when the start position is used, manual doesn't clear it up??

The manual is very clear. The switch is off-on-start. Just like every GT in the world with the same switch.

The only confusing switch set up is the 3 switch set up (which you don't have). Probably why they did away with it and went to the 2 switch set up.

Deere had the better idea. Two switches. One for the front, one for the rear. Easy.

I added the second fuse holder when I rewired the ignition switch female plug. It is now a fuse for the tractor lights, it made the rewire a little easier. I found it difficult to handle multiple wires to a single terminal on the plug body but simple combining wires on the fuse holder and from there one wire to the switch plug.

As Roland stated I have a directional switch for the PTO's, it is either the front or rear PTO but not both at the same time. Like you, I can't envision a need for both at the same time either.