John Deere 317 PTO doesn't engage

nebrando · Jul 6, 2012

I have a JD 317 and the mower deck stopped engaging while I was mowing. The PTO switch works and will kill the engine if nobody is sitting on the seat but the deck never engages. It doesn't even seem as though it is trying to engage.

Does anyone have any ideas for me? I tried searching and was unable to find an answer.

Thanks in advance.

shinnery · Jul 7, 2012

Blown fuse? Open wiring or possibly open winding in the coil of the clutch. With the engine off, can you take a jumper wire and get the clutch to click? Or get a multimeter and check for continuity thru the clutch winding.
Bryce

mhfjim · Jul 7, 2012

Got a Wheel Horse that did the same thing. It has a ground terminal on the ignition switch and wasn't getting a good enough ground. Ran one from where neg cable bolts to frame and it has been working good ever since.

BLH · Jul 7, 2012

Have someone sit in the seat and with the key on, engine off, turn the pto switch on and see if you have 12 volts at the connector where the tractor harness hooks up to the pto clutch. If you do, the clutch could be bad, the air gap needs to be adjusted, or a bad ground at the clutch. Since you said it stopped while mowing, I would lean toward the air gap needing to be adjusted. When the mower cools down, will the pto clutch reengage? If so, that is also an indicator of the clutch air gap being too wide.

nebrando · Jul 7, 2012

Thanks for all the great ideas. I did end up finding a disconnected wire up near the front of the engine. Once that was reconnected, everything worked again.

John Deere 317 PTO doesn't engage

nebrando

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shinnery

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mhfjim

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BLH

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nebrando

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