3038e pto won't disengage

40mmt · Apr 6, 2014

3038e pto will not disengage, runs all the time. tractor will crank and start and pto will come on as soon as engine starts with pto switch in off position. safety switch on seat will work when pto switch pulled on and pto light on instrument panel will go off and on with switch position changes, engine will stop as normal. disconnected pto switch from block and pto shaft still engaged and won't stop. pto solenoid under the right foot rest stays energized (warm to touch) with the engine switch in off position and will kill the battery overnight (twice, new battery). only able to stop pto by removing the connector at the pto solenoid. something is keeping the pto solenoid energized all the time, regardless if engine on/off and regardless of pto switch on or off. pto did stop when connector at solenoid was removed so it doesn't seem to be mechanically seized inside. please help. thanks

LazyHRanch · Apr 9, 2014

How old is the tractor and how many hours are on it? Do you use the tractor in an area where salt is used to melt ice and could build up on the solenoid?

cwlehner · Apr 3, 2017

Did you ever figure out what the root cause was on this? Mine is doing the same exact thing, I've got a band aid fix in place but would love to know what the root cause is. On mine I traced the hot lead all the way back to a pin on the instrument cluster so I figure it is one of the safety mechanisms inside of the cluster that is doing exactly the opposite of what it was designed for. To fix it I just ran the hot wire that goes to the solenoid through some of the unused poles on the PTO switch, it works like it was meant to, just not like it was supposed to...

cwlehner · Apr 3, 2017

Basically what I found is that the PTO switch and the PTO solenoid are not directly wired together. The PTO switch only seems to send a signal to the cluster, there is no relay in line so it must be controlled by a ASIC on the board.

Here are a few pics of what I did:

Pin D (left purple wire in picture) on this connector was always hot, this feeds 12V to the PTO solenoid.The connector is located on the top left side of the cluster.

This is the connector at the PTO solenoid, you can see the same purple wire:

I simply cut the purple wire about 4 inches back of the connector and spliced it through the PTO switch (note the trimmed connector):

Its not the best solution, but it got me up and running. Functionally it is no different, but I sure would love to know why its doing it.

40mmt · Apr 4, 2017

cwlehner said:
Did you ever figure out what the root cause was on this? Mine is doing the same exact thing, I've got a band aid fix in place but would love to know what the root cause is. On mine I traced the hot lead all the way back to a pin on the instrument cluster so I figure it is one of the safety mechanisms inside of the cluster that is doing exactly the opposite of what it was designed for. To fix it I just ran the hot wire that goes to the solenoid through some of the unused poles on the PTO switch, it works like it was meant to, just not like it was supposed to...

Had to replace instrument cluster. Problem was an internal short/fault inside. No other choice, not aware of your fix. Good job on figuring it out.