GT245 Mower Deck Clutch

[stevegay]

The deck clutch has been failing to engage intermittently. It failed yesterday and I couldn't get it function properly again. I have tested yellow switch at the connector to the clutch. With a meter on ohms, the open circuit will change to 0 ohms when the switch in pulled up (energizing the clutch) then quickly increases and settles at 127 ohms. I applied 12 volts directly to the clutch, bypassing the switch and the clutch doesn't engage. All of the testing I've done indicates the clutch is bad but I wanted to check here to make sure I'm not overlooking something or this clutch works differently than I'm expecting before buying a new clutch.

 

[Richard001]

The deck clutch has been failing to engage intermittently. It failed yesterday and I couldn't get it function properly again.

I have tested yellow switch at the connector to the clutch.

This sentence does not make sense. Do you mean that you checked the PTO switch?

With a meter on ohms, the open circuit will change to 0 ohms when the switch in pulled up (energizing the clutch) then quickly increases and settles at 127 ohms.

You should not be measuring voltage with the meter in the ohms position.

I applied 12 volts directly to the clutch, bypassing the switch and the clutch doesn't engage. All of the testing I've done indicates the clutch is bad but I wanted to check here to make sure I'm not overlooking something or this clutch works differently than I'm expecting before buying a new clutch.

Do you have the owners manual?
There should be some trouble shooting guides in it.

Richard

 

[stevegay]

I tested the yellow PTO switch to see if it was working so I was looking for continuity when I pulled up on the switch. That's why I had the meter set for ohms. I followed the wires from the PTO switch down to 2 wire connector near the clutch and disconnected it there. I wanted to make sure the wiring was good as far down the circuit as I could get. I wasn't checking for voltage at the clutch as I would have to crank the mower and sit on the seat and I cant do that and test the circuit. Instead, I applied 12 volts directly from the batter to the clutch and the clutch did not engage. I do not have a manual. The mower was donated to my church many years ago. I can search for a manual but I thought someone may have some experience with this exact problem and could offer some advice.

 

[tomplum]

If you are putting 12 VDC on one clutch terminal and grounding the other, if the clutch is good it will fire.

 

[oldnslo]

Did you check resistance or ohms on the PTO clutch when you had the wires disconnected? I recently fixed a neighbor’s mower that had a broken wire by the clutch that would randomly work then finally quit completely. It was a broken wire in the harness to the clutch. I found this by checking continuity and wiggling wires.

 

[Richard001]

You can obtain the user manual from JD. The manual is to large to post here, but here is a link to the user manual. Pick one of the three last choices:

https://techpubs.deere.com/en-US/Search/Equipment?page=0&sug=true&st=model&kw=GT245&ln=English