Why does your John Deere L120 pto clutch does not engage?

Answer 1

My JD L 120 2004 mower deck clutch would not engage. On the clutch plug there are 2 black wires crimped together on the plug spade along with a yellow wire connected to a second spade, same connector. The crimp is very small and very tight. I pulled the plug off after first releasing the plug clip lock with a small screwdriver. when I moved each black wire independently at the crimp connection one of the wires felt very loose or easy to move because internally, due to vibration the small gauge electrical wire it had separated inside of the plastic coating. Evidently due to the safety switches there is a separate feed for forward and backward operation of the PTO clutch, hence the reason for 2 black wires. This also explains why the clutch would engage in reverse. Either way due to vibration any one of these wires could be fatigued and broken internally. To repair the problem I cut both black wires off of the spade crimp and reconnected at the crimp area by soldering the wires on top of the crimp. Problem solved.