John Deere 1520 Clutch Failure

lowandslow1 · Oct 28, 2016

Good morning. Was operating my tractor yesterday when all of a sudden the clutch would not engage. Had to quickly shut down the engine to stop it. I thought maybe a pin fell out, but all of the external linkage is attached and there isn't anything missing. The pedal and external linkage moves freely with no resistance. There hasn't been any signs of a problem before, just suddenly a dead pedal. Any ideas? Thanks.
Andy

jimmysisson · Oct 28, 2016

Do you mean it won't disengage?

Tx Jim · Oct 29, 2016

Sounds as if throwout brg wore ends of pressure plate fingers off. You can remove round inspection cover on LH side of clutch housing to view the TO brg. Is capscrew(key 6) in place???

MF283 · Oct 29, 2016

I hope it didn't make an awful noise, my 820 scared the crap out of me one day, pulled the inspection plate, metal part's everywhere.

Ronnie

lowandslow1 · Oct 29, 2016

Made no sound...I was going forward and stepped on the clutch and brake as normal and the clutch pedal went full travel with no resistance and the brake just make the engine lug. Its actually a 1530 diesel, runs great...until then. I dropped the rpm and pulled it out of forward 1 to neutral to get it to stop.
I opened the viewing portal on the side of the bell housing and low and behold there is one of the pivot blocks laying there. The one of the activating bolts snapped off. So it looks like I will have to split the tractor....argh.