Well mownie I did have the top fuse blow on me last week.It was a 15amp fuse,and thats what I replaced it with,(according to my manual)I finished the yard last week and parked the tractor back in the shop.This happened this week after about 15 minutes of use.I did check the fuses again,and they are not blown.The wires are burnt right at the houseing where they go into the housing at the solenoid.You are very correct and know exactly what my set up is.So I guess I just need to order the solenoid and a new wire harness from john deere in the morning.Thankyou so muck for helping me fix the problem.

Well Mownie I owe you a huge thankyou.It took 4 days for the part to come in,but well worth the wait.It took me 15 minutes to change it,at a cost of $134 taxes in and back in buisness.Cut my 3.5 acres last night with no troubles at all.Thanks a million for the help.

Well mownie I did have the top fuse blow on me last week.It was a 15amp fuse,and thats what I replaced it with,(according to my manual)I finished the yard last week and parked the tractor back in the shop.This happened this week after about 15 minutes of use.I did check the fuses again,and they are not blown.The wires are burnt right at the houseing where they go into the housing at the solenoid.You are very correct and know exactly what my set up is.So I guess I just need to order the solenoid and a new wire harness from john deere in the morning.Thankyou so muck for helping me fix the problem.

Well Mownie I owe you a huge thankyou.It took 4 days for the part to come in,but well worth the wait.It took me 15 minutes to change it,at a cost of $134 taxes in and back in buisness.Cut my 3.5 acres last night with no troubles at all.Thanks a million for the help.

Well mownie I did have the top fuse blow on me last week.It was a 15amp fuse,and thats what I replaced it with,(according to my manual)I finished the yard last week and parked the tractor back in the shop.This happened this week after about 15 minutes of use.I did check the fuses again,and they are not blown.The wires are burnt right at the houseing where they go into the housing at the solenoid.You are very correct and know exactly what my set up is.So I guess I just need to order the solenoid and a new wire harness from john deere in the morning.Thankyou so muck for helping me fix the problem.

Well Mownie I owe you a huge thankyou.It took 4 days for the part to come in,but well worth the wait.It took me 15 minutes to change it,at a cost of $134 taxes in and back in buisness.Cut my 3.5 acres last night with no troubles at all.Thanks a million for the help.

Well mownie I did have the top fuse blow on me last week.It was a 15amp fuse,and thats what I replaced it with,(according to my manual)I finished the yard last week and parked the tractor back in the shop.This happened this week after about 15 minutes of use.I did check the fuses again,and they are not blown.The wires are burnt right at the houseing where they go into the housing at the solenoid.You are very correct and know exactly what my set up is.So I guess I just need to order the solenoid and a new wire harness from john deere in the morning.Thankyou so muck for helping me fix the problem.

Well Mownie I owe you a huge thankyou.It took 4 days for the part to come in,but well worth the wait.It took me 15 minutes to change it,at a cost of $134 taxes in and back in buisness.Cut my 3.5 acres last night with no troubles at all.Thanks a million for the help.

Sounds like the electric clutch burned out. By that I mean the electro magnetic coil inside it finally failed. They tend to short over a long period of time. An ohm meter reading across the coil wires usually shows a lower reading than a new coil would. (Something like 1.5 ohms or less probably bad. 3 ohms or more = good on common clutches.) The clutch is usually expensive ($160 to $260 average) but fairly easy to replace. Make sure your wiring isn't melted and the PTO switch still works. Charge and service your battery.

RD, you are talking apples & oranges here sir.
425 & 445 features a gear type PTO system where the PTO shaft emerges from the front of the rear axle case to power a gear driven MMM deck.
Markwisz, you see smoke coming from the two wires that go into the rear axle housing. You have located the wires that power the PTO solenoid.
Most likely the solenoid has shorted internally and will have to be replaced. The fact that you see smoke might be proof that the solenoid coil wiring (which is very small wire size) has shorted and burned up. But, it might also indicate that the OEM fuse for that circuit has been replaced with a larger ampacity fuse.
Whatever you find regarding the burned out PTO solenoid, please double check to confirm that the fuse has been been replaced with a higher capacity fuse.
Fuses are meant to fail when an electrical short or overload occurs. That fact makes me wonder why you are seeing smoke as the second indicator (mower quit being the first) of trouble instead of finding a blown fuse, and that fuse blows again and again when you replace it.???
It could be that the wires that are smoking are too small to blow the fuse in the particular place of the coil the short occurred, but it could be due to a heavier than spec fuse having been put in place at an earlier time (time bomb).

Here is a link that might be useful: 425 PTO solenoid

OK, good. Mark, be sure you look very closely at the inside of the connector where the solenoid pigtail plugs to the tractor harness. If you see any green coloration of the metal contact terminals inside either half of the connector, this might have contributed to the failure of the solenoid (green = corrosion = high resistance = too much current draw and build up of heat in the solenoid coil.
If you do find evidence of corrosion in either half of the connector, you probably should consider cutting the connectors off and splicing the new solenoid (minus connector) directly to the tractor harness.
If you do need to do this be sure you use high quality butt splice terminals (crimp compression splices) with heat shrinkable tubing to seal up your repair completely.
Of course if you do not see any signs of corrosion in the connector halves, you are safe to reuse the OEM configuration. Solenoids of this type generally do generate some heat in operation and that can lead to eventual break down of the insulating "shellac" coating on the wires and a short can occur after that happens.
And post back your results please.

Yea, I had apples and oranges all mixed together on that one. Sorry about that. I was thinking about electric pto clutches when I first read the question.

You are very welcome sir. Stay safe and good luck.

At the factory school they pulled the plunger out from under the sol to simulate a PTO sol failure, lol...

f.y.i you can use a meyer snowplow solinoid as the magent

just got a 425 for free and in the process of fixing it. everything is good just needs rear transaxle fluid and the pto wont work. the red light on the ignition module does not come on either does the yellow dash light. i have tested all the sensors. im thinking its somewhere in the electrical because the lights arent turning on. going to get the fluid today but need this fixed asap, please help =(

jnd425prblm,

Your question will get more attention when you start a new thread instead of hijacking a 4 year old one.

sorry im new haha thanks for the advice, ill get to it