After slashing for about an hour the pto wouldn't disengage and I shut off the engine. Now I can't start the tractor because the lever won't move to release the pto. Any ideas what needs to be done to start the tractor or release the pto would be great

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/threads/deere-4400-pto-question.120738/ ---------in this link are 4400 manuals also

be sure belt is routed the right way
and disengage lever isn't pulled if its a hydro trans
be sure belt is around pulley on engine

It could be gear bound and not allowing it to disengage, i experienced that a few times in my farming days, we dug a lot of postholes with a PTO driven digger. What usually happened is i ended up getting caught on rocks and stalled out because i had the engine speed to low. What i generally had to do to fix it was remove the PTO shaft from the digger, disconnect from the tractors output shaft, then get it started and everything moving, then disengage the PTO and reconnect the post hole digger, then give her hell and get the engine speed up before re-engaging the PTO, that would generally shock it loose. If not then i would have to disconnect the PTO shaft again and spin it backwards by hand to rotate the digger in the opposite direction to remove the hangup.

When engaging the pto it is important that you have the clutch disengaged so that the pto gear is not spinning in the box.before it engages.
The pto gear runs off the counter shaft of the gear box and is spinning all the time the engine is running
when engaging the pto ,you are physically engaging a gear ( like selecting 1st gear) so you have to stop the counter shaft spinning so that the pto gear will engage with slashing

If your transmission is automatic on the drive axle, look for a small lever inside the frame and below the seat. It can be hard to find the first time. This lever disengages the drive inside the auto gearbox so the mower can be pushed by hand. If the lever is not not moved, pushing the mower also tries to turn over the engine making it impossible to move. With the lever moved accidentally the drive is disengaged and the mower won't move in either direction. The lever operates a flexible cable that comes out from the auto transmission.

Hi, first charge or replace the battery if necessary then check that the mower is charging the battery. The pto is probably fine but it needs battery voltage to engage. If the mower has stopped charging the battery may have had enough voltage to hold the pto in until you disengaged it but not enough to re engage it. Regards Phil.

Souns like the PTO is either stuck in the on position or electrically shorted. Make sure the PTO is FULLY disengaged by moving the lever a few times. If yours is electric PTO, it's probably a short.

I have the exact problem, have to start with PTO engaged?

safety on the seat if the blades were still lowered it will shut down the motor. have to disengage the pto.

The tractor is not a 6300 is it.If it' not you need to adjust the cable for the p.t.o. until it will stay down.Don't turn the turnbuckle too much at a time because there is a fine line between the won't engage and the won,t disengage adjustment.