When I bought the tractor the PTO clutch lever was missing and the PO said it was missing when he got it. He said he just didn't want to spend the money so he just dropped the RPM and engaged it directly. I am getting around to fixing it now, but I don't think it would work even with the upper lever assembly. When I twist the lower lever by hand I get some growling/grinding noise and the PTO lever grinds just like if I am not actuating the clutch at all. I am for sure moving the lever all the way as it hits the shaft for the main clutch. Also it doesn't feel springy like I would expect a clutch to feel, but it is smooth all the way till it starts making noises. My guess is the throw out bearing wore out and collapsed, but I wanted to check if anyone has different insight/experience. Yay for splitting the tractor! 🥲
M7500DT PTO clutch won't disengage
- Thread starter Oktm
- Start date
It's a bit hard to tell which levers you are referring to in which order. PTO clutch lever is on the left of the gear lever. PTO gear engaging lever is on LHS below the seat. Which is the lever that is missing? If you are getting grinding noise when engaging, I'm guessing you are moving the lever below the seat. That lever has no clutch, it's like your gear lever - its engaged or not - so unsurprising if it grinds while engaging 
Sounds as if the pto clutch plate is stuck in dual stage clutch assembly. To repair most likely tractor will require a split.
dvcochran
Active member
Equipment
Kubota M9000, New Holland TN90, Deere 2640, Vermeer 504N, Vermeer 504SI, more
IIRC, the old M7500 we had was not synchronized on the clutch engagement. You had to idle all the way down and it would still grind slightly.
Sounds as if this tractors pto clutch was stuck to flywheel or linkage/PP was out of correct adjustment
The missing handle would go to the left of the gear shift. From what I have gathered you are supposed to be able to pull that to disengage the clutch, then engage the lever under the seat to engage the PTO (the one under the seat has 3 positions, main clutch power, neutral, or engine powered). The lever under the seat seems to work fine and will engage if I idle down, but the PTO clutch seems to have no effect on anything besides making rhe grinding noise I described. I am almost wondering if the balls in the throw out bearing have left the chat and I am just trying to use the collapsed races to throw out the clutch. For reference if the implement is engaged and running actuating the clutch does not slow or stop it.
As per @Tx Jim, is the PTO clutch lever adjusted according to WSM.
As an experiment, have you tried starting the engine with the PTO clutch disengaged, PTO gear engaged, and with a PTO-driven attachment connected? I had a similar issue to yours, so I tried that experiment on mine: the starter motor turned the engine effortlessly (i.e. no noticeable additional load on the starter) and started the engine, and the PTO driven item (a hay mower) remained stationary. So the PTO clutch was disengaged and doing its job. I engaged the clutch lever and the mower smoothly took up the PTO power. So the clutch was fine, it was was dragging just enough to keep the PTO gears turning when there was no attachment. So if correct adjustment doesn't fix the grinding, like @dvcochran says, you might have to take your time to idle down before engaging.
Not sure if you are aware of it, but "Main clutch power" you refer to is the ground speed PTO.
Unfortunately the PTO clutch lever is fully gone, there is just the lever that comes out of the body of the tractor and the hinged nut that the threaded rod that connects to the lever that the operator pulls on. In my test I had the implement running and tried using the clutch to disengage it. I will try from off and see what happens. Thank you for the suggestion.