You start up your riding lawn mower and everything is running fine. You let the clutch out and then it quickly dies! You try fiddling with the different knobs and it does the same thing.
Let’s check a few things to see if we can quickly troubleshoot this problem.
First, make sure that the PTO switch or Lever is in the OFF position. Next, put the riding lawn mower in neutral and disengage any other features of the mower.
Now start the engine and let the clutch out. If it dies again, check to make sure the seat switch is connected that is under the seat. If it is disconnected, re-connect it and try again.
Most likely this problem is the seat switch. The mower is not sensing someone seated and will kill the engine if an operator is not present. It is creating a scenario where the mower is tipped over and wants to shut down the engine to stop the blades from turning and injuring the rider if the mower rolled over onto them.
You can replace the seat switch fairly easily and a common one is this //ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=lawnmowerre02-20&marketplace=amazon®ion=US&placement=B004HSFDT4&asins=B004HSFDT4&linkId=ed9f0add22f818e9db12f4675f36bae3&show_border=false&link_opens_in_new_window=false&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff“>switch.