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I am a farmer by trade, but I enjoy tinkering with mowers and small engines. My puzzle at present is a safety switch malfunction. The mower will start fine, but as soon as the clutch is released or the blades are engaged, it dies immediately. I have checked both switches with a continuity tester and both check good. They will only plug in one way, so I know they are plugged right. Also, on the same mower, when the blades are engaged, the engine sputters and misses for probably 20 seconds and then finally smooths out. I suspect that these are two separate issues.

sounds like the seat safty to me

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I moved your thread to the MTD Forum.

Bill1948 said:

I am a farmer by trade, but I enjoy tinkering with mowers and small engines. My puzzle at present is a safety switch malfunction. The mower will start fine, but as soon as the clutch is released or the blades are engaged, it dies immediately. I have checked both switches with a continuity tester and both check good. They will only plug in one way, so I know they are plugged right. Also, on the same mower, when the blades are engaged, the engine sputters and misses for probably 20 seconds and then finally smooths out. I suspect that these are two separate issues.

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Well Bill, since it dies immediately and also sputters a few seconds and then smooths out when the blades are engaged it would sure seem to have two separate issues possibly. I've had them treat me every way but right so I've determined a test is sometimes appropriate and your mower sounds like a good candidate.

So here is what I would do first. I'd locate that little kill wire that usually goes up under the engine shroud to the mag and un-plug / disconnect it. With that temporarily disconnected that will eliminate any safety switch errors in the electrical system. That doesn't eliminate that mag ground wire being rubbed bare between the disconnect point and the mag connection though. Shroud chafing sometimes.

So with that accomplished, if it still sputters a few seconds we can fairly safely say that sputtering isn't electrical.

:thumbsup: