Had a problem recently with the old craftsman. Last year when I engaged the blades there would be a delay before the PTO kicked in and sometimes would not engage at all. This year upon starting, after shifting the [manual] transmission and letting out the clutch, the engine would die. Someone told me to check the seat switch, thought it worth a try.
I took the switch out from under the seat, sat on the mower and using my thumb to press down on the button, started the engine and let out the clutch. Went though the motions and the switch worked intermittently .Went to sears and bought a new switch ($12) and it solved both problems. Guess the switch was slowly going bad. This fix has probably been posted a few times but may be worth repeating, because at first I thought the mower had more serious problems.
