My son has an old Lawn Chief riding mower that he purchased used. I finally got it started, but had to do so by shorting out the solenoid with a screwdriver to get it to turn over. Are any manuals available for these lawn mowers? The other idea I had was to put in a heavy duty push button (momentary contact) switch to start it, since it won't turn over when you turn the key. Thanks,
Rich

You most likely have a bad solenoid, you can get a universal pretty cheap, about a couple bolts and 3 or so wires to hook it up. If at that moment it doesn't start even then, a new key ignition is the same way, pretty cheap to replace.