Hey folks. My Poulan lawn tractor started to die every time I let the clutch out. An "expert" on another discussion board suggested that the problem was likely the seat emergency plug and it simply wasn't sensing that I was in the seat. To test the theory, he said I should clip the plug and bypass it and then check to see if the motor still died when I released the clutch. No problem. He was right, the motor no longer died. BUT, now it has a new related problem, when the blades are engaged it dies. Suggestions as to the cause and how to bypass it to test which part is faulty,. was it the seat plug or is it the blade engagement or both? HELP! I have a new plug on order, but when I went to mow by my sidewalk, it died when I engaged the blades... so Im wondering if it was the plug at all. I still had the plug jumped. The plug is a 4 wire plug, two black, one grey and then another short grey one that just doubled back on itself in the plug. When troubleshooting the plug, I connected the two black together and sure enough I was able to drive it back to my storage bldg... thats when I ordered a plug thinking I had the problem solved. But today was the first time I tried engaging the blades... back to dying when I engage. Suggestions?

Some safety switches are designed to allow the equipment to operate when the switch is open and others operate when the switch is closed. You may need to try other bypass combinations starting with no jumper at all. If not jumper doesn't allow operation then try one black to gray and then the other black to gray. Try all combinations but leave the short double back guy alone.

Sorry, I don't (as always) give "bypassing" advice.

Mower, you are correct, I wasn't clear enough. The bypass is just to track down which switch is bad. No tractor should be put into use with a switch bypassed. I recently took possession of a new Sears tractor for my primary home. It has what they call ROS option. ROS is reverse operation option so you can mow while in reverse. This may change how we answer some questions in the future as more of these unit get into operation.

Sounds good to me ball. I just don't mess with by passing. If it is a manufacturer's optionally operated safety, then so be it. But for the old types, count me out.