Introduction: Disable the Kill Switch on a Riding Mower

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Here is my quick post to show how I disabled the shutoff switch on my riding mower without voiding the warranty (until they see this post anyway). I didn't want to cut the wires to bypass the circuit for fear this may cause other problems or void my warranty. This is a much easier solution anyway. On a difficulty scale from one to five this is easily a one. It takes about 15 - 20 minutes and no real skill at all.

Why did I override this safety feature? Obviously you will need to put on your big boy pants and use good judgement. It is there for a really good reason. I mow a few small hills and sometimes when leaning to one side the mower would start to cut out. Also, I attach a snow blower so I want the tractor to warm for a minute before I take it outside in the dead of winter. I'm not suggesting this is for everyone but this is what I did about two years ago and it has worked great for me.

Step 1: Where Is the Safety Switch?

There is a pressure switch under the driver seat. When someone sits in the seat it depresses the switch and closes a circuit allowing the mower to operate. When there is no weight in the seat the switch will be open and the mower will not operate. So to bypass this we need to find a way to close the circuit permanently. Like I mentioned, I didn't want to start cutting and splicing wires together and potentially ruin my riding mower.

To remove the seat, there was one bolt I had to remove that kept the seat from sliding too far forward when adjusting the seat position. I removed this and then was able to slide it completely off. Now I could see the switch on the bottom of the seat.

Step 2: Attach the Switch to the Underside of the Seat Plate

Once I removed the pressure switch from under the seat I just attached this to the underside of the seat plate. I could have just clamped this in a closed position and left the switch loose but I wanted to attach this so it would stay out of the way. I simply zip tied this to the bottom of the plate ensuring the button was depressed. To keep it from slipping through the holes in the plate I broke a small section off a tongue depressor stick. Any small thin scrap wood or even cardboard would work fine.

That's it. Slide the seat back on and put the catch nut in the bottom of the seat. Then test it. Now when it is running I can get off the tractor (carefully) without this shutting off on me.