In article et,
"Dave Liquorice" writes:
On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:41:27 +0100, Frank Erskine wrote:

I bet if you have a look at the innards of the existing you should be
able to bodge a standard microswitch or something similar to do the
same job, possibly better than the original.

I was thinking the same but pay close attention to the switch ratings and
the motor power you don't want a "dead mans handle" switch getting its
contacts welded together...

Last couple of mowers I've bought over last ~10 years, the
"dead mans handle" is not simply an on-off switch, but also
caused emergency braking of the blades. I've never looked
to see how that was done, but that function died after
a couple of years on both mowers, and the blades now spin
down slowly as they dissipate their momentum gradually.
Both these are induction motor mowers (but most electric
mowers are universal motor mowers). The brake may have been
something mechanical. On a universal motor, it's much easier;
you just short out the motor to stop it.

--
Andrew Gabriel
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