"James" wrote in message
m...
I recently bought an old Ariens riding mower (pull-start), and after
cleaning out the carb, I managed to get it started.

However, whenever I take the mower out of neutral (not necessarily
into another gear, just out of neutral enough to disconnect the
neutral safety switch), it dies. I thought the purpose of this switch
was only as a safety for starting - shouldn't the magneto coils
maintain the spark after the initial start? To clarify: it is not
going dead because of any load on the engine - just the disconnection
of the safety switch.

In the meantime, I bypassed this switch (since its just wire in, wire
out, with a contact between the two), and now it won't start at all.
I feel like there might be something else going on besides just this
switch.

Any help would be appreciated!

The safety switch is most likely combined with another safety switch, PTO,
person sitting in the seat, grass chute in place, that type of thing. The
switch probably can not be easily bypassed. Often the switch connects to a
little electrical box that "looks" for the safety switch. Often you can just
remive the wire from to switch, or jumper the leads togather, but in many
cases it will not work.
Greg