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Did you disengage the brake. I sometimes forget to disengage the brake but when the engine starts to shut off i realize that I did not disengage the brake.
There is a switch under the seat made to turn off the engine when the blades are "on". You have to be sitting on the seat to engage the blades. If you are, check to see if that switch is plugged into the harness. If it already is, you probably need a new switch, or less likely, but possible, the harness is damaged somewhere up the line.
It may be the safety switch for the PTO has failed or a broken wire. PTO ( Power Take Off) is what turns the blades on and off. Craftsman used 2 different designs. The first design was a mechanical lever that you moved up a slot to the top of the hook and it stayed there till you unhooked it and moved it back down.
This video shows the mechanical linkage, and at the bottom of the lever is a safety switch that lets the rest of the mower know if the blades are on or off before it will allow it to come on. the other design uses an electric switch which actuates an electric clutch on the engine to turn the blades off or on. In both cases the blades have to be off in order for the engine to start. Since the mowing deck was removed it is possible that they were not connected or a wire got broken by accident. It is also possible that the switch is bad and lastly if it is neither one of the switches I named ( Note you will only have one or the other switch as far as what turns on the blades) then there is also two other safety switches on these mowers. The zero turns have a parking brake switch where the handles must be at neutral and locked in the out position and the regular riding mowers must have the brake pedal depressed and the seat has a safety switch that must be depressed ( you must be sitting in the seat). One of those switches could be bad as well.
Most likely cause is the seat safety switch is not functioning properly, ie. when sitting in it to allow blades to engage, if failed it will act like there is no one on the mower and the blades get engaged it will kill the engine, like having the ignition shut off.
The transmission is shot. A common problem. Mine died after 3 years and 200 hours of use. Estimate to fix was almost $2000. I scapped it and bought a better mower. There was a rtransmission design defect in the RZT series.
She's probably too small or light to engage the seat safety switch. She may be able to sit back further in the seat or you may be able to adjust the switch.
If you are talking about a riding mower, then try turning the blades off before starting mower. I had my blade switch in the on position once and could no figure out why the tractor wouldn't start until I pushed the mower into the garage.
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