Won't shut off

[Steve796]

Hey all,

So I just picked up this Black Widow 3171 for the kids. It's been sitting a couple years but other than some fade and cracked seating it's in great shape. Thankfully the previous owners ran the carb and tank dry before parking it. I changed the oil, put some fresh gas and it fired right up. It's got a unsteady idle but all the vacuum hoses are either cracked or missing so I'll leave this here until I go get all that replaced.

The greater issue I'm having at the moment is neither the on/off switch on the case or the kill switch on the steering column with turn this thing off. I have to choke it and pump the throttle to kill it. Before pulling the tank off the top and chasing the wires I was curious to know if anyone has any simple things I might be missing? As far as know these switches basically ground that stator and kill any spark from the spark plug?

It's hiding at the grandparents house til Christmas so I'm planning on doing some more to it in a couple days when I get time to go over there. Any help is greatly appreciated and thank you for your time looking at this.

Respectfully,
Steve

[metalstudman1]

First and easiest thing to check would be your ground connects to the frame. Do the switches look OK?

[Steve796]

Switches are bad. The one attached to the motor is finicky and works sometimes if I hold it just right. The one on the steering column doesn’t work but if I just the wires it’ll shut the motor off. New switches are on the way! Thanks for your input metalstudman1!