I'm running out of ideas, there's no chafed wires anywhere that I can see, I've moved them all and it acts the same... it's a component but can't figure out what one!
It's not blowing the fuse right now, so there's that... I think I'm going to order a new seat switch, maybe it isn't working right even though the volt meter says so, it's doing seat switch things... It's the only thing that would kill it when releasing the clutch or engaging the PTO...
On the plus side, while the rear fender was off I plastic welded the crack in the gas tank, should at least slow it down, and I welded the cracks in the fender itself and cleared off the flaked/rusting paint and primered it. Also gave the thing a sponge bath (it's in the shop, I'm not hosing it off...), the handheld sprayer from Harbor Freight is nice to have around for soapy water... mainly have it for finding tire leaks but it has many uses...