Lawn Mower blues or don't buy cub cadet...

I have been fighting with a sick lawn mower for a couple of weeks now. When the problem started, it was hitting on only one cylinder. Half the cylinders = half the power, and not enough to mow the grass.

I replaced on of the ignition coils, nothing, replaced the wiring harness supplying power to the igniton coils, nothing.

Finally, I pulled off the valve cover and took a look at the valves. And then we noticed that one of the pushrods was mangled. It appears that a valve stuck and when the pushrod attempted to open it, it got bent all to hell. I bought a couple of new pushrods. I soaked everything down with some WD-40 and let it sit for a few hours. I installed one of the new pushrods figuring it would be a sacrifice to unstick the valve.

It was, but when I put the second one in, the rocker arm wouldn't seat all the way down. Shit...

I removed the pushrod and tried to measure the length against the original but it was impossible as mangled as the original was. I beat most of the crooked out of the original and sure enough, the new one was at least  a quarter inch longer. I sent my Bride to the mower parts store only to find out that the part we got was supposed to be the right one, based on all the numbers on the engine and mower itself.

Well, it's not the right part no matter what the parts book says. The parts store didn't have anything else in stock. I guess I get to go to another parts store tomorrow. It's starting to piss me off.

I have only had this cub cadet for about two years. I bought it because I thought it was a good product. The bent pushrod and the parts snafu are making me doubt my decision.

In the absence of my cub cadet, I have been mowing with an MTD rider we purchased about six years ago. It was half the price of the cub cadet and has lasted three times as long. Sometimes, the old saying "You get what you pay for" doesn't really apply.

I also have an MTD push mower that we purchased 18 years ago that still runs like a champ.

If I'm unable to get the correct part for the cub cadet tomorrow, my next purchase will probably be another MTD. It doesn't seem like rocket science to me.

The moral of the story is, don't buy a cub cadet...