[gt350mike]

Like many people, I bought mine at Lowes and after trying to replace the blades, belts, and filters, I have learned my lesson……Lowes is a great hardware store, but they need to make a SIGNIFICANT commitment in supporting the mowers they sell, or they should get out of the business. A few years ago the CEO from Snapper walked away from Walley World because Snapper was trying to sell a quality mower through mass retailers and figured out that it was a bad idea, so I guess I should have paid more attention to his story.

I’ve had some time to cool-off and this morning I took another look at the mower. I’m ashamed to say that the oil is low but I don’t think it should have thrown a rod because of low oil. If I say anything to the wife about not checking the oil, then I will have witnessed the last time that she will ever cut the grass……so the bottom line is that I dinked-up on this one (if the low oil caused the damage).

I talked with the local Cadet dealer and he told me that he’s seen a few with broken rods and of those, only a small percentage of the engines have catastrophic damage (i.e. rod through the crankcase). He told me that I could repair it for a few hundred $$$ but I won’t have time to fool with it for several weeks……….I’m having surgery on a torn-rotator cuff in the morning.

I guess things could always be worse!