You can find reasonably priced replacement engines at smallenginewarehouse.com If it was me, i would go for a new engine rather than a short block. Just my opinion.

Phulishone, If I were you I'd just put the tractor on ebay with no reserve, with a bad engine, and use that as a down payment on a new Cub Cadet 1000 series. The white and yellow paint pretty much guarantees it will sell for at least $200. Do not put any money into this tractor. It may look like a Cub Cadet, but it's not. That's why it only says "Cadet" on the side. It's just a run of the mill MTD, sold with white and yellow paint by Cub Cadet dealers for way more than it's worth. Consumers caught on, and they no longer sell this tractor as a Cub Cadet wannabe. They do sell it, however, as a Troy-bilt Super Bronco, with red paint, for $1299 brand spanking new--significantly less than what you paid 6 years ago, and with a more powerful engine. Check out the link and you'll see something very familiar to you. You'll probably put close to that much money into your mower, trying to fix your holey engine and mystery electrical part, and in the end you'll be left with a 6-year old MTD with a questionable crankcase. Just accept the fact that you got a good 6 years out of it (not bad for an MTD) and go shopping. Shopping for tractors is fun. Making major structural repairs to small engines is not. Here is a link that might be useful: troy bilt super bronco

Ken, My old bench rotted away so I thought I would make a 4 foot bench in this style. I went to a salvage store in New Bedford which has thousands and thousands of items (New England Demolition and Salvage) but no lumber. He told me to call a guy in Middleboro who had some 3 foot by 3 foot timbers about 30 feet long that he said was from a 350 year old building in Fall River. He had the 'scrap' piece 102 inches long left over from the flooring he was cutting from the timbers. I said I needed 4 feet. He said the 102 inch piece was $20 and a 4 foot piece was $20...so I ended up not wanting to waste the lumber and developed this design instead of a straight bench. One thing I have plenty of around here is stone but the thought of collecting and sorting out enough of the right size for the veneer didn't appeal to me so I ordered the beach stone. 4 bags @ $15 a bag @ Home Depot with free shipping ($41 value for the shipping; $10 and change per 40# bag). Moccasin, What a great story on that cypress. You must treasure that coffee table. The board I used was pine, I am pretty sure. The beams identical to the one my board came from were black. It didn't look painted. I think it was oxidation from a few hundred years in a mill (???) The piece was remarkably light having fully dried out in 350 years. I use a Sikkens WRO sealer and stain which was rated best by Consumer Reports. The adhesive is Titebond III which is a waterproof adhesive OK for marine use under the waterline. I don't have a table saw so I had to lay out the cuts and clamp a straight edge and cut it with a 'Skill" saw. I used 6 pocket screws on he underside of the joint along with the adhesive. Routed the edges and sanded the rough sawn wood smooth. 16 inch square by 3 1/2" deep concrete pads under the columns, 1/2 inch rebar through the pads and into the ground and the hollow of the concrete blocks, 8 inch galvanized lag screws into the bottom of the seat (2 per column) which are imbeded into type S mortar filling the concrete blocks. This bench is not going anywhere. I'm probably going to cover it for the Winter. Bernd, I have some PJM small leafed rhodies that I can divide a few plants off. I also have about 6-7 large leaf purple rhody clones from a couple of larger plants. I pruned the plants up in late Spring. Some of the lower branches had spread out and rooted themselves. On the ones that seemed to be growing upright, I cut their 'umbilical cords' to the 'mother' plant. They wilted back a little at first, but then popped right back up. Sort of a natural air layering. I will probably transplant them soon or in early Spring. I also have a real nice rhody that I successfully air layered 2 new plants off of (staying where they are), but I have several other rhody varieties that I may start some air layering on. Some are very difficult and require a lot of patience. Some are simply a matter of chopping off a branch that has rooted itself and plant it somewhere else as a new plant. Jan, Be careful what you wish for :0>. Jon

It has nothing to do with gas vs. electric and everything to do with how you cook. Do you simmer veggies and soups, boil water for pasta? Probably be ok. Do you do a lot of high heat sauteing, searing and wokking that generates a lot of grease vapors? It will be inadequate but better than nothing. As far as duct is concerned, you need duct (like stovepipe but metal color not black) to get from the hood through the roof or out the wall. (I'm assuming you are venting outside; if you are doing a recirculating installation, you won't have any duct to worry about.) For your unit I would imagine you require 6" diameter duct pipe to get from the hood to wherever it gets outside, but read you manual to be sure. If you are going through the wall behind the stove, one 12" piece should do it. Anything else needs to be measured.