Mower deck Attaching mower deck issue

[jerrieric]

I have a '06 MTefi26 bought new. Getting the attachements on and off are not what I expected. Not so easy. To the point, I have 235 hours on the unit including snowblowing in Maine. Probably 200 or less hrs on the mower. The blower unit had a hole worn in it due to sand is what the dealer tells me. I am a home owner and not that much sand but there is some that I go over when mowing. Had the blower unit replaced and when I went to put the mower deck on the plastic funnel on the mower would not go into the blower. The lower metal tab guide on the blower unit would not fit on the outside of the plastic unit to guide. After an hour or more of screwing around I finally got it to fit. Now when I tipped the mower up to change the blades, the mower would not go down becuase that dang tab was preventing it to seat. After a few pushes up and down on the mower the unit did seat. Only issue is the lower tab was bent all the way back flat by the plastic funnel on the mower. It works but I think this is an mfg'r defect in design. I won't even go into the issues with attaching the snowblower.