Sorry you had to rip it apart again, hope the paint job didn’t get spoiled too much. This stuff happens to all of us, so you are not alone in the club. I just spent a week trying to help a friend with his !@#$@ riding mower, I really hate all those belts and “coc-a-may-me” springs. Got the stupid thing back together but couldn’t get the mower deck tension spring figured out for the life of me. I must have called the manufacturer three times trying to get help. They were very nice, but can only help so much trying to figure out stuff they can not see. I asked to buy a service manual, but was told there was no “specific” service manual for this model. Finally, I noticed that the parts diagram seemed to list the length of each individual spring. Yep, old manure for brains had two of the springs mixed up….Had to rip the darn thing all apart again to remove the other spring and get swap them out.
At least you messed up your own project, I wasted a week going back and forth to a friends house laying under a mower cursing and swearing….
