This is what I ended up doing. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary upon inspection. Cleaned up the parts, sprayed down with a lubricant and put back together. We also had sprayed down some of the areas that were providing some frustration while trying to get the deck connected (deck wheels that get spun before sliding deck out and the aft connections on the deck that connect to the lift arms). So made the PTO connection again and ran the deck. Appears to be good but time will tell.
I thank everybody for their good feedback on my issue! What a great resource TBN is for tractor stuff and I always appreciate the fact people will take time to respond to other's issues. You guys rock!!
