Norm B: I won't tell you that when I first brought my 149 home, I drove it half-way across the yard before it stalled and I couldn't get it restarted. I didn't know what the handle on the side was for, and it wouldn't have done me any good anyway, because the lever that operated the valves was MIA. I left it sitting in the elements (nothing new for her) for two weeks before I discovered that the pressure had dissipated on its own. I could have gotten it out of the rain, but I didn't know it.
However, even with a new lever installed, I gotta say, it still pays to wait 15-20 minutes before trying to move it very far. Getting it moving again immediately after stopping, is a little like trying to get a car out of the snow or mud; a little forward, and little backward, a little more, and then . . . it starts to roll free.
I can't tell you how many times I pushed my 782 with automatic valves (which seem to work quite nicely, thank you) across the yard over the two years I ran the Briggs & Scrappem engine in it. And, yes, Tom, I wished mightily for a gear drive on those days. (Gosh, these Cub Cadets are heavy!)
Lew: Thanks for the pictures of your setup; it doesn't appear that you had to make any modifications to the front of the under-carriage, and it looks like you gave yourself the same 1/2" gap at the rear that I'm trying to eliminate.
If I remember correctly, Kraig has posted before that the difference between a narrow frame undercarriage and a wide frame undercarriage is that the hangers on the narrow frames are located INSIDE the rails, whereas the wide frames are located OUTSIDE the rails. I would have to do some welding to truly convert one of the wide frame undercarriages and adapt it correctly to my 42" deck.
Chris P: Aside from being a moderator, Charlie "Digger" Proctor, also owns this site. Everyone here, except one guy from Kentucky, accords him a special kind of respect. To paraphrase Bill Cosby, "He made it possible for you to post on this forum; and he can make it impossible for you to post too."