Both halves! And the drive pole bent at a racy angle......
Yes I can see the top half only would be straightforward but I guess getting the bearings out of the other half wouldn't be too difficult. I think I found that both halves came to about £100 so with seals etc it would be about two thirds the cost of the new one. But would make a better machine. Well I'll see how long the new one lasts.....
Many thanks

My garden's about an acre and a half and has trees, shrubs, slopes and is rough in parts. I'm getting too old and bad tempered to be towed about by a 30" Toro TimeWaster so am going for a ride-on. It needs AWD, hydro drive to wheels and blades ie no belts, must be able to get under shrubs, have a small TC and large wheels and be very manoeuvrable. I don't like B&S engines, so Honda/Kwacker/Subaru? 100/110 cm deck would be about right.
I'm thinking of Husqvarna or Stiga but I've heard pos and neg about both makes for build quality and reliability. Anyone any suggestions/experiences please?

I dropped a large branch on my HT-KM a few weeks ago and smashed the casting where the pole drive goes in. I was thinking about getting two new halves and rebuilding it, it's only five years old and hasn't done a lot of work, but funked it and bought a new complete unit last week. I wish I hadn't, the build quality of the new one seems very poor. Diecast alloy is always brittle, but the new one is half as stout as the original, it all looks a bit flimsy. Made in China perhaps? The original doesn't look a difficult job to take apart and rebuild, are there any things to watch out for if the situation crops up again....?