Small Engines (Lawn Mowers, etc.): Wheel Horse

Question
The Wheel Horse 417-8 I have which has been out of service for a while, and still I have not started it since early December, has been out of service for way too long for me. So I was talking with a man in my hunting club and he has a 312-8 and either a 414-8 or a 314-8, but the 312-8 is a parts mower and he said we could have the broken parts of my mower off of his parts mower if they fit, I been looking at partstree.com and compared the parts and it looks like in the blueprints they are the same but on the parts number list there are a few parts that have different parts numbers. I wasn't sure if they all will be able to go onto my 417-8 (the pto section) could they be swapped?

Answer
You will just have to try to see if they will work.  I suspect if there are different part numbers the parts are different but that does not mean they won't work.  A good example of parts with different numbers but will work are Briggs and Stratton flywheels.  Many of the Quantum engine flywheels will fit and work on most Quantum engines even though there are different parts for the various flywheels.

Eric