Here's the long awaited story friends. Embarrassing but I owe you all an update. My dealer's opinion is that the rather long drawbar which this tractor has interfered with the PTO shaft. When the blower and tractor are on level ground the shaft just clears the drawbar. I see his point - if the blower gets into a low spot, the shaft could catch on the drawbar.
To avoid this, the draw bar needs to be moved to the side - which it can be, or removed.
Since this is operator error, I'm out the cost of the repairs which I accept. I guess this wasn't obvious to me since I never had to worry about this sort of thing with my last tractor. I'm going to go over my owners manual again to make sure there isn't something else that I have looked over.
The drive line was over $350 - ouch! Good news: The tractor and blower are fine.
Now I can't wait for the next big snow to have a positive experience clearing it!