K guys, time for an update, stopped by the shop last evening to take some photos and the owner asked what attorney I knew. When I asked him why, he said that it was all taken care of and that they were just waiting on a new transmission to arrive. Don't know who called who but someone shook bushes somewhere and apparently based on a message I finally got from CUB today, they are the ones replacing the Tran. They also sent me a message to call "Jake" (name changed) head of service at Cub. eventually he and I connected and had a pretty long conversation, basically he told me to put away the pressure washer and the garden hose, neither of which I've ever used (may have done a light rinse on the mower one time, can't remember) but then he did admit that RAIN of all things can cause these things to get water in the tran fluid, he took my serial number and it turns out my mower is about three years old but bought only two years ago so it was outside at the store nearly a full summer before I bought it, which now brings up another HUGE issue, if you buy a new one, MAKE SURE IT"S NOT OUTSIDE AT THE DEALER, you could be getting water in your transmission, he said if it starts to slow down at all after it heats up from running, suspect water in the tran. Mine has been shed kept since I bought it, so I'm now wondering ....
Now issue number 2. He also said, "don't get the spindles wet, that can damage them too", though I've never used it, one of my employees quickly pointed out, how in the world are you supposed to use that hyped up deck wash feature and keep the spindles dry?