For me, it's just as easy to hook up the shaft first, then the arms and then the top link. If I hooked up to it, moved it, then hooked up the shaft, I could have been tilling..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I'm going to try this,
1st get the 2 shafts put together
2d hook it to the the tiller
3d back the tractor down the area and try to hook it up
4th go for the rest of the 3pt links, bw
had an identical problem with my FX24D and tiller. Very difficult to get everything aligned, and even when connected I only had < 1 inch overlap in the shaft - so little that as soon as the tiller lowered into the soil, the shaft came apart and broke. I had to replace it with a conventional shaft that I cut out of PTO stock, but - dimensionally - much more suited to my particular tractor/tiller setup.
I "unload" my tiller on some concrete pads made from 2 bags of fence concrete left outside in the rain. Keeps it from bogging down in the muck, and also slides around some to line it up. but I too figured out that connecting the PTO shaft FIRST, then backing my tractor up into the lower lift arms of the 3ph works really well. I also loosen my "cinch chains" and use 2 bungie cords to hold my lift arms spread until I get back far enough to hook them up to the tiller.