[Yosemite Sam]

I believe you will discover that the QA 36/42A throwers use a "4 link" lifting system, where the QA 36/42 throwers use a "2 link" lifting system.

What this means to you is: The brackets welded to the back of the thrower housings along with the lifting mechanisms and mounting brackets are very different and I don't believe that one will attach easily to the other.

I do however believe it would be possible to surgically remove the brackets from the back of each thrower housing and weld the parts back in the configuration that you want.

Not only would this be a huge undertaking, it would probably end up sending yet another snow thrower (the one you didn't actually use) to the scrap yard and we all would hate to see that.

I recently bought 3, 42" throwers (2 QA 42's and 1 QA 42A) each of them have been cobbled on by PO's. From what I can tell by looking at them, if you don't have a well thought out plan and very good fabricating skills, a project like this may not turn out so well.

I have seen a lot of snow throwers for sale, for (what I think (and keep in mind that I am about the biggest cheap-skate in the world)) a really cheap price. I believe that if you look a little longer you will be able to find what you actually need for a very reasonable price.

Good Luck