108 deck issues

[wj-ihc]

Hello, my father recently put a 42" cast iron end deck on our 108 so he could mow with it. He had to add an extension to the forked piece that runs up to the rod that runs across the frame because the carriage for the older deck would not reach it. Well that deck worked ok and mowed fine, but it did not seem like it would go down as far as it should. With the lift handle all the way down, the deck is still several inches off the ground, and dad like to mow a little bit shorter than that. So the other day I gathered up some pieces and installed a regular 42 inch deck. The 108 came with a carriage, and I noticed a few differences between it and the carriage I have for the 42" deck. First, the 108 carriage is curved down/bowed up more at the back where it attaches to the deck. Also, it seemed that the two fingers for the lift eyes on the front of the deck were shaped differently and slightly wider, and the rear most holes for the deck on the carriage were just a little bit farther back. Well, I stuck a carriage that was on the 42" deck up in there and the fork would not reach the rod, which concerned me. I made a bolt on extension to get past that for now and got the deck on there. The belt seems to be alright that goes from the pto to deck (old belt, not sure what length it is so it may or may not be right). But after all of this the blades are still 3" off the concrete with the deck all the way down. Any ideas on this. Should I be using the newer carriage that is longer, do I need a 44" deck? I will post some pictures.