Howard gear reduction alive after I cut the shaft

Just an update on this, I found a machine shop right down the street to weld the shaft back together. They did an awesome job, $100 the other 2 estimates I got were both over $600. I put it slapped the tractor back together. By the way I used 2 super long threaded bolts to line up the 2 halves and slowly sucked it together. I used make-a-gasket and it sealed tight. I did add a magnet to one of the drain plugs because there was no way to get all the fillings out. I felled it with 5 gallons of diesel and ran it up and down the road a few times, drained filtered and repeated. then filled with 6 gal of mineral oil (gl1) Crossed fingers and short prayer and sipped it into gear and PTO spun, pulled the lever and the arms went up.
Went into the kitchen and danced a bit.
Put a mower on it and raised it all the way. The next day it was still 2/3 of the way up. Much better than before.
So it runs drives and mows. All is not good news though, It will shift partway into low range but I have to hold the lever and it pops out right away if there is resistance.
I know I have to fix it but I just don't want to pull it apart. I think when the PTO went it bent a gear in the Howard gear reduction but I do not know yet.

You got lucky. I would be tempted to split the machine and fire it up with no oil in the trans for a few seconds. Check the run out on the shaft you just replaced. does it spin true or wobble? There is also a very large gear in the center of you Howard that is made from un-obtanuium. It looks like two gears of different diameters glued together. If that has rounded edges, you will quite possibly have problems keeping in low range.
That's all that comes to mind for now. In an obscure manual somewhere, it also says that when pulling the hyd pump to reinstall it with the bolts loose, fire it up and run it for a few seconds to allow the shaft to self align before tightening the bolts and filling with oil.

I'm curious why the shaft was cut, were you shortening it to fit a different tractor model or something?

it bro-ked.

Oh ok, odd way to phrase it as cut the shaft lol