Problem resolved!
I mowed the yard and got fed up with the sticky pedals. I removed the mower deck and after disconnecting the link to the tranny and the damper localized the sticking to the pedal assembly. This is a heavy bracket containing the pedals and a rube goldberg assortment of rocker shafts, ball bearings, links, and levers. Once I removed this assembly it was apparent that none of the ball bearing were at fault, BUT there were two brackets-one directly connected to the forward pedal and one that connects indirectly to the brake pedal- that were mounted in bushing type bearings which were...
STICKY!
Removed those levers and greased the bushings and put her back together. The pedals (without the damper) sprang back to center! Put the damper in and the test drive revealed a well behaved tractor which stops quickly when the pedals are released! :thumbup1gif: