Sorry for not checking in sooner,but I spent the rest of yesterday and part of today going over the tractor. Thanks for the concern and some of the comments really cracked me up! The damage: 1broken steering wheel, 1 Crushed corner on the hood, the steering bearing that I put in had a broken weld from the roll,the rear fender pan was tweaked,the muffler was loose,the control tower needed repositioned,seat had a slight twist, and some rock rash on the hood and fender pan. The good: I was able to fix the tractor and at least it is functional. Which was most important since we're putting in a garden this year and I really need it for mowing. I've got some pics showing the hill.
and
The tractor rolled from the top at the sidewalk. I normally cut this bank going vertically from the bottom up. lately my wife has been weed whacking the bank because the tractor will leave ruts if it is wet . So I was mowing sideways at the crest and was turning up to follow the sidewalk. But the tractor started to climb the walk with the front wheels and then the rear tire started spinning. I've run this through my mind like a thousand times trying to visualize where it went wrong, Well it was definitely operator error. When the wheels slipped i should have just hit the brake and stopped everything. I could have at least backed down the hill once I was in control. What I did do instead was put the motion lever in neutral,but it slipped past and went into reverse. Then I really compounded my error by turning the wheels to go uphill in reverse. That's when gravity took over and I remember falling backwards off the tractor while it started rolling sideways down the hill. My only thoughts were that I was going to be crushed or have my legs broken by 700+ pounds of Wheel horse. I got lucky and ended up with a pretty sore body. I'm really thankful that I took the time to make sure all my safety switches worked during the rebuild because the blades and engine stopped when I left the seat. I've mowed that bank for 16 years and never had a problem ,til now.