A drive arrangement for a harvesting header (22) of a harvesting machine (10) having a running gear on which a feeder housing (20) is mounted. A front side of the feeder housing has a header mount (21) that moves relative to the feeder housing and on which the harvesting header (22) is detachably fastened. An automated coupling mechanism (32) is provided to link a driven shaft (33) from the harvesting machine to a drive shaft (34) of the harvesting header as the header is connected to the harvesting machine. The drive connector (45) connected with the header mount (21) is movable relative thereto during the attachment of the harvesting header to axially align the driven shaft and drive shaft as the harvesting header approaches the feeder housing during the attachment to accommodate differing header drive shaft orientations.