Well since I logged in to ask another question today, and it's the first time I've logged in since at least a couple months ago, I figured I should update the status of this project. Unfortunately, the time I got to spend finishing things up was so short I didn't even think about taking pictures... (having a 3 year old daughter and a pregnant wife sure takes away form available garage time! lol)
I eventually gave up on making a belt guide for the traction belt after playing with 3 or 4 designs that either didn't pan out or turned out to be nearly impossible to actually make with the tools I have. On the plus side, it doesn't seem to make much difference. I've put close to 10 hours on it after finishing the k70 swap and haven't had one bit of trouble out of the belt.
I did get the wiring finished for my lights, and let me tell you, the 3/4" amber LED clearance lights I put onto the steering tower work amazingly well to illuminate the area around the deck after dark. In fact, the first time I mowed with it, I didn't get out until dusk, but I was able to see mow right up against obstacles without any problem. The little 18w led light bar I mounted as a new headlight works amazing as well (it's definitely overkill, but I'm cool with that, lol). Definitely no worries running this thing after dark now. I used the same size of clearance lights (but red instead of amber) on the rear fender flares to add tail lights, and they are bright enough to see from the next town over... lol.
When I first mounted the mower deck after finishing the k70 swap and lighting, I realized the new, wider, track width was an issue. The LH rear anti-scalp wheel's bracket rubbed the outside shoulder of the LR tire. To solve this, I first tried clearancing the bracket (at least once I realized the deck was mounted correctly, concidering I first thought I did something wrong, with how the rear anti-scalp wheels are NOT the same distance from the rear tires...). This made it at least useable enough try mowing with it (thus the late start I mentioned above), but proved to not be enough to fully solve the problem, so I had to take more drastic measures. To fully prevent the tire from making contact with the bracket, I ended up buying a metric tap/die set and threaded the front draft arm an additional 1.5" past the original end of the threads, then I made new slots in the lift arms for the deck mounts and for the lift linkages about 1.25" farther towards the front of the tractor. I did have to trim off the end on one lift arm so it would fit, but otherwise it was pretty simple and straightforward to do all of this. Of course, moving the deck forward necessitated a slightly shorter belt, but I found that a generic one from tractor supply, about 1" shorter than the original, worked perfectly. After I got everything adjusted and fairly level the deck not only doesn't try to shred the LR tire, the lift mechanism works better and lifts higher than it did when I bought the machine.
Since I got the deck fairly dialed in, I haven't done anything but keep an eye on fluids and use the tractor. So far, I have to say that it was worthwhile putting the work into this machine, since I now have a tractor that's arguably nicer than a gt275 and worlds ahead of what is was originally in terms of power, speed, stability, and durability for around $1k. Since the last GT275 I saw for sale locally was priced at $1800, I don't think I did too bad.
Oh, and as a consolation since I didn't get any pictures of the last modifications, here's a picture of a happy 3 year old on her daddy's little tractor, just after she "helped" me adjust the lift linkages.
