I'm still puzzled. Just reversing the curl/dump hoses (the same way on both sides) should have just reversed the way the joystick worked, right?
I'd have thought so too. Maybe detaching hoses allowed an air block to escape? I'm a bottomless pit of ignorance on this stuff.
My friend does professional landscaping and maintains mowers and tractors as part of his job. He led the charge on initially replacing these hoses and reconnected them in the first place. When I told him last night what was going on he offered to come by this afternoon, but checked on how the hoses on a similar tractor were configured before coming. The minute he walked into my barn he said, "I see whats wrong. Hoses are flipped."