Well I had all winter to think about my options and get a little educated about tractor hydraulics and finally made a couple moves.
First, I found a place where I can get a brand new Japan made replacement pump either 7cc/rev as the actual one or 8.8cc/rev if I want to go up to the 955 like GPM for about 150 dollars. It would be a direct bolt on so no other expenses than the pump and lost oil unless something unforeseen happens
Knowing that, I shimmed the relief valve to increase the pressure to 2250-2300 PSI. It was very easy to do. I have not tried it yet as I am still doing other maintenance on the tractor and can't move around. The relief valve is on the flow divider and the part number for the 5 shim pack is AM875169. It costs about 3.00 and all it is 5 pieces of round stainless steel of different thickness. I originally had 2 parts in mine at 2050PSI. I added 2 thick ones from the pack and ended up close to 2300PSI. I did not want to go all the way up to 2500PSI like the 955 because I did not know if my pump could easily do it and my tractor is 20 years old so I do not want to abuse it. The relief is very ease to access under the seat and you do not loose any oil trough that hole making it easy to try different combinations until you like the result. Now I can't wait to try it.
Again, during my long Quebec winter, while reading the 70A operators manual I noticed the statement about it being shipped with a .09 inch needle restrictor on the yellow line which is one of the bucket hoses. I looked up on my tractor and I had a .07 restrictor on that line!! I took it out completely and now of course it moves much faster. I will probably drill it a bit and put it back in but I am wondering why it was smaller than in the manual. I guess people can actually tweak those to personal preference. What else does it impact on the tractor? I just know that it was too slow to do anything with the snow last winter. I ended up using the box blade 95% of the time. It is OK when used with dirt in the summer but with snow, things have to move faster.
I will now test my new setup and if something happens to my pump, I know where to get a new one and I will probably get the 8.8cc/rev model while I am at it.
BTW, the only part different between the 855 and 955 in the SCV/Flow divider is the internal proportional flow divider valve. Since it is dividing flow between Power Steering and SCV, it must be keeping the same flow to the Power Steering on the 955 and allow the remaining to go to the SCV. If I do end up changing my pump, I will probably loose a portion of the increase flow to the power steering but I will live with it. The valve is almost 200 dollars at JD
Sorry for the long post.