Now that the mess is all cleared up, I can reassemble the hydraulic cylinder and get the tractor going again. This was a long adventure, but I learned a lot along the way and discovered many tips and tricks to help on my next rebuild.
I have a thing for older tractors and will probably use these skills a lot more in the future. I hope everything I went through helped you also.
Always check for part updates when ordering seal kits and parts for your tractor. So many revisions seem to occur along the way. I blame myself for the part mix-ups, and will be more diligent in the future when doing this kind of work.