John Deere L130 drive belt questions

I have a John Deere L130 with the hydrastatic drive. I changed out the drive belt over the weekend. The previous belt had slipped up over the rear pulley and made a mess of the plastic fan tabs on top of the transaxle. As an act of desperation, I cut off the fan tabs to be below the bottom of the belt. After I put the new belt on and tightened everything up, I pulled it out of the garage and it started up fine. So far so good. I engaged the clutch peg on the left side, and all **** broke loose. It made all kinds of racket for about 3 or 4 minutes, the belt smoked for about 30 seconds, then it quieted down. I inspected the belt and something has interefered with the top edge of the belt, fraying it a little. I compared it with the original 10 year old belt, and it appeared to be the same issue. I was able to mow my yard with no more apparent belt dragging/interference issues. It just makes a chirping noise every once in a while.
Question 1: If one of the idler pulleys was starting to seize up, would it create this problem? The pulleys spun freely when I had them off the tractor.
Question 2: If it isn't one of the idler pulleys creating a problem, what else could be interfering with the top side of the belt?
Question 3: How important is it to have the plastic impeller on top of the transaxle, just below the bottom of the belt?
Question 4: Where is a good source to get complete instructions on replacing the impeller if it needs to be replaced.

I'm trying to do this on a shoe string budget. Otherwise, I would've coughed up the $250 to $400 to take it to someone that has the time to work on it.

Thanks in advance :help:,
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