My New Farm King 990

My top link is a Category 0 link. Unfortunatley, the Cat. 0 blade that I have has a top hitch that is too small to accept the link. Tommorow I might fabricate an adapter. I pulled the drive shaft from the donor deck, greased the U-joints and it fit right in place. I mowed a 4 ft. chunk of lawn before my wife yelled at me for waking up the baby. So it goes...

Nice find, looks like the brother of mine.

The only thing I see missing is the tool tray.

Jim -

Very nice looking tractor! I'm sure you'll enjoy it. If you need an owner's manual, you can get one from MTD on-line. Sure wish mine would've been that clean - would've saved me a lot of work. Oh, well - that's the fun of it.

Later,
Rich

Glenn M said:

Nice find, looks like the brother of mine.

The only thing I see missing is the tool tray.

Click to expand...

I have been missing that tool tray. It might be a good place to store spare cotter pins and dodads. I figure that if the tray was left off, it might mean the previous owner actually checked/replaced the oil in the rear. For as clean as the oil I drained out was, I am sure that she was used to regular maintenance. My last GT had seen a lot of miles without any smiles, so it is a blessing to find a machine that was babied. Wasn't home much today, so tomorrow the engine pics should be up. Thanks for the encouragement guys. The MTD forum was pivotal in me buying this 990. Jimmy

There are three wing nuts on the top and two bolts in the fenders, that hold the tray in place. It's not that hard to check the hydro oil, just take the wing nuts off and the tray swivels down out of the way.
Maybe one of the guys on here that has a few of the 990's parts tractors may have a tray for you. Wouldn't be that hard to build one if you can't find one.

Jimmy -

I believe you said your Farm King showed a model number of 143-990, which would make it a 1973 model - here's a link to the Owner's Manual for that year: http://manuals.mtdproducts.com/mtd/DocGetter?doc=770-4153.pdf

If it was a model 143-990A, that would be a 1984, and the document for that is 770-2463, or here

As far as I know it's a 73, but that is just from what I learned here. Thanks for the link to the manual. It saved me from going through my history to fin it again. I need to refill the inkwell in the printer before I commit it paper. My wife ran to the grocery store, but when she returns, I am going to run her over our 3 acres for a workout. I wamt to get a feel for how the engine is running before I rip it down and rebuild it. So far, no gas leaks, oil leaks or surprises. I am guessing the carb has had a rebuild at one point, but maybe she is original and still holding.

Well, the King held up to the job. The lawn is a nice even trim and the MTD held together. I thought the carb was getting iffy towards the end, but I wasn't watching the fuel level and I think that was the cause of the issue. I am going to fill up the tank again tommorow and mow my rental property with it and get a better feel for how its running. Untill then, best of luck, Jimmy