1975 MTD 990 Farm King

you should do somthing like i did with dinky, put your fave flag on the hood.

you know what? i thinki might to the PA flag on the mud train on its repaint.

So I did this a few weeks ago and just never updated the thread. I pulled the lift cylinder apart and changed out the seals, they were all very worn.



It no longer leaks from the seals, it leaks from where the ram goes in the cylinder, where there is just a friction seal. The way they made these 990s, the head does not come off the ram. It just doesn't. Therefore, you cannot fix the worn friction seal. I've been asking around in some MTD 990 groups on facebook, and they all say I need an entire new cylinder. They don't make them anymore and you can't buy parts for it either, and a different style one would cost me between $600-$1000, and the I would have to retro fit it myself. I can't just deal with the leak because it's literally a stream of oil, and if this pump gets low on oil it'll blow up. Basically, I'm screwed.

The only way I can fix this issue would be to get some different hydraulic lines and run them back to itself, and bypass the cylinder. But then what would I have? A big hydrostatic tractor that goes like 6 mph. Nothing special at all, and the whole reason I got this tractor was because of it's hydraulic 3 point, and there is no way I can cover the cost of a new lift cylinder.

But I don't regret buying it. Once I get over the initial sadness of not being able to use this tractor...well the engine will fit in the John Deere...but I don't know if I quite want to do that. Maybe someday I can get some money together and fix the hydraulics, but for now, there is no way. And it really doesn't make sense to just have 2 mediocre tractors when I could swap this engine in to the John Deere and have one really awesome one.

This isn't set into stone yet, but it's looking like this build is going to come to s screeching halt.

Oh I wouldn't go yanking the engine out of it, nothing worse to see than a good old tractor with no heart....

She's a workhorse, with or without the lift cylinder. If it were me I would run a bypass line and use 'er that way for the time being.

I'm a diehard classic tractor guy though, so my opinion might be a bit bias.

If for nothing else, use it to pull cut down or fallen trees. I need a strong heavy tractor to pull the 3 that just fell. My little Murray just ain't strong or heavy enough for the job.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Oh I wouldn't go yanking the engine out of it, nothing worse to see than a good old tractor with no heart....

She's a workhorse, with or without the lift cylinder. If it were me I would run a bypass line and use 'er that way for the time being.

I'm a diehard classic tractor guy though, so my opinion might be a bit bias.

Yeah, I dunno, I guess I won't do the swap. Just not sure what do to do to it from here.

Murraymountain wrote:

If for nothing else, use it to pull cut down or fallen trees. I need a strong heavy tractor to pull the 3 that just fell. My little Murray just ain't strong or heavy enough for the job.

I was going to get a rear blade for the 3 point, put it on backwards, and use it to push brush around in revers, but that ain't happening. The 110 can haul brush, and my Ford Explorer can yank stumps out of the ground (seriously, no I don't have video, and I know you're not going to believe me). But it still will be a handy tank to have around.

Okay, so I've kinda decided I'm going to get this lift cyinder working or not use this tractor at all. The whole point of owning it is the 3 point hitch for plowing, and the 50" cut shaft-drive deck for mowing, otherwise it's just another slow tractor that happens to have massive tires, weighs half a ton, and costs money to have around. I'm asking around and trying to figure out if there is in fact a way to put a physical seal there, I'll let ya'll know as soon as I come up with a plan.

Okay so I pulled the cylinder apart again, and I'm not ever going to believe anything they tell me on Facebook again. I wire wheeled the ends off, and there were threads under there somewhere. I clamped it in a vice and managed to pull it apart.



And I put it back together and it no longer leaks from the ram!



It does leak the least little bit from the fittings, so I took it back off and tightened the fittings down, but it still leaks. So even though some people are going to have a come apart, I'm going to put some RTV on the threads of the fittings to seal it off a bit, because that's the only solution.

Right now, I figured out why my steering is almost impossible to use, the front spindles are 90% seized. I have the front end jacked up without tires soaking in penatrating oil, then once I get them off I'm going to wire wheel them off, file down the inside a bit, and then put a ton of grease in there and put it back together, good as new.



That's a video from over a month ago I just got around to uploading today.

Anywho, lemme know what you think.

are you running without your guvnor?

Not really, but I think I have the gov hooked up wrong. For one thing, down is faster and up is slower, but it also doesn't seem to stop me anywhere. For the time being I'm just being careful, LOL.

to me it sounsed like your RPMs were all over the place. as long as it sounds right on full throttle your good. and you can always look at the video i made or the pic of the 12hp govnor i posted in discord.

Well my RPMs were all over tge place but I was controlling them. I am going to make a video later on the whole machine more indepth.

Okay, so today I managed to hammer the spindle out, then I ran a flap disk over it, put it back together, and now it steers beautifully. Also, the tiny leak on the lift cylinder appears to have fixed itself, so yay. Took her for a bit of a drive.



I gotta say, this tractor looks pretty dang sweet. Also did a top speed test.



9 mph is actually pretty good for a stock tractor. It does 5 mph in reverse, which is kinda scary actually lol, and in low range it's about perfect for towing.

I also have the sad announcement to make that the deck and the 3 spindles are all completely shot, Mr. Rust got to them before I did. I was really looking forward to mowing with this thing. Oh well. I'm not going to take any of the mowing stuff off it, hopefully someone will sell me another deck someday.

cant you rig somthing up? i never worked on a deck but i would assume you just replace some bearings right?

if that deck inst 100% paper U can still weld something together & patch holes up & stuff, & if U really want to get it going U could just buy AYP Spindles & bolt them in & make a belt system work!

Once the rust really starts to get to them, they're pretty much gone. If he really, really tried, he might be able to do it, but I don't think he wants a rednecked deck.

RockeyDA wrote:

cant you rig somthing up? i never worked on a deck but i would assume you just replace some bearings right?

They don't sell spindles anymore, and the spindles are completely rusted through.

SebastianAlbrecht wrote:

if that deck inst 100% paper U can still weld something together & patch holes up & stuff, & if U really want to get it going U could just buy AYP Spindles & bolt them in & make a belt system work!

"U can still weld something together" Actually, I can't. I'm sure you know I don't have a welder. The Craftsman style spindles are about 8" from blade mount to pulley, the MTD spindles are about 4". If I did that, the belt would be way out of alignment, and the deck probably wouldn't fit under the tractor. Also Craftsman spindles are super weak.

Murraymountain wrote:

Once the rust really starts to get to them, they're pretty much gone. If he really, really tried, he might be able to do it, but I don't think he wants a rednecked deck.

Yeah, I don't really, and I have other ideas. We shall see if I end up implementing them.

Did some work to her today, she did fine. This hydro is really interesting, the way it's a smooth ride with no jerks or anything. I kinda like it. Also, it doesn't have brakes but it doesn't necessarily need them, because as soon as you pull the drive lever to "neutral" it stops.

Almost all hydros I've dealt with do that. My Murray is the only one that doesn't.

Murraymountain wrote:

Almost all hydros I've dealt with do that. My Murray is the only one that doesn't.

Ah, okay.

Yeah, that's sorta like an engine braking type of thing.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Yeah, that's sorta like an engine braking type of thing.

Yeah, it doesn't pick up any speed going downhill which surprised me, lol.

yeah, thets why when the mud train stalls on a hill you see me yelling "OHHH S*** TURN THE WHEEL TURN THE WHEEL!"

RockeyDA wrote:

yeah, thets why when the mud train stalls on a hill you see me yelling "OHHH S*** TURN THE WHEEL TURN THE WHEEL!"

Hahahaha

Sneekie Peekie....

Okay so I'm not going to clog this thread up with a bunch of stuff from this. If I have any issues with it I'll make another thread for it. It's a Swisher T60 Trail Mower. 60" cut, 3 blades. It came factory with electric start. It offsets or pulls straight behind your vehicle. You can pull it behind anything. It's basically a non-pto finish mower.

It did come with an engine, however it's not the factory engine. It's a flathead 400CC briggs. I'm probably going to put my 12.5 briggs on it because it's already converted to pull start and it runs great.

All the spindles turn, the idlers are good, the bearings in the wheels are good. Tires are all flat, but they hold air for a few minutes. I'm going to get tubes for them. Belts are in good shape, when you turn one blade the other 2 turn. This thing is in much better shape than it looks. I'm going to get the parts that I know I need today and I think I can have it going over the weekend. Wish me luck!!