IH 990 mower roller chain repair instructions

Need to mow our hay & our roller chain gave out. Anybody out there can give a person a hand with number of links & basic install instructions? I have an owner's manual, but it doesn't cover servicing the roller chain assembly.

Thanks! p & e

Drive chain between the crimper rolls??????

ANYHOW, you can look up a parts breakdown at the link below"
FIAT parts lookup

Before repairing be sure that it is not excessively worn! A worn chain will wear the sprockets which are a lot more money. go to the larger sprocket and grasp the chain and pull it outward away from the sprocket. If you can pull it far enough to be able to see the tip of a tooth it is worn out.

I replace roller chain regularly, and have never seen in any manuals a call out for the number of links.

Just count out the number in the old busted one, and cut a new chain to match the number of links. The old chain is probably stretched and it'll be longer, but go by the number of links in it, not the length.

I cut chain with a cold chisel and a hammer. Lay it on an anvil or rail road iron (whichever is handy) and hit the chisel with the point inbetween the plates on the links. Normally will go with 2 hits, sometimes as much as 5. Be sure to do it on the side of the chain away from you, and wear safety glasses. I had one link just a month or so ago hit right square in front of my right eye, and left a mark on my glasses where it hit.

At work we recently bought chain from rollerchainforless.com and not only is it cheaper, but it seems to be a better quality. Doesn't break as easily with a chisel, and I find I have to grind the ends of the pins so it'll slide apart once the side plate is off.

I'll also add that if the sprockets are showing much wear at all, they need to be replaced. Otherwise they'll stretch out a new chain very quickly and you'll be in the same situation again very soon. I replace chains often, but in most cases it's much easier to do than to replace all of the sprockets because a worn out chain was run for far too long.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Well - we figured it out -
an IH 990 requires 98 links (I made one bad move - cheated myself out of a link because I hadn't analyzed what the master link was (an 'outie' - as I callit - after all, I am a woman, so I can call it what I want) - and since the big roller goes counterclockwise to pull hay into the cutters, and the upper roller has to go counterclockwise and the lower roller has to go clockwise - and the power goes counter-clockwise - and that idler thing just rests on the chain as it goes from the power area to the upper roller -

got it all figured out - thanks for your input -

We did buy a new chain - and I can see that the roller sprocket will need to be replaced. there are several broken teeth on the main sprocket -

So...that's next - thamks for the help - I never had to figure anything like that out before.

Glad to hear it worked out for you. You can run it for a short while but as you said, the sprockets will need to be replaced.

Donovan from Wisconsin

They do make tools for pressing the pins out of the side plates. Much easier and safer than using a chisel and a grinder.

"have never seen in any manuals a call out for the number of links."

You might enlighten yourself and check out the link I posted to the parts cat... most ALL of them specify a "recipe" for the chain links, offset links, and connector links required.