My Uncles Farmed with Case 990's. Always had 3 on their dairy farm. They were indestructable. One oil change a year and ran 60 hours a weeks by local high school students bailing hay. They only rebuilt one that was at 10K hours.
My biggest complaint, they are hard to get off and on. However, if you walk around the farm and keep your BMI under 30, you won't have a problem with it.
It is a low RPM lugging engine, don't try to turn 3K RPM.
It is Lucas Electrics, so yes it will have issues. Never trust your fuel guage.
Two things to note: Read the darn manual. They have too many bells and whistles on the 3 point. People always get them confused. If you have an issue with the 3 point that isn't operator error, Clean the darn screen under the right hand controls, that fixes the problem about 99% of the time.
After feeling nostalgic and wanting a cheap utility tractor. I bought one to bush hog and plow the garden with. Bought it with "broken 3 point". After I paid my $3K for it, I promptly went over and turned the 3 Point Lock off, 3 Point worked like a charm. The sellers were highly angry. I have spend thousands of hours on a Case DB.
Starts every time. Runs on 1/2 the fuel of the 2440. 2440 repair bills $8K. 990 Repair Bills $0. Same number of hours.
