Well my quest to find information on a MF 1017 has not been very fruitful. Not even Massey Ferguson dealers know much about 1017s. Apparently they were manufactured in the mid 80s by an OEM manufacturer I think the dealer said in Cincinnati.
After some more digging (no pun intended) I think I have figured out that the MF 1017, Woods BH750, Kubota L4530B are basically the same backhoe. I found a Woods 750 manual online so I am going from that.
I was able to see the hoe and ran it on a IH 225, quite a bit bigger tractor that my B7610. The hoe seems to run ok, there are a couple of hoses that need to be replaced and some of the pins look pretty dry and will probably need to be replaced. There is some surface rust but nothing that cannot be fixed with a fresh paint job.
Does anyone have any opinion on the info above? The person selling the MF1017 wants $2500 for it, does that seem like a reasonable price? The dealer said these hoes probably sold for $3K new.