Well, I visited the machine. It had a few quirks as you would expect from a 35 year old machine. It had some perforation on the side of the bucket, a bit of minor rust on the hoe hydraulics, a minor bend in on of the steering pistons although it seemed to turn just fine. The starter was quirky and about half the time it took a few turns of the key to turn over the engine, but when it did, it started right up and ran clean.
The only bits that really concerned me was the hoe chain was very loose on the opposite side when the hoe was pivoted 90 degrees, and there was oil around the filter under the chassis. Is this the dreaded transmission leak?