can you go to a bicycle store and have them match the cable length and end? My tiller was a craftman but the cables were like a bicycle hand brake or derailleur cable. Hand brake is a heavier cable than a derailleur cable.
I found some numbers for you using archive.org going back to the time period in question. The only 6hp unit I could find was a yellow and black one but maybe they also painted some red. It was 448a. At any rate, here is a link to the manual for that unit and a couple others. Maybe you will find what you need in this pdf. It covers all the models listed on their webpages back to 1997.
http://manuals.mtdproducts.com/mtd/...num=21a410&serial_num=&filename=770-97-6b.pdf