Is this a good deal??

[nightskyisme]

I have an opportunity to purchase a 1989 John Deere 755 4X4 with a 60" deck. I am told one of the cylinders is low on compression.
The dealer (who is selling it) says the previous owner had them install new injectors and other things, but they ended up trading it in.
The dealer doesn't want to bother with it, they said its probably a bad ring set.
Anyway, they are asking $3000 for it, but said I can come make a reasonable offer.
I am pretty mechanical and can fix most things, and wouldn't mind working on this unit as long as it's not a nightmare, but want to make sure its worth it.
Any opinions???? Thanks!

 

[sandman2234]

There might be a history of repairs on this tractor that lead to it being traded in on a new one, and the reason the dealer is unwilling to fix it. I would tread lightly and have a very, very good mechanic look over it well before I decided on it. I am sure that John Deere doesn't give away engine parts, even if they don't come in green.
Figure on worse case scenerio when you price it.
David from jax

 

[heymack]

Sounds like a good deal to me considering that old worn out rustbuckets trade for $2-3K all the time. Even if you have to put $2K into the machine, you have an excellent tractor for >$5K. You're getting 4x4 with 60" cutter to boot.

 

[nightskyisme]

Well, After taking it "for a ride" and looking it over, I ended up getting it for $2500 which I think is a fair price since it does run well, just very rough at low idle.
I will pull the head when I get it home on Tuesday and see what I find.

 

[john_bud]

Take a sample of the oil and send it out for analysis. Drop the oil pan too and check the bearings. Pull the air filter and white glove test the tube going to the engine from the filter. Should be clean.

You may want to crack each injector line while running at idle to see which cylinder is misbehaving. It could be a bad injector and not bad compression.

jb