Good tractor?

"City" friend is moving to the country and looking for a general purpose light duty tractor and asked me about this tractor. I am an old IH/JD man and have never seen a Case/David Brown tractor. Does this tractor have a good track record? Looks good but that can be mis-leading. Any thoughts? Thanks. JD http://nashville.craigslist.org/grq/5549914989.html

Yes ,that is a good tractor. Looks like it was well taken care of.

The 885 diesel is a good tractor, probably best little utility tractor of its era. Engine parts for the gas model are virtually non-existent(governor).


The fresh paint on everything, new seat, and cherry bomb muffler concerns me.

It might be an OK deal, just go over it with a fine tooth comb.

Good tractor, but sometimes has issues with the hydraulics. See how the lift works.

Hi The diesel was popular in the U.K I never saw a gas one, and haven't seen one in Canada either,so parts might be a problem as said. I would be concerned how economical the gas one was with rising fuel prices compared to a diesel tractor . The hyd system on these tractors doesn't like a dirty filter and water contamination. If somebody looks at it and the hyd oils milky/ looks like jersey cream when its run a bit, you could have problems with valves sticking in the system. It was common with poor maintenence in the U.K.

As for the paint job it looks like the rusts starting to show again and from the dirt on the fenders it looks like it's sat around a fair while and not been used or washed. I would hope that somebody put the plug wire back on that seems to be missing in the picture to, for a good running tractor.
I'm not sure I would want a gas odd ball tractor with the way Manufacturers are dropping new parts on the older stuff, case are dropping 1175 stuff now and this is around the same age. I wouldn't think there is a big market for jobber parts guys to make stuff for that motor either. it could be a run it and chuck it/buy something else deal if it blows up, or try find a diesel motor and swap it.
Regards Robert