Whats a 920 Diesel worth?

I have a chance to buy a 920 diesel lawn tractor.  It has a deck, but no other attachments.  Supposedly runs, but sounds like the starter is probably out of it.  Thats all I know.  It looks pretty decent, tires dont look bad, sheet metal is straight.  What is a fair price?

I bought mine last year for 1500 its the best looking one I ever seen. All it has is a mower deck.    Parts are hard and $$$$$  I need a voltage regulator and they are 3 to 500  depends where your looking.  But in that shape try a few hunderd and see if they like the offer.  kip

Jim - Thats it. 

I live in Minnesota and have an Allis Chalmers 920 Diesel for sale. The only attachment it has is a 48 inch mower deck. It runs but needs some work. I can pictures if you contact me.

Nathan (SD) wrote: I saw one on for sale for $3200 a while ago.  I don't know if it ever sold. Only attachment was the mower deck. Better check on the price of that starter before you make a offer.  That brand of engine powered the first Concord air seed carts. Last price on those starters was $1700. Only available from Italy. I don't know if the Lawn mower is that bad also.

Is that the one that was in SE Minnesota??  I saw that on Craigslist (and was near me), but I wasn't even interested in looking at it for that price.

I bought mine (Simplicity 7790) several years ago for $300 but it was burning oil and smoking bad.  An engine tear-down revealed plugged up cooling fins and oil control rings that were smooth as a baby's butt from being run hot.  New rings ($200) and a burnish of the cylinders and I was back in business.  I have also spent $200 on having the injectors checked and one rebuilt.

A good clean gas 917 is maybe worth $600-$900.  A 920 in good condition would be worth another $200-$500.  The trick is finding one that doesn't need work--------parts are very expensive.

Byron WC in SW Wi wrote: You can get the starters rebuilt fairly reasonable.  I bought one about 12 years ago and had a local electric motor guy rebuild it for something like $50.  But, If you can't hear it run it's a little sketchy.  I ran mine for awhile on one cylinder.  They are loud and tend to smoke quite a bit but that may just be my engine.  I'm not sure if you can get parts or not but the engine's are lombardini's.  They used to have a website www.lombardiniusa.com  Now when you type that it it directs you to Kohler.  I'm not sure what is up with that?  Perhaps Kohler bought them out?   I see Kohler now offers both liquid and air cooled diesels so maybe the air ones are the lombardinis?

Yes, Kohler either bought them or the distribution rights for North America.

People used them to mow with and never cleaned the cooling fins on the engine which caused them to overheat.Very common for them.Garden tractor market is soft right now.There are plenty of them left I wouldnt jump on the first one I see.JMO

Some of our older arrow boards at work (highway maintenance) had lambardini diesel engines (that ran a generator to charge the batteries). There may be some engines/parts available on some of these since arrowboards have (mostly) been replaced by solar powered variable message boards.

The attachments are likely worth $500 by themselves.  If the hydro and installed engine are OK, it's a good deal.

Be sure to include the "worn out" diesel.  The parts on that may be worth the asking price.  Better it, it may just need rings.  Mine was smoking really bad and using oil when I bought it cheap.  A set of rings was all it needed.


Edited by 427435 - 14 Sep 2015 at 10:09pm

Did you buy it?