While using my Cat 246 yesterday one of the buttons on the right joystick popped off. The edges around the button were missing (and it was merely held on by friction?). I looked high and low, but could not find it. I really don't want to spend $900 for a new joystick when there are no issues with it other than the missing button. I now can't open my grapple bucket, which makes it rather useless. Is there an aftermarket solution? I would think this would present a good opportunity for an aftermarket parts manufacturer to make replacement controls that could offer additional options that an OEM part doesn't. Or perhaps a DIY workaround? I'm just looking to get full use of my machine without dropping another grand into it.
Is your Serial Number 5SZ078xx..? The Handle Assembly is available separately to the joystick/valve assembly. I think the latest P/N is 218-6118, price just over $300. Still not cheap but way better than $900+
Thanks, I'll check that out. I was having trouble finding this info searching the Cat parts site. $300 is more than I feel it's worth spending, but if that's my only option - I don't have much of a choice. Thanks again Nige.
I didn't say it was the optimal solution, only that it's a cheaper solution than the one you were looking at.
Understand completely.
Just wanted to conclude this post with a quick update. I was able to swap out the RH joystick yesterday on my machine. I really was not looking forward to removing the entire control so I decided that doing so would be a last resort. The service manual does not describe how to remove the handle with the control still installed, so here I will describe what I did in case anyone else runs into this and is new to skid steer ownership like I am. I wish I would’ve taken pictures, but I was in a hurry to get this done. And I keep telling myself I’m going to make YouTube videos as there’s almost nothing out there on these sorts of topics. But a camera just seemed a bit of a burden to manage while I’m trying to figure it out as I go, so that didn't get that done either. This is what I did: I inverted the rubber boot so I had access to everything I needed to disconnect. Then I used two wrenches to loosen the handle. One wrench was to secure the larger nut that is attached to the control assembly, and then one for the smaller nut that is tightened up against it. I would imagine you could just crank down on that smaller nut to loosen it to get the handle off, but as tight as it was, there’s a pretty high probability damage may be done to the control by doing so. The whole goal of putting a wrench on that larger nut is to just keep the control stable while you work on loosening the smaller nut. Once that small nut is backed off from being up against that large nut, the handle should easily unscrew from the control. But before you can unscrew the handle, you will need to disconnect the harness and pull the wire out from the below access panel. If not, the wire is going to get wrapped around the handle while you unscrew it, and wires do not like tension. There are three screws that hold the panel door closed that need to be removed to access the wiring harness. You will also have to remove the three hex head screws securing the control assembly to allow enough play to remove the wiring harness. Getting the plug through the small gap between the control assembly and plastic housing, was not easy. But, I was able to use the handle of the adjustable wrench as a pry tool to afford me just enough space to get the plug through the gap. I suppose the plastic panel could crack, so keep that in mind while prying against it. Once the harness is pulled out and the handle is unscrewed, separated from the machine, I had to move over a couple of parts to the new handle. Those two parts were the threaded stud that screws the handle into the control assembly and the wiring harness. As I mentioned on another thread , getting that stud out was a major PITA. In a perfect world, a roll pin punch would’ve removed the pin and freed the threaded stud. But for whatever reason, the pin in my handle did not want to come out. So I ended up using a cutting wheel to remove the plastic on the lower part of the old handle in order to remove the stud. I then had to cut the pin out to make the stud reusable. When I installed the stud into the new handle I decided to use a machine screw instead of another roll pin. And the new handle came with a different plug, so I cut the harness from the old handle and replaced the harness that came with the new one (they both have four wires - red/black/blue/gray). If you're replacing the handle because of something electrical related, I would probably be prepared to purchase the adapter that Cat sells instead of cannibalising the plug. After the needed parts are moved over, it's time to install the new handle. And the installation process is doing everything above in the reverse order. Don't forget to reinstall the rubber boot before the plug gets put below the control assembly or you're going to have to battle that again. Once you get the handle screwed on and oriented correctly, that is when you will fully tighten the handle with the smaller nut. If you screw the handle all the way down without regard to the smaller nut it’s not going to align properly. After the handle is securely tightened and the harness is plugged in, close up the access panel and tighten down the control assembly. Fire up the machine and test it out!