Hi there, I have a cat 246 serial cat00246l5sz07148 this problem started slow and very random and now it's pretty much all the time. Whether an attachment is hooked up or not it will randomly engage the left side joystick button on the right joystick which with an auger would be reverse. It will engage for a second or up to a minute. It started a few years ago and would be a second every few days and now it pretty constant. I have unplugged the solenoids under the cab just to stop it. As for what I have looked into, I have replaced both solenoids under the cab. I can disconnect the switches in the joystick and it will still do it the same so I dont believe it's in the joystick. Any help would be appreciated.
Do you have the attachment electrical connection on the end of the lift arms.? That’s the first place I would be looking because it only need one particular pin (can’t remember exactly which one off the top of my head) on that connector to see ground and the auxiliary hydraulics will engage. I’ll have a look whether or not I have an enlarged print of that connector and upload it if I find one.
I do not. Only have the hydraulic connections.
Sorry, brain fart. I was thinking of the electrical connector on the lift arms that when grounded engages the High Flow, not auxiliary hydraulics. My bad. If an Electrical Schematic would help you with diagnosis shout out and I'll send you one.
That would be great for how the wiring runs from the joystick to the solenoid. I'm hoping I find a chafed wire or something. Do you know if the computer has anything to do with the aux hydraulics?
No high flow on mine
I have sent you the Schematic. Please confirm when you receive it. Everything control-wise without exception goes through the ECM. Here's a thought. Get the seat out and the floor up. You'll find the ECMs there and will probably be horrified at the state of them because **** falls through the floor and accumulates on top of them. Post photos..........!!
I'll see if I can get it in the shop today. Have my dump truck and backhoe to service first.
Do you think the ecm could be causing an issue like this
Never say never, but in the world of troubleshooting these things every diagnostic procedure has as the last step "The ECM may have failed. This is unlikely" . That's pretty much word for word what the manual says. In fact when doing a troubleshooting procedure if the diagnosis comes up that the ECM is bad they recommend you do it all again at least once more (twice more for preference) before finally condemning the ECM. Sometimes they do fail though. There have been horror stories of machines like yours where the dirt under the floor corroded through the shell of the ECM itself and allowed water into it with catastrophic results. Hence my suggestion to get the floor up as a first step and let the dog see the rabbit. Be prepared and have loads of electrical contact cleaner to hand. You'll probably need that too.
Thanks, I will grab some today.
The problem can also be in the joystick itself. Hopefully not, as I hear they are 6 or 7 hundred bucks.
The only reason I dont think it is, is because i can unplug the joystick wiring and it still does the same problem. At this point I'll take anything as long as i can fix it.
That makes sense. I have 2001 246 and love it. Used to have a 236B series 2 and never could get the aux hydraulics to engage. They sure are complicated enough.
I love the machine. Has given very little issue in the 7,000 hours it has on it.
So here is what she looks like underneath, is there any issues with hosing out down there?
We had a thread a while back about washing. I would wash it when it's warm (not hot) and let it dry a day or two before starting back up.
That rules it washing it until spring.
Today we took apart every connection we could find and cleaned them. Hooked the solenoids back up that have been unplugged for a few months and went to test it and now nothing on the aux hydraulics works. Going to go through it one more time. Is there any other tests we might be missing?
I would be looking closely at the connectors to see if anything is bent or corroded. Also check the fuses in case you arced something. GLTU
Any idea which fuse is for the aux? I have the diagram but on my phone I cant make it large enough to read and wont be near a pc til tomorrow.
All my connections looked new and good. Still cleaned them and made sure things looked normal. My machine was primarily used for snow plowing until 2013 then it was in the dirt. Nit to dirty but I'm sure moisture made it's way into things
If it worked before you messed with the connectors (so much so that you had to remove the solenoids to prevent the system activating when you didn’t want it to) and now it doesn’t work at all then you have to go back to all the connectors you messed with and look at each one closely until you find the problem child. My 2c, YMMV.
All I have is a parts manual for mine. Use a flashlite and you might be able to see a burned fuse.
I should have plugged in the solenoids today and tested before I started cleaning things, I have no idea if they were working this morning before I started. They have been unplugged for months. I went through everything I touched today with a fine tooth comb, I could do it again tomorrow.
Not gonna get a chance to look at the machine today. I have two more weeks before a shoulder surgery to where I'll be out of commission for a few months, hopefully I can get it fixed before that because I'm sure I'll be to busy afterwards
So I went out and fired up the tractor and let it warm up and the problem came back. Self engaging the solenoid. What else can you think of to check out?
Hi, I would remove the two signal wires from the aux ECM connector and try it. this will eliminate a wrong input to the ECM and tell you if you have a wiring fault between joystick and ECM Here is the connector layout you can remove the wire from the connector using some simple tools from the internet the wire numbers are green #53 and purple #62 if problem still occurs I would remove the aux solenoid return wires from the ECM connector if the problem still occurs the wiring between the ECM connector and the AUX solenoid's is faulty wire numbers green#40 and yellow#58 best of luck Mark
Thanks Mark, I'll see about ordering that tool
Cat Part Number is 151-6320. It may help you to search for them on eBay or whatever. Also be aware they are easy to damage (tips break off) so buy a few of them.
Thanks
Just ordered 4
This video might help you. I know your connector is a slightly different style, but the locks inside both types of connector work the same way. The key is not to force the plastic extraction tool, if the pin won't come out, pull the tool out, rotate it 90 degrees, push it in and try again. It has to engage correctly in the two locks inside the connector housing before the pin will come out.