I have a 257B with an issue. My operator pointed out on Friday that the battery light came on. When I checked it out the bracket that holds the alternator tight is broken, I used some wire from a bundle of rebar to hold it tight and ran it as Cat wont have the part in until Monday. Today it just stops, battery light is on and the parking brake light is blinking, bucket will go but the tracks wont, after a minute the whole thing wont function. I have the battery out and charging and will pick up a new part on Monday. I am worried that the problem may be more then that though. Anybody ever heard of or have this before?
It's possible, if the battery charge was weak, that the ECU is sensing low volatage from the battery, voltage that is too low to operate parking brake solenoid, which could toast the solenoid. Get your battery charged up and fix your alternator so it is charging and see what happens.
Check out this thread. Does this help any?
Thanks Cmark, it's good that a former Cat field tech jumped in here. Do you know anything about a Cat 428 loader/hoe. There's a fellow on Isle of Man that has a problem with one if you know anything about them.
My 257b has the exact same issue today. The screw for alternator is broken. Battery light was on and needed to jump start loader. Then machine stopped and the parking light is blinking. No functions work. At least the bucket was down and I could get out of loader. What should I do from here? Any help welcome.
The Electronic Control is sensing low voltage because of your alternator not charging correctly. Jump starting the machine was fine but the alternator has to be able to put power into the system at a high enough voltage to charge the battery for everything to work normally. Because at the moment it isn't doing that the Electronic Control has shut down the machine for safety. Fix your alternnator issue - I'd replace the alternator belt while you're in there, just in case - and the problem should go away. Get back if you still have problems after repairing the alternator.