Hello everyone, I'm a nub here, I just bought my very own excavator, A 307 SSr 1993. It's got the mitsubishi 4d32 diesel. and the knuckle boom. I Have the parts/maintnance/manual on order and should have it sometime this week, But I wanted to see if any of you guys had knowlege of the 90's era cats and their engine settings. I have a couple selector knobs, for POWER, IDLE and WORK. My question is are these set to adjust the engine, or the pump? I'm wondering also if the SSR is except for the 0 tail swing and boom the same as other 307 machines, with regards to the Hydraulics, controls, electrical; Or is it completely different machine to machine. I ask this because I have a Komatsu pc 220, 300, and 400(@ work) and all of them have the same setup on the inside. So would the 307C's and B's have the same POWER, IDLE, WORK switches? Also, The engine seems to be held to a small window of operating RPM with the throttle cable. its swings about 1.5 inches from idle to run. Is that normal? How high can I set the throttle? Is there a max RPM for the pump or is it the more the merrier? I want to see what your guys's thoughts are and say hello. Thanks for your advice!
Is this the right spot to ask a question like this? Or should I have posted this in a different area?
Ya, you're in the right area. I'm not real familiar with these machines. I'd say on a machine that old the selector knob would just have to do with engine rpm. Hopefully someone with more expertise on them will chime in.
Thank you sir, I appreciate the response and your help! I found a black plastic box, with what looks to be a cable attached to the motor under the throttle... I'll wait until I get the book and start reading.
Alot of those little engines have a pretty high idle so they don't shake real bad at an idle. That's probably why it seems like there isn't much difference in engine speed. Can you look at the injection pump and see if the throttle shaft is moving all the way from the idle stop screw to the high rpm screw on the linkage?
Just received the parts manual today. I'm in the process of translating it to english. all F&^#*&g 483 pages!! Yea I can see the shaft, and the adjustment screws. There is very little tolerance, like 2 inches of travel. I don't think that's correct because, the stock throttle control lever moves like 7-8 inches. I understand the fulcrum is lower on the throttle so it wont move as far, just doesn't seem right. This plastic box has a cable , separate from the throttle cable from the cab, and attached below it to the throttle shaft. I don't know if it functions or not. I'll snap some pictures when the weather gets nice so you can see. Thanks again for the interest !
Ya, pics would help. So does it has a lever for the throttle and a knob for work modes?
It's been several years since I've been around 307SSR machines, memory is a bit vague. What I do recall, they define a "grey market" machine. One of the early joint productions of Cat and Mitsubishi via the REGA project. Manuals are printed in Japanese Kanji, some part numbers are Cat, some are Mitsubishi part numbers. My Cat dealer won't have nothing to do with them, other Cat dealers are less scared of them, but even they have little to no service info on them as those machines weren't built for the North American market. I've been acquainted with three of those machines, and if I recall correctly, all three of them had a rather low "high throttle" speed. Not sure why Cat has them set that way, but I tend to think there's some reason.
Hey thanks for the responses guys, I figured a little out since the last time. All those buttons control a robotic control arm located next to the hydraulic lock out bar. I broke down and ordered the service manual. In all honesty its not too hard to translate the parts manual. Like willie59 said though, its very difficult to get replacement parts. I have been in contact with Ohio Cat in Canton, and the parts department there is excellent. Today they tried to pull up some parts from my parts book and the prefixes were non existant. So he went to a 307B and looked to see if we could match anything up. Really nice guys. God damn service manual is $470.00. That's ridiculous. But this way I figure I can see wire diagrams I'm hoping there is some international standard for wiring... or anything.. I'll post some pics soon, The forum stopped me before because the pics are bigger than 600x400 I picked up a seat at work out off a riding lawnmower.. heated seat too And I'm trying to fix the throttle cable from the controller on the instrument cluster to the side of the seat.. I'm attempting to use some wire from an electric fence, anyone have a trick for a substitute? I also adjusted the screws on the motor to allow it to idle lower... i know someone said not too but it was pretty high. I also increased the high end. The machine sounds a lot better and when I used the hydraulics, they ran a lot smoother.
Yea its got a manual lever and also 3 electric switches. I'll work on pics tomorrow.
Bingstock, I've got a 1993 307SSR also, for the last 7 years or so, getting occasional use for my home construction projects & deteriorating in the tropics, like me. It's been though periods of regular use, and parts frustrations. Not long ago I found that the parts numbers for many (all?) of the items in the parts book are actually Mitsubishi numbers (certainly the hydraulic cylinders) - it took a sharp CAT parts woman in Oregon, as I recall, to cue me in to that, something my local dealer didn't/couldn't/didn't want to figure out. She then could cross-reference the Mits numbers to CAT to get anything ordered, but before I got to that point, I came to the conclusion that a skilled local hydraulics repair shop could, simply by seeing remnants of my seals, order replacements without going through all that pain and non-returnability of a special order from CAT. Dealer does appear to be walking a fine line of not wanting to alienate me as a customer, while subtly telling me to take my gray-market machine back to where it came from if I want support. I think you fixed your throttle-control issue, but I haven't had anything similar with mine. Lever has way more low-end range than the engine could sustain, so it's typically positioned at about halfway up the scale. From what a Japanese speaker once offered, the switches to which you refer are supposed to offer finer control of movements & low-power. It went something like this - "1/2" was supposed to be low power, the "trench" icon was supposed to do something similar - can't recall what I was told now! - and the icon showing loading of a truck was supposed to be "balls out" level, though that may not be an accurate translation. In operation, in my case, I can't really tell the difference. That could also have to do with rather sloppy knuckle-joint bushings that I'd love to change. I'd be curious to know if you experience something less than powerful turret motion. I'm not sure what to expect from such a machine, but there have been occasions when I've been operating on my steep sloped property and tried to rotate upslope with a boulder in the thumb, and found that gravity was winning by turning me downslope instead. Are you actually having the parts book translated by...a person? How's that working? When I first bought the machine, I kept hearing secondhand stories about how there ARE English versions out there for these, and I did once talk to a guy on the phone who was actually looking at one at the time. I tried to convince him to charge me to copy it, but he was nervous about some infringement if he did so. I ended up with a Japanese parts book only - skipped the manual thinking the translation issues would be too big to make it worthwhile. Hasta - Dave
Hey, Yea I've been told without words that you can get an english manual by the maintenance mng. at work. I'm still in the process of getting a quote to translate it. If your interested in the manual PM me. As far as the swing gear goes, I haven't had any problems. Mine is pretty "tight". I too am working on a hillside and it doesn't drift if I have it over the track, while on a grade. I do wish there was a swing lock, or I wish I could find it.. Can you look under the back of your machine and see what kind of clamp is on the hydraulic line between the pump and the tank. its a piece of hose maybe 2 ft. long.. Mine has a radiator hose clamp and its leaking fluid, i think when its under pressure, the hose is kinda wet all the time. I'm wondering if a exhaust clamp for a semi exhaust would work. Any Ideas? I know I said it a long time ago, but I promise to get some pictures. I forgot, thanks for the tip on the par numbers. I would have never though of that. I'm going to try to contact mitsubishi and see if they can offer some help.
Yea the throttle is jerry rigged, I'm going to replace the cable and stick with a micro controller and servo. Digital throttle should be neat. I managed to get the throttle up beyond where it was before and it sounds better, but I'm noticing little leaks appearing now. I like that, because now I can figure out what needs to be replaced/fixed. I did receive the shop/repair manual, and I haven't started on it. the parts manual is coming along. Its a slow process, and I kinda feel like it isn't worth it. the shop manual is the one i need done. the Japanese in that book seems a little more(google) translation friendly than the parts manual. The personal translation rout isn't cheap.
I finally had a reason to get the access-plate off the underside of my machine & was able to get a decent look at the hose you're describing...then had to navigate back here...so this is probably old business for you at this point, but yeah, mine's indistinguishable from a radiator-hose-clamp, typical of all the low-pressure connections. I think you're describing parts numbered 7/8 on p. 2-47, or maybe 12 and 15/25 on illustrations on p. 2-51/nearby pages of my parts book, which looks like it covers all the return-side hydraulic connections. Maybe yours is cutting through the hose - or simply needs to be tightened? That said, I am a long way from wrapping my brain around the layout of the hydraulic system as a whole. I surely didn't diagram it and haven't spent enough time looking at the parts-book illustrations; of course that's a low-pressure hose, but it's evident that some small amount of pressure builds up in the hydraulic tank - every time I have opened it, I've gotten some 'spewage' as I get the plug completely unscrewed - and there's the fluid head of the tank itself pushing on that joint, too. I assume there's a vent somewhere, but not sure where, nor at what pressure-setting. I guess I need to formally study either hydraulic systems engineering or Nihongo (or both) to get better at this...
Have you managed to get it translated?
deez, if you've got a smartphone and google photos (the app) then you're 90% of the way there. This is still not well-known, but it's pretty mind-blowing. You can take a photo of whatever foreign text you want to read, then in Google Photos, tap on a 'translate' icon (weird X-like symbol, almost like they didn't want everyone to figure this out; I think it's just supposed to look like a Japanese character). Then the screen starts looking like...like you're seeing stars...and after a few seconds, the foreign-language text in the photo shows up as if typed, in English, on white bands that cover the native text wherever it's visible. It's unbelievably good with Mandarin (sometimes with hilarious idiomatic translations - like "template" being translated as "little monster"). I've also used it on the Mitsubishi parts book with great results. I cannot, for the life of me, though, figure out whether there is a way to PRINT that same image, with the English translations, as seen 'live' on your phone screen. This seems absolutely obvious and basic, but I wasn't the only one googling to try to figure out a way, and I came up empty-handed. You'd think you could just save that translated photo, but... It will let you save the translations as a list of text, but that's just lame, unless you're translating a BOOK, say. I suppose a screenshot might work, but I suspect it would be so low-res as to be unreadable by the time it's enlarged - and that's a clunky workaround even if it does end up readable, because people like us would want to plough through a few hundred pages to get a full translation done. It also doesn't seem to have any presence as a desktop application, which is also odd to the point of seeming like there's a conspiracy to keep it down... So for now, I guess you have to have your pen handy, and write down those translations...
That sounds really handy, if I need to translate parts for my 93 REGA 370SSR. For now, I will try to look for other alternatives since buying the japanese repair manual for a steep price, then translating each page individual page using your message seems a little much. I'm considering just getting the CAT 307 excavator repair manuals since I'm seeing the engineering is about the same as the 370SSR, with the exception of the engine.