Good Morning The other day I was moving my machine and raised the boom to get by a tree. Now the boom will not move. The bucket works, it will travel and goes left or right . But the boom will not move, it will not extend and the thumb does not move. Where can I start looking for the problem?
You need to provide more details...SN of machine, manufacturer, etc.
2012 Cat 308C
Good start but that is not the Ser. No. There are threads here that tell you how to find it. These guys need the SN to give you good answers. Ideally there is a tag on lower side of cab near the boom joint.
CAT0308CVCRW00365
I have had other machines but they were old and had handle to control the hydraulic controls, Silly me I wanted a machines with joy stick control,and don't know where to start looking for a problem, other than fuses
Do you know if the boom is being held under pressure? Does the engine or hydraulics sound loaded?
There is no pressure build up,I let the machine set for a couple days and it bled enough for the bucket to sit on the ground.started it up like I said bucket, blade, travel and swing,work just fine
Did the boom move on start up without you commanding it from the joystick?
No. I thought if the was any pressure,it might move a little on start up, but nothing
Did you try the boom function at all after re-starting.?
It's just the boom and nothing else is acting out of the ordinary? I'm trying to determine if you have a fault in either of the primary systems that operate the implements..........the main control valve or the pilot system. If the boom didn't move at all on startup, then I'm thinking the main system may be ok.... unless it's hanging the spool on movement from possibly contamination. Usually once they are hung up, they won't recenter on their own unless the opposite pilot signal can overcome the drag on the spool. Start the machine back up and attempt to move the boom again. Stop the boom in several places throughout the stroke with the joystick centering and notice if it still tries to move on its own. Make sure you notice any sounds that don't sound normal. Right now there isnt enough info to get an accurate picture of what may be happeneing. Has there been any recent repair work done by you or someone else?
I will try it again this morning, the bucket is on the ground and the boom is about a 1/4 of the way down. The boom, extend and thumb do not work. No one has worked on the machine got in it the other day raised the boom it went up and hasn't worked since I have a friend coming over Sunday to help me, by my self I can't run the sticks and get out and listen and look to see if any thing is trying to move
Does the machine have a pattern change valve? For some reason I’m unable to see any parts or service information on that serial number in Cat SIS. Anyone else have any luck?
If it does have a pattern change valve, any chance it is not locked into the desired position and has vibrated over a bit?
Same here. It’s a 308C SR and looks like it’s a grey market machine although there is English language documentation for it listed on the Cat Publications website.
Yes it is a gray market machine, but was told at the cat dealer no problem with parts. My friend came by today, looked things over. there is a little computer thing on the right hand side of the seat, where a person can program in where ya want the boom to stop. He said that is the problem. we opened a small cover and can see the manifold with 7 electric solenoid. tomorrow I will drop the pan under the machine and look for broken wire or another problem
I can't find anything broken
Can you take and post a pic of this? It's something I've never heard of apparently..
This is what I have, the read out comes in handy when it was working, but it is metric,it controlled the depth of cut. The other pictures are what we believe are the valves that are controlled by the DRO, As you can see I'm thinking about bypassing the entire system unless I can get it to work.This machine is just used on my property for my saw mill or a neighbor that is close enough to walk it over
To much rain today, not a nice day to go lay under the machine
Could the piston inside the cylinder be stuck? Remove the bottom hose to relieve oil pressure. Be careful; it can move down quickly if the hose get off.
Well today There are 7 hydraulic lines hooked to a manifold, and I was attempting to bypass the manifold. I changed the filters, but I only had enough fittings to bypass 3 lines, now the boom is working, I have more fitting on order hope to get them tomorrow.....so we will see. Would still like to find out what happened and fix it
All 7 lines have be bypassed from the manifold, everything works,but now as the boom is raised the stick wants to creep out
Having a very similar issue with the same grey market machine. Boom, dipper and parallel offset are not working. My solenoids on that manifold you bypassed all have varying voltages to them, some as low as 4v. Did you ever come up with any other definitive solutions, or still running the manifold bypass?
Never did get it fixed right,winter hit. I bought the machine to use on my property,so it will sit till spring. I'm sure something came apart in the hydraulic system and is still floating around.
Hogfarm I got mine working properly. I don't really understand why it worked, but I put everything back the way it was originally, confirmed nothing was working. Then I started bypassing one circuit at a time, confirming it was doing what I expected between each one. First boom up, then boom down, dipper out, dipper in, then the parallel offset boom circuits. The big difference this time was that I got actual #6 o-ring face caps and capped off the hose fittings on the manifold, I left the return line and the center unmarked valve with its hoses hooked up. I did unplug all 7 solenoids. For some reason that did it. Everything works and the dipper no longer moves out when I raise the boom. The only thing I can think is that there is some sensor or another hose somewhere on that manifold block I cant see that needs to be pressurized. Anyway, it works. Hopefully that works for you too. Easy fix.
So you have totally by-passed the manifold?
No, when I totally bypassed the manifold I had the same problem you did; when I raised the boom the stick moved out. This time I left the center unmarked hoses, and what I believe is the return line, the one on the outboard end of the manifold block. Also, rather than just using the little plastic caps to cap off the manifold outlets I got the proper o-ring face caps to seal them. So I only bypassed the 6 marked circuits, boom up/down, stick in/out, and parallel offset boom left/right. I left the three remaining hoses on the manifold.
Can you send me a little diagram? Or should I just start over, hook them all back up then find the 6 hoses one by one?
Yeah I’ll get you some labeled pics today.
Thank you
Sorry I didn't get this yesterday. Pics are pretty self explanatory, however I should explain that I unplugged the electrical connections from all of the solenoids, and wrapped them up in electrical tape just to keep them clean. You'll see that labeled in one of the pictures. Caps are #6 o-ring face. Ran the machine for about 4 hours yesterday, worked great. No issues.
Well Shane I was able to work on my excavator today. Did what you showed me, things are working excellent. Thank you so much
Awesome! I’m glad you didn’t have to go digging through the hydraulic system looking for a problem. Wish I could tell you exactly why this worked, but it does, so I’m gonna roll with it!
My internet has been out since about 15 mins before the super bowl, but it does seem to work fine, and I'm going to leave it be