Hay all, anyone out there with extensive knowledge of what can be done with the auxiliary hydraulic controls, and attachments. Background, we have a 323fl with a hydraulic thumb, along with a disk style forestry head. The way Cat plumbed the high flow for the head, they tee off that loop for the thumb. Which means the thumb is unusable when the head is on. The odd thig is there is an unused set of hydraulics on the boom that are caped off. Is there a second auxiliary circuit available to run the thumb off of? Or if anyone has a wiring and hydraulic diagram available for this machine that would be great. Thanks, Gerry
The smaller auxiliary lines are capable of 2700psi, but the flow is low. The larger auxiliary lines are capable of 5000psi. Both are reversible flow via cab switches, but, putting a thumb on the medium pressure circuit may yield a slow thumb. And, I'm not sure what the relief pressure should be on a thumb.
Electrical and Hydraulic Schematics are do-able but it would require your machine Serial Number to identify the correct ones.
Thanks,,,, CAT0323FHXCF00974 I tried calling my local Cat Dealer yesterday, and talked to service. He was not very helpful. I know I'm going to need to have a Cat service tech come out and set up the attachment configuration at some point, I just want to have a better understanding of the circuits before I call them again.
It might sound strange but you could potentially be better off talking to Sales. In the Price List for the 323F machine there will be all the Group Numbers of all the Top Level Auxiliary Attachment options including all the hydraulics. Also there will be comments regarding "what CANNOT be used with what" and what "such and such" Attachment needs in the way of additional groups in order to function. I'll send you the Hydraulic & Electrical Schematics by PM. Keep your eyes open. Regarding setups, I hopw you have the Operator/Maintenance Manual or are at least familiar with the Tool Setup Menu.? I will admit right now that I'm not and there are others on HEF who know far more about it than I do.
If you do talk to Sales, here's a copy of the As-Built consist of your machine. It may help them to advise you.
Ok thank you!! I does look like this unused circuit is a lower pressure, based on the line rating. But if it gives us any functionality of the thumb, it's better then what we have now. Even at half pressure it will still pickup a pile of brush.
I am not, I would prefer to do this myself if I can get into the setup menu. I believe based on the schematics I will need something like this for the thumb control, Thumb down, RIGHT J/S SWITCH 2 (FORE) / SMART BM CANCEL controls, ATT STEM3 EXTEND EPRV for TCS Thumb up, RIGHT J/S SWITCH 1 (UPPER) controls, ATT STEM3 RETRACT EPRV for TCS Will that type of terminology be in the setup?
Myself, if you've never done it, get someone with ET to do it. There used to be some tool # positions that wouldn't accept or allow medium pressure or switching from one way to two way and back, in the settings. The "shear" factory setting is where I would start modifying, as it is medium enabled. If nothing else, you could hook your thumb to the medium lines and use the shear tool settings to try it out.
I just went through all of the available attachments, none of them seem to utilize this caped off circuit. The valve that I would like to run the thumb off of are outputs 31,34 from the ECM (ATT STEM3 EXTEND EPRV for TCS, ATT STEM3 RETRACT EPRV for TCS). What would it be commonly used for? Tilt control on a tilt bucket, or swivel control for a grapple?
If the dealer programmed the forestry head, they may have zeroed the other tools.
Just to follow up, had Cat service tech out. He had previous knowledge of our machine and why it was plumed the way it was, so that helped. The thumb was originally setup to run on the unused circuit when they had set the machine up with the forestry head. At some point the thumb was moved back over to the high pressure circuit because the forestry head was never getting used. He was able to make the changes to the attachment setup, and I made up some new hoses today. All seems fine. Might be a little bit slower, it defiantly has enough squeezing force to pick up logs and brush. Thanks Again for the info and feedback. Hopefully someone else finds this useful down the road.