Gday guys, Ive recently bought a 2006 D3G 2690hrs Serial# CAT00D3GLJMH02484. First couple jobs ripping it would counter rotate at the end of the runs but the last job i did cleaning some terraces and pushing in some access tracks i noticed that it was no longer Counter rotating and when normally steering it wasnt locking up the inside track it seemed to just keep rolling instead of stopping to assist turning. Got the cat tech out to run some tests at $185p/hr plus tax plus travel. He arrives and first thing he says is i dont know anything about these i spent the last 25 yrs on John Deere equipment. Anyway he burnt 4-5hrs trying to trouble shoot using the cat program of which half the time he was swearing at the computer as it was taking ages to load each new page, but it only told him the drive % values it was reading not what it was meant to be and it never went into -% to indicate reverse drive when counter rotating position on joystick selected. Has anyone some experience with this setup D3G D4G D5G ?? Is it likely to be faulty joystick or travel ecm needing recalibrating? When he plugged into the ecm it gave several codes for faulty park brake switch, faulty park brake sensor, so he ordered the parts and ive fitted them but no change to counter rotate issue. So im $2200 down and no result other that park brake light now goes out. To add salt to the wound it turns out the hr meter has been swapped out at some point and it actually has 4860hrs on it. He said he was going to look at cat worldwide to see if the issue has been diagnosed before but i dont wanna keep paying for him to learn.
Please post a Serial number for a start. Did the dealer guy calibrate anything at all.? Has anyone taught you how to pull Diagnostic Codes for it.? I'd be interested to see what it has after all the dealer interventions.
Im new to cat gear so chasing any info i can get to assist me. Ill add the Serial number to original post.
First thing to do is pull up the Codes - if in fact there are any. Locate the Harness Code Plug (2) and the Diagnostic Indicator (4). Pull the connector apart and turn the key to the ON position. You are now in diagnostic mode. Follow the procedure in the attachment to identify the Codes from the blinking of the DI and to scroll through them, if there is more than one. Post back with your findings.
is the diagnostic indicator a light on the dash ??
Sorry, forgot to upload the image. it's right next to the fuse box and the ET diagnostic connector port.
I'm with Nige - Did the dealer tech calibrate the machine while he was there? The G series tractors need to be calibrated with the Cat laptop from time to time, our D3 needs to go to the dealer now for a calibration. Not saying it's your issue but it could be. Usual symptoms of needing a calibration on the G series machines - Speed is different going forward and reverse even though the speed setting is the same. IE slower going forward and faster in reverse Turning is out of whack - it will turn left like normal but slow to turn right The tracks will not counter rotate like they should Basically the tech comes out and drives the machine with a laptop and puts the machine back to the factory settings. Since these machines gradually get out of spec calibrating a G series is like getting a new tractor.
Another thing worth noting. These models are very sensitive to electrical system voltage. So the first recommendation is to check things like fan belt tension along with battery & alternator output voltage.
^^ this. We've had funky issues when the voltage is not a consistent 14.4v across the entire system. Alt can be making 14.4 but if a battery is low and pulling a drain funky things can happen. Once we had the machine go from full forward speed to slamming the parking brake on. Yeah that sucked. IIRC the alt was going out however we've had similar issues with a battery going bad.
That seems to be exactly what im experiencing. He didnt calibrate anything as far as i know. Ill check fan belt tension and charging out put. But at least im now armed with the info to ask the dealer why a calibration wasnt done.
You can also ask the dealer service dept for a copy of the Product Status Report (PSR) that the tech SHOULD have downloaded from your machine by protocol both before he started work on it and again before he left site. It is a document in pdf format that they can email to you.
Awesome info thanks mate