The blade angle function is controlled by a thumb wheel on the joystick. Last year I noticed the thumbwheel was “sticky” and hard to move. It also would not return to center naturally. The blade would slowly continue to move if you didn’t constantly fiddle with the thumbwheel. Fast forward to this year. Now the blade barely moves when I push the thumbwheel to its extremes. Hydraulics are strong and fast on all other functions. I don’t hear any “bypassing” happening. I suspect this thumbwheel has failed but I’m open to other thoughts. If the switch sends a variable voltage to the valve I could measure that but I don’t know what to expect for voltage levels. Does anyone know if the switch is replaceable or does cat make me buy the whole joystick?
Post the serial number of machine in question and the Cat gurus should be able to help you.
KMM00461 from his other posts. Based on what I can see from the electrical schematic the thumbwheel roller switch output is PWM. Do you have a multimeter capable of measuring duty cycle.? If it works like all the other thumb rollers I have come across then it should produce around 50% duty cycle in the centre, close to 0% when rolled fully one way and close to 100% when rolled fully the other way. The other bad news is that the roller switch is not available separately, only as part of the complete RH handle. It appears as though the Part Number is 352-7872 but you should check before purchasing one. Corrosion is apparently an issue with those thumb rollers. See if you can't get into it somehow and apply contact cleaner or maybe some WD40. Maybe even applying the product externally might even provide a solution.
Nige….. I mean at this point I owe you money or beer or something….. I’ll put my o’scope on it next weekend. I would really rather not have to buy the whole darn stick. Thanks (again!)
Pulled apart the switch. Pretty sure all these magnetic filings don’t improve electrical switch performance.
You won't even need your reading glasses to see the problem there, if you use them to read. Thanks for the picture. Simon C
Holy cow! Where would all that crap come from?
That’s a really good question. It could be what is left of the object that was in there. Another option I thought it could be from the dust in the air. It’s a magnet so any iron in the dust would collect. My money is on the former. No actually my money is on the parts counter at Peterson CAT. A new joystick is not cheap.
Try cleaning off all those iron filings and see if it restores functionality.? At this point you have nothing to lose compared to the cost of a replacement joystick.
Absolutely did that. It did make the blade twitch a tiny bit. I looked everywhere on the switch for a manufacturer part number but didn’t see any. I also now have my eye on the same switch on the left that controls speed. For now it seems to be working fine.