Hello all. Just purchased a 2005 bobcat 331 mini excavator in really good shape. 3600 hours . The only issue I have right now is that after a while the Hydraulic thumb retracts by itself ? It goes in and out using the control switch on the joystick but if I let go of the switch it just retracts automatically? I turn the auxiliary Hydraulic off for a bit then turn it back on and it's good to go again ?..for a while. Any idea what might be the problem here ? Thanks in advance.
Our E50 has the thumb and boom swing on the lt hand stick, The rt stick has the high flow for the mow heads and power tilt. We have had a tree shear for about three weeks hooked to the high flow side that came with a extra switch to turn the shear head. This switch is mounted to the joy stick handle with two zip ties. Normal operation once the auxiliary switch is on you hit the rocker on top for rt/lt rotation and then press the trigger switch to lock it on for the mow heads. The shear cutter has been doing the same thing but it's been caused buy the extra switch in the hand grip area. The extra switch makes the hand grip hard to grip when turning the shear head causing the hand to just pull the trigger switch to lock in the high flow. This causes the shear to shear a tree with out control or to shear a tree being pinched to pick it up and moved to a lay done spot. We have made a foot mount for the floor to install a heavy duty starter switch and remove the switch from the stick to address this issue. Like said don't know how your lever is set up, but it could have the same thing with a trigger switch, engaging it buy accident, since once you turn off the auxiliary and turn it back on it resets it self.
Thanks Sheepfoot. Being new at operating this machine , i might have engaged a switch by accident . This is the first thing i will check on today . Thanks
Sheepfoot already said it, but on the bobcat minis on the right joystick there is a switch that holds aux flow, and when that is pressed it retracts the thumb. Just press it again, that will turn it off.
Thanks guys that was exactly the problem Really appreciate the help.