Hello all, I’ve read a bunch of past posts. I recently bought a 220-6 and they advertised it had low horsepower. When I got it home it seemed to work pretty well. Until about 1/2 hour then I notice a significant drop in power, changed filters, checked banjo bolt and screen. New fuel line. Even changed hydraulic oil and that seemed to hell the most, I ran it for 1 hour then and all of a sudden it did it again. Seems like once the oil gets to operating temp it does it. I’m out of ideas. Anyone got any advice. The function that seems to be the worst is the boom out. That’ll almost kill it. I can easily kill the machine if I don’t let it recover and regain rpm. Does it while tracking too, as well as boom, bucket controls. Dunick from Willmar owned it before me. 12,750 hours but well maintained, had a concrete breaker on it before too. 2000 komatsu 220lc-le-6
Have you checked for codes on the monitor panel?
How do you check for a code?
Watch the video. Good Luck
Thanks. 101, 102, 303,227 are what I found
E303, the circuit of the rotary stroke control solenoid valve is broken. This confuses me and I don’t understand what it means. 227 engine speed sensor, I did unplug this once to see if it made a difference and plugged it back in. the other two codes aren’t important. Looking for some bell on the 303 code. Thanks
E303, The rotary stroke control solenoid valve circuit is open. This is what I meant
You have something odd with that E303 code. That coded is not listed in US marketed machines. I seem to recall it was on some of the gray market machines and was told it had to do with a factory installed auto grease system. It also could be for some attachment that Komatsu may have installed as well. The le in the model designation meant something but I don't recall what. If you go to the monitor mode and bring up code 10 and start the engine, it will give you the engine speed. That will tell you if the speed sensor is working or not. If that is OK, I usually went to the hydraulic stuff. Check the hydraulic return filter and suction strainer for debris. You can check hydraulic pressures on the monitor in codes 11 for the front pump and 12 for the rear pump.
Thanks for the help. I still haven’t figured it out, it does have an old auto greaser on it but it’s not even being used. I can’t get it to get any codes now after resetting them. Pulled speed sensor out and it looked good. It definitely does it after getting up to operating temperature. I will check pump pressure next time I can run it. Where in the world is the return filter? Is it in the tank?
There are two covers on top of the hydraulic tank. The one with the fill cap is holding down the pump suction strainer. The bare plate with the four bolts is the hydraulic return filter. Make sure you crack the fill cap loose before you take the filter cover loose. Somewhere in the video is shows pulling the filter and strainer on smaller machines. Machines are a bit different than yours but the process is the same.
Thanks!
I pulled the suction screen off & this is what I found. Seems like part of a hose? Screen wasn’t plugged up terribly like I was hoping.
Jake, I have the same or similar problem with a PC138 excavator and I am wondering how you finally fixed your problem! I started off thinking I had a fuel problem but my hydraulics act the same as you described right down to the ability to stall the unit doing very simple digging etc! I thought it might be low on hydraulic fluid as well and filled that! Changed five fuel filters and now I have bleed the injectors with no improvement! Do the komatsu units self prime? I am wondering if I have air in the fuel system that I am not bleeding! Any comments or thoughts are very much appreciated!
E303 means "SWING STROKE LIMIT SOLENOID VALVE DISCONNECTION" . it's an optional function, it's not related to engine overload symptoms.
E101 means " ABNORMAL DATA IN ERROR HISTORY" E102 means "ERROR IN CLOCK DATA IS DISPLAYED". They're not related to engine overload symptoms.
Only error code E217 can be related to motor overload. Please note that it is only one of many causes of engine overload. The reason is that the damaged pf engine speed sensor will prevent the CPU from being able to output the control current to control the PC-EPC valve.
I suggest that first: 1/- Check the temperature of the engine, the temperature of the hydraulic oil, hydraulic pressure... 2/- Check all the things that can reduce engine power: blow-by pressure, compression pressure, exhaust gas color, air filter, turbocharger...
roger, I actually just had a mechanic from General look at it today. Haven’t gotten the bill but he was here for 7-8 hours just trying to figure out what was wrong. He thinks it’s the main hydraulic pump. Thinks…. Very nice guy but I am not sure if he’s the expert on excavators in Fargo. He was on the phone a lot. I did pick up a few things he did that you should try. So if you hold the joystick in the out position either side and it about kills it without doing anything else that somewhat narrows it down. Hydraulic pump or the valve stack i think. One thing I would do is I pulled out the suction screen and checked that. It had some long wire looking things in it like brass, he said that was probably from the pump. There are also screens in the hoses coming into the pump rhey I didn’t know about. They were full of particles. So i would check those as well. Does anyone know if these pumps can be rebuilt and if so how much? Any recommendations?
does your machine smoke when it’s struggling?
itll blow black smoke right before it dies
Both mechanics that have looked ag it don’t believe it’s a an engine issue. The excavator mechanic or so I’m getting billed for tried adjusting the pump and said it wouldn’t adjust. My friend pulled the pump off and we’re in the process of getting parts to rebuild it. It definitely had some problems inside but I’m still concerned since it would actually work and had power but would eventually bog down. We’re going to rebuild it, flush the system and see what it does. Does anyone have any other ideas of what it could have been? The screens in the high pressure side of the pumps were full of brass particles so maybe it was just the pump? General quoted $13,000 for a reman pump. My budget isn’t that big and I’m only using it for farm projects. Thanks for all the help everyone I greatly appreciate all the input and enjoy reading the threads on here. I think it’s great people take the time out of their own lives to help others.
What part of the pumps did the brass come from? How many hours does the machine have? Make sure you replace the rear main seal in the engine before you reinstall the pump. You also might want to remove the swing motor for an overhaul.
After reading this, even though you may have a pump issue, I'm not convinced you don't have an engine problem. There should be some engine stall specs that need to be run..............I wouldn't spend anymore money until you have completely eliminated the engine as a problem
Jake, have you checked the fuel tank for gunk floating around and plugging intake tube? I recently purchased a Doosan Solar 340LCV that acted more or less the same. I ended up putting in one of those square housings with a square glass filter. ( Baldwin BF 909 I think) in front of the pick up pump and it's been good ever since. The little banjo strainer in pick up pump would plug up quickly and machine would die. The increase in size and capacity of filter catches all that stuff the person before me failed to address. I still might have to pull tank and steam clean it but this buys me some time. Does your fuel tank have a drain valve on bottom for draining water. I have found most plugged with dirt. I think you need to have your engine running properly first then go from there on the other stuff.
Bit late I know... I have seen all these symptoms with a stuck breaker valve under the cab floor.
Thanks for you message! I certainly will look at the parts manual and look for that part! I have not completed the repairs yet but last week I opened up the Komatsu OC138YSLC excavator fuel lines between the injector pump and the top of the fuel filter! What I found was one PN: 07005-01212 fuel filter side gasket missing at the connection between the injection pump and filter head! Of the eight fuel line gaskets 4 were dry rotted or at least showing signs of missing rubber seal! Of course this allowed huge amount of air infiltration and I could never get the hand primer to flow any diesel fuel! I spoke to my service Technician at the local dealer and he has seen this before and knew of one Komatsu owner that spent more than 20K before he realized the machines fuel lines were trash! In looking for the cure I have found many parts of the Komatsu that cause the same symptoms I am experiencing! It seems the gaskets are a starting point for me and I am hoping the fuel injection pump is not bad as well or even the valve you mentioned! Most Komatsu parts must be made of gold considering what the dealers are asking for them! Thanks again and if you have any other thoughts or tips concerning my excavator operation please share them! I also modified my throttle due to the hand controller failure! I went with a manual throttle and that eliminated the throttle compensator!
MacJ were you referring to all of my problems? I'm fairly certain it's not an engine issue or fuel problem. Update, 11/30/2021 We, aka Justin my friend, a full time Agriculture mechanic. He doing 98% of the work rebuilt the hydraulic pump. Old pump had some issues and wear. One of the bearings on the shaft had a large piece missing, the pistons were in bad shape. Fast forward to today and we installed the newly rebuilt pump onto the excavator. Initially it was under powered and would barely turn the tracks and run through any functions. He adjusted the proportioning valves? (Not sure if that's the correct terminology) Each pump has a valve on the side you can turn in and out and it increases decreases the pressure. We turned them in and it had a LOT of power. But The engine would die instantly if you overloaded it. We put new solenoids in the pump, we can't work on it tomorrow but are going to see if they have power all the time or only when it's being put under load. I know the engine speed sensor would control some of this. We've unplugged it in the past and it never seemed to make a difference? I'm not sure how to test it to see if that's the culprit or what. Anyone saw this problem before? Experienced it? We've been fighting it for a few months now. I had General out of Fargo come down one day and they charged $2,400 just to come look at the machine for 8 hours, I don't have that much money to have them do that again. Thanks for all the help everyone.
Jake, back in the day we had a John Deere 992E that had around 10-12 thousand hours on and we put a rebuilt hydraulic pump on it. The motor felt weak so we ended up rebuilding the motor the following year. Ran fine after that. Might want to check and make sure engine is putting out what it should. Just a thought.
Yes bud , the slow track one side and lugging engine we're identical symptoms
Eeek, hard reading the thread thinking the engine needs proved out first. I think Vetech and I share the same opinion. Just because some "tech" says the engine is fine, does not mean it is. Fuel pressure checks under load (high pressure) and blowby tests need done. Boost pressure and ultimately injector duty cycle or pulse width. If the engine will not even handle basic operations, there is an issue with the engine or an extreme load condition that is abnormal. Usually the sound of the engine will give it away!