looked at a 97 3400Q yesterday thats coming up at auction. Its a factory roadbuilder configeration with 10000+ hours. most of it seemed ok, rotex bearing clearance was .040" to .050". boom up test timed at 4.3 seconds , all functions operated smooth & fast. Engine ran clean, most of the electronics appeared to work, ie power up, auto idle/decell, work modes etc. Could not attach pressure gauges to get any readings, but the boom down force seemed very weak, would only lift the front idlers 4-6''. Seemed like low relief pressure on the boom down circuit..... although I couldn't put it through any serious digging tests in the auction yard, so maybe the stick & bucket functions are weak under load too. Probably should just run away & not look back, but any thoughts on the weak boom down force??
How did you have the stick positioned? Straight up and down or all the way stretched out? If all the way out then it is probably normal. If straight up and down you could be a little weak depending on what mode the controller was in.
The stick was vertical with bucket flat on ground. I tried it in Standard & Heavy modes with rpm dialed to max posistion. Even tried the power up function which increased the engine rpm slightly for about 10 seconds, but no noticable change in down force. For the Boom up/pump time test everything was stretched out.
some machines that were fitted with grapples had the boom down relief set a bit lower to protect the grapple. maybe in its past this was the case?
there has definetly been another attachment(s) used on it in the past. It has 2 aux hyd lines running to the end of the boom that are now capped off & the stick still has the riggin to secure hyd lines down it although those lines have been removed. I did find an extra solinoid control v/v mounted in the pump bay with the control wiring unplugged ,the two hyd lines from it appear to be the ones running up the boom. Also both joy sticks have 4 button sure-grip heads, only 2 buttons on the left stick are used for the thumb right now.
I don't think that is enough buttons for a log processor and many times all you could get from Sure Grip at any certain time was one type of control handle. Does this machine have a hydraulic thumb? I'm agreeing with that something is odd with the machine.
john, yes it has a CWS thumb & CWS wedge Q.C.& a 42" dig bucket, also should have mentioned, the joy stick heads each have a trigger style button in the front, RH trigger is power up button, which is where it would have been from factory. LH trigger does nothing. The scary thing with an old forestry machine is it may have been modified several times during its life to suit the contractors needs at the particular time, the original picture of this one caught my attention because it didn't look to beat up..... then it got an auction company overhaul (paint job) which is scary in its self, not being able to tell what has been apart or replaced since everything has a fresh coat of paint covering it.....
Being a roadbuilder from BC, my guess is it would have had a power clam on it at some point, but it could easily have been something else too.
Machine went to high for my budget , thanks for the input though. much appreciated