Hi Everyone. Just joined the forum and it seems to have heaps of useful information. I am wondering if anyone can help me with a question? I have just purchased a Kato 800 V with 7800 hrs on it and one owner, the old guy who owned it from new recently died and I purchased it from his son it is in very good condition for its age and I got it with the original manuals ( which are hard to understand) and some extras. After about doing 10 hrs with the machine pushing over big pine trees and digging out roots the APC light flickers and the revs drop almost making the machine stall. This only happens when machine has been running for an hour or so, the APC and Econo mode are quite confusing to work out. Wondering if anyone else has had experience with this machine. Thanks in advance.
I changed the fuel filters today thinking it may have been dirty fuel then operated the machine for about 2 hrs of heavy work pushing over 90 yr old pine trees, it went great for the first 90 minutes then the APC light started flickering again and the revs dropping off, starting to think its some stupid computer glitch!
Well I guess you can call me persistent or crazy ( think I am bit of both) but I will keep running this conversation back and forth amongst myself lol. I will add a little more info I think the machine is 25 t and had sat for 12 months previous to me buying it but from comments from other mutual people who know me and the old guy they say it was an excellent machine with never any real problems. Today I did my same routine of spending the first couple hours of cleaning up the branches and trees into windrows that i had pushed over the previous afternoon. I was lifting very heavy stumps and putting them on top of the burn off piles, after about 2 hrs of work same old thing light flickering and machine stalling when trying do anything to hard. I am starting to wonder that maybe after sitting so long the fuel line and the rest of the filters could be dirty. Any thoughts ?
I will say to start that I have never seen a Kato machine. I don't think they were ever sold in the USA. If you suspect clogged filters cut them open and look. I don't have any guess what an APC light is, (maybe it thinks you are under attack from Armored Personnell Carriers :beatsme ). If APC is the opposite of econo mode, maybe it is something you are supposed to use for a short time, like heavy lift on the old Cats? How old is this machine? Is the throttle electronically controlled? Clogged filters is plausible, but why the APC light? Just thoughts so you don't have to talk to yourself too much, Mitch
im assuming they have been sold here in the states ive seen a few rotting away but nothing in working conditions
i went on kato's website the excavators have an apc monitor and then it says apc and air cleaner what it means im not sure but thats all i was able to get out of google
Thanks for the reply guys. In the manual which itself is very hard to understand they say that the APC is Automatic Power Control. The machine is about 15 yrs old and where very popular in Australia in the nineties and early 2000s but it is hard trying to get anyone from Kato who can tell if this was a common problem. We had 3" of rain last week and I then had to drive the machine through knee deep water for a bout 100 yards the problem only started after this but what I cant work out is if it was dirty filters of fuel why would it only happen after the machine has been operating for an hour or 2?
That's the way clogged filters happen. If you have rust or crud in your fuel tank, there will be a little of it in each ounce of fuel that goes through the filter. That tiny bit of crud gets taken out of the fuel and left in the filter. After enough ounces of fuel goes through leaving it's crud, the filter fills up with crud and fuel can't get through.
Katos were in the US and were good old machine they were in the day of JSW, Mitsubishi, HINO, MDI YUTANI. Don't know about your fuel over there but here if it sets very long its starts growing algea in the tank. Like Mitch said cut a filter open and take a peak. also your engine probably has a screen in the banjo bolt where the fuel line hooks to the supply pump check it out and see.
Huh, never ran across a Hino, either. Plenty of Hino trucks, no equipment. A few JSWs. Plenty of Mitzi-bitzis, that became Cats, and MDI Yutanis that became Kobelcos.
My goof I know the hino engines but I thought I had seen some hino excavators years ago :beatsme
Might have been, I've just never seen one, but then I've never seen a Kato in person either. :beatsme
Thanks Mitch and Hatch for your helpful information the motor is a Mitsubishi and it has a Kawasaki Hydraulic pump. I took your advice and cut open a filter it was full of brown sludge, I put in a another new filter and bled the fuel line of brown gunk and water until fresh diesel came out. The machine ran fine after this so this is definitely the problem, I guess I will have to continue changing out filters and bleeding it until all the crap gets out of the tank. Same as any motor the worst thing for them is not getting used and sitting around too long with out firing up.
You may want to get under the machine and see if there is a drain on the bottom of the tank, if there is try to park the machine so the tank is sitting at the lowest point and sitting so you can get a pan or bucket under it. It is best to do this before running the machine, when you crack the valve or remove the plug the water and crud will come out first, when it starts to run clean put the plug back. I would do this a few times between times after its been operated. Sounds like you've found your problem though, good luck.
Thanks Tags, I did find this drain **** under the fuel tank and cracked it and water did come out then the fuel after a few seconds. I am now doing this every time before I start the machine and a little water is coming out each time. I am just so glad I know what the problem is now and when i drain and clean the filters it runs perfect. Thanks for the tips guys.
you will have to remove and clean that tank if its got algae growing in it. if its not to bad you should treat it with something like fppf product called killum its for the stuff that grows in this sorry fuel we have nowadays
Thanks for the tip Hatch, I am down in Australia and will see if I can get this fppf product called Killum or do you know of anything else that works?
Startron, made by a company called Starbrite is good, too.
Well that damn gremlin is back. I am Half way through digging and moving soil on a fair sized dam on my farm and spending a few hours every day when time permits in the machine, just lately after doing nearly 200 hrs in her she has just started playing up again doing the same thing as last time. Start up warm up for 10 mins then go work, goes perfect for an hour then all of a sudden bogs down and seems to starve for fuel and almost stall when any real hard work is put on her. Yesterday I spent 4 hrs flushing all fuel lines, draining tank, cleaning and replacing air filter and all diesel filters. I am starting to wonder if maybe its a solenoid of something, does any one have any ideas? Not to to concerned its a 25 t Kato Digger which most in America have not heard of its still just a basic 6 cyl Turbo Mitisbishu motor which are common as over here with trucks and diggers!
I just thought I would update that I finally found what the problem was a few weeks ago and wanted to share the information to help others out. Well it turned out to be the most simple of things to fix I cant believe it, after numerous times of cleaning filters ect a friend who is a diesel fitter said " just try running it when it does it with the fuel cap off" I thought he was mad as it could not be something so simple, well it was, it had a blocked breather on the cap. A 20 dollar new fuel cap and 50 hrs later of hard work and has not missed a beat! Goes to show sometimes we always look at the most complicated ways to fix things when occasionally it can be the most simple things!
got a kato hd820v they are acting up one is good running condition but a cloud of white smoke is coming out...the second one has no power when lifting,the engine almost dies..will the fuel cap thing work on low power?
Try running it with no fuel cap on, see if that makes any difference.