I have a 1989 416 Cat backhoe. It has a 60 Amp breaker that screws into the instrument panel and has a red button with "60" on it. Behind the panel I have a reddish cable(101), 8 gauge I think, that goes to the solenoid above the starter, and it has broken loose from the breaker. The breaker only has two studs, one has an orange, 8 gauge wire(109) that goes to the alternator and the other has two little red wires(101) which seem to go to a Texas Instruments light switch box and the fuse panel. I know this will seem simple to someone, but I cannot figure out which is the logical stud for the big reddish cable to go to. Any thoughts are appreciated.
This is a guess, but in my world it would connect to the stud NOT connected to the alternator, the circuit breaker is for the alternator, I THINK. Please remove the ground from the battery before repairing if you haven't already, the 8 ga wire you need to reconnect brings battery voltage direct from the starter to the fuse block.
I'm gonna disagree and say you need a wiring diagram to answer this one. The alternator is connected to the batter (directly in most cases, with a fusible link). Hook that wire up on the battery side (like I'm suggesting) and the alternator won't be protected from Jethro hooking up jumper cables backwards and burning out the diodes (unless that's the way it was, and there is a fusible link in the alternator wire). Hook it up on the other side from the battery, and the chassis wiring isn't protected from a short because the alternator isn't "fused". But can't you see the remains of where the ring terminal broke off under one of the studs on the breaker?
Thank you lantraxco and Delmer. At least I know I have reason to be confused. I should have been able to find where the ring terminal broke off, however I did not notice it was broken at the time I took the other wires off. I was only taking this breaker off to change it as a precautionary measure of fixing another problem. This actually started with a grinding noise under my feet when I went through neutral on a shuttle shift and what I thought was an arc in the ignition switch. Now I'm not sure where the problem started, but I have a new neutralizer solenoid, ignition switch, and this fuse. I just hope I haven't somehow fried my starter. The funny thing is I was working on a fire break for a forest fire that was 6 miles away, but with the arcing noise I thought that's not going to be the fire I need to worry about.
CAT uses breakers in the alternator feed rather than fusible links, just got done installing a new C9 with the same setup. Using that knowledge and the fact that there are two small wires on the opposite post that can't possibly pull 60 amps to trip the breaker, I would surmise that you need the alternator feed (orange wire) on one stud and the red wire to the starter (battery) on the opposite stud along with the two smaller red wires. I do agree that a wiring diagram would be best, but lacking that I would hook it up and carry on. YMMV Cheers :drinkup
You're right! Hooked up the wires, crossed fingers, and the hoe fired right up. It's a beautiful sound. Apparently I didn't even manage to fry anything else. Thank you :bouncegri
Cool!