first post -- no juice to throttle on HD40

[deadfall]

I'm here because I am dead in the sawdust. 

I noticed something was wrong and it took me a few minutes to figure out that the CAT diesel wasn't throttling up when I engaged the clutch.  Have checked the voltage at the solenoid and nothing there.  There is juice at one terminal of the throttle relay.  I don't know how to test the magnetic switch or what else might be involved.

I hope someone can help me, as I have my neighbor's project held up.

BTW, hello to everyone here.  Sorry to be such a boot.  But, I gotta start somewhere.

[Magicman]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum,    deadfall.   

There are several Cat's around so someone should pick this up. 

[SAnVA]

Don't have a diesel and not really sure if this pertains to your situation but if I engage my clutch and my engine doesn't throttle up it is a broken governor spring, don't know if this is anything to do with your problem or not!

[Geeg]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum deadfall,

Sorry I can't help you out there with the diesel, now if it was running some jet fuel I might be able to  :D

[sandhills]

Welcome to the forum deadfall, sorry I can't help but I guarantee you came to the right place and asked the right folks  ;).

[deadfall]

I went back and scratched my head some more and took a few more covers off.  I found where the wires for the engage sensor switch connected to power and ground.  I checked power there and found zero volts.  I took the access covers off the control box and consulted the schematics that I got with the mill. 

The map said that the power came out of the control box on wire 31.  Thirty one was plugged into the left rear resettable breaker. That breaker was tripped.  I reset it and turned on the key and it tripped again immediately.  I unplugged the spade clips from the breaker and the engage sensor's lead and checked that wire for conductivity at opposite ends of the main conduit.  Beep.  It had conductivity.  I tried conductivity to ground.  Beep.  Not good. Conductivity to ground on a B+ power wire. 

That main conduit is totally packed with wires.  They are in there so tight that I could not pull that wire from either end.  I pulled it from the head rig end and could barely get a half an inch more slack before it went tight.  I pulled it from the control box end and got only about an inch of give.

After pulling, I checked each end for conductivity to ground.  It was when I pulled the control box end that the ground went away.  I hooked everything back up and it is all working right now, and the throttle solenoid actuates when the clutch is engaged with the key ON.  The breaker no longer tripped.

So, I don't even know what the hot No. 31 wire was shorting to, or whether it would short again in time.  There is no way I will be able to pull an new wire into the conduit.  There is just no room.  I certainly don't want to unwire everything to get a new hot wire into its original run. 

So, it looks like my fix will be to drill a hole in the back of the control box for a 12 gauge wire next to that conduit and tape it to the outside of the conduit, Then I will put on new spade clips and caulk the drill hole where the wire goes through. 

So, there you have it, up to sunset.

[customsawyer]

First welcome to the forum.
On my LT70 there is a small square box up on the left side of the engine that all of the wires run through. It should have 4 screws that hold the cover on. Take the cover off and where the wires go out of the box on the right side is most likely where it is grounding out.

[Magicman]

deadfall, Congratulations in doing a good trouble shooting job.  The fact is, anyone that owns a sawmill should be able to do these basic tests to track down a problem, and have the basic VOM and tools to do so.

Thank you for sharing your experience.  It surely will help others to realize that sometimes you just gotta "back your ears" and dig in.   

[thecfarm]

deadfall,welcome to the forum. Been sawing long? dead in the sawdust,I like that one.  ;D

[Chuck White]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, Deadfall.

Always good to hear when some gets their problem solved! 

[deadfall]

Thank you all for the nice welcome. 

I had a partnership in an LT30 in a previous lifetime.  I wound up with an ex-best friend, an ex-partner, and no mill or machines, the promised cash somehow didn't happen and I eventually succumbed in that incarnation. Now I have a used HD40 (1750 hours) that is all mine. 

For years I have dreamed of having my own WM again.  I have no interest in doing any custom saw, apart from maybe a few share jobs (you bring your logs to me and I stay home).  I have needed a shop forever and hope to have a nice big one before I completely wear out.  From there, I want to set up a cooperative gourmet and medicinal mushroom farm, along with some greenhouses and permaculture islands. 

At present I have two large Douglas firs (82 and 68 years old) and a medium western hemlock on the ground, and almost ten acres of red alder, standing.  I just acquired 10 dead Port Orford cedars (they all die of root rot hereabouts), knotty, but sound in the hearts, though the sapwood was compost.  Limbing them out of the tangle they landed in (professionally felled in a complex setting -- could not have been done better), surfing limbs four feet deep with a running chainsaw is not a job for a skinny 66 YO, but I got them home in a week of hard-at-it.  Moisture in the freshly sawed boards is 13% right out of the log.

I have about a million irons in the fire and I am on my own. 

<voice="W.C. Fields">

One of these days, we're going to get organized.

</voice>

[deadfall]

Did the workaround and finished the neighbor's project.  Everything went smoothly. 

[thecfarm]

I suppose you know WM has a real good help on the phone,many here use it.

[deadfall]

I suppose you know WM has a real good help on the phone,many here use it.

I didn't, but I doubt they would have had seen this issue before.  I mean, how does that wire (which looked like new at both ends) short to ground inside that plastic conduit, and what did it short to?  I am truly happy that breaker did its job so well. 

[drobertson]

Howdy deadfall, I sure hope you can get it fixed with no more issues!  I have the cat 51, never have had this issue with mine, but it seems like there is a sensor that mounts to the gear box that when the auto clutch actuates it then sends voltage, been so long since the the issue I can't remember the details,  hope all goes well, david

[customsawyer]

Every time I call WM they seem to tell me they have this problem worked out and this is what i need to do to fix it. Give them a call and I bet they will tell you where to look for the bad spot on your wire.

[deadfall]

At this point, I doubt I will take up any of their time.  The problem is fixed and I am not worried about the abandoned wire inside that conduit, as it is no longer at ground potential, and even if it grounds out again, what can that hurt with it out of the system?  I have replaced a 12AWG wire with red insulation with another red 12AWG wire.  Yes, it is exposed by being on the outside of the conduit, but to get it inside the conduit would probably have required pretty much unwiring the whole mill. 

I think I will just get back to sawing logs for now, knowing that I have the option of calling WM if and when I am dead in the sawdust again.  Fixing this myself got the immediate project finished before the rains returned. I have a happy neighbor who is progressing on his project.

[Migal]

Well you done a fine job  8) with a can do attitude  :P Goes back to what MM said about one should have a bit of a "I can fix this" if one is to own a piece of equipment. I don't think one should pick up a phone every time something happen's That being said sure makes you wonder why one would put so few wires in such a large piece of conduit  :D