Let's try this again - Skidsteer Electrical Problem

Timm250 · Nov 6, 2012

I have been having an intermittent problem with my Cat 236B2 skidsteer. Occasionally it would stop moving & all hydraulic functions would stop. The parking light would come on & you could hit the switch to turn off the parking brake & everything would work again. A couple of weeks ago it started acting up & the engine would run but nothing worked then it would start working again. It did this a few of times & once when it did this I turned the inside cab light on & everything started working. So it does this a few more times & I would turn the light on/off & everything is fine. Saturday after using it for about 3 hours it acts up again. This time when I turned the cab light on it made a loud racket & the engine died. It kept stopping about a dozen times in the next 30 minutes & I still can't find the problem. Even when it is working fine if I turn on the inside light it will kill the engine. I'm stumped & hoping someone can shed some light on this.

Ed of all trades · Nov 7, 2012

Don't know that machine but here is a my idea. In some ways it acts like a bad ground so I would check that first. I bad ground can cause all sorts of strange things. If that does not turn up anything try pulling fuses and see if you can find out where the problem is, lights, ect. If it ts not a ground it is most likely a short somewhere, and finding it could be a long hard job. I know some times the mice start on the wires and there are many places not just one. hope you find it Ed

Timm250 · Nov 7, 2012

I have checked the ground for loose connections and they are tight. One thing I did notice is they are somewhat corroded. They are braided cables and they had a light green corrosion on them. Is there something that I could take them off & soak the cable in to clean off the corrosion?

smilingreen · Nov 8, 2012

Check your safety restraint system. Make sure all of the switches are being made and that the relay is being made. Also, don't know if that unit is a joystick control or not, but on the older ASV RC-30 and RC-50 models, they had a skid plate underneath and sometimes, a rogue stick would go right through the smallest seam in the front and rip off a wire that controls the low pressure hydraulic side of the pump.

Jerry/MT · Nov 8, 2012

Timm250 said:
I have checked the ground for loose connections and they are tight. One thing I did notice is they are somewhat corroded. They are braided cables and they had a light green corrosion on them. Is there something that I could take them off & soak the cable in to clean off the corrosion?

Tight won't cut it if the connection is corroded. Loosen the bolt(s) on the ground(s) and make sure you have good chasis contact. Cleean the contact area and the bolt real well.