Buying an 863 F Series...with issues

[kilohertz]

HI Guys, Buying an F series 863 which has some AHC issues, which the local dealer couldn't fix, so I am going to have a go at it. Runs and operates great, 4500 hours, well maintained and looked after, but the ghost in it turns up once in a while and knocks out the lift/tilt function. I have an idea of what is wrong but really need the service manual for it with the wiring diagrams. I know OldMachinist (Don, bless his soul) had this manual and had emailed it to a number of members. Hoping someone here might have the PDF and could email it to me, please and thanks. Any help appreciated. Cheers

 

[Tazza]

Sadly the wiring diagrams you get in these manuals are quite bad. I have a manual for my 763 that was bought from the dealer, the print was so small, you couldn't read the print telling me what colour the wires were, you could see where they ran, but no pin numbers etc.
Are you hoping that the issue is a rubbed through wire in the harness?
I wish you luck with an AHC glitch, i have never messed with one, but i hear they can kick your butt.

 

[kilohertz]

Sadly the wiring diagrams you get in these manuals are quite bad. I have a manual for my 763 that was bought from the dealer, the print was so small, you couldn't read the print telling me what colour the wires were, you could see where they ran, but no pin numbers etc.
Are you hoping that the issue is a rubbed through wire in the harness?
I wish you luck with an AHC glitch, i have never messed with one, but i hear they can kick your butt.

Yes, hoping it is a wire issue but will certainly look at other areas. I ran it around tonight until it failed and found it only failed on tilt, and then only on curl, not dump, so that tells me either wire issues in the curl direction, or (hopefully not) the controller. I let it sit for an hour and then tried it again and it worked for a minute then crapped out again. To me, that says heat issue, but it also started raining and maybe moisture is getting into some connections or??? The guy I bought it from said it worked perfectly for 3 weeks, then for a week it failed every hour or so, then it worked again for a long period, so it is definitely intermittent, hopefully a wire moving around and grounding. Cheers

 

[Stonehands]

Yes, hoping it is a wire issue but will certainly look at other areas. I ran it around tonight until it failed and found it only failed on tilt, and then only on curl, not dump, so that tells me either wire issues in the curl direction, or (hopefully not) the controller. I let it sit for an hour and then tried it again and it worked for a minute then crapped out again. To me, that says heat issue, but it also started raining and maybe moisture is getting into some connections or??? The guy I bought it from said it worked perfectly for 3 weeks, then for a week it failed every hour or so, then it worked again for a long period, so it is definitely intermittent, hopefully a wire moving around and grounding. Cheers

Good luck on finding the Ghost in the Machine. When they are intermittent like that they hard to trace. I agree with your line of thought that it is a rub, moisture or heat issue somewhere in the harness or connections. Otherwise it would crap out altogether. I have an 863 F Turbo. Love this machine. Runs and works like a tank. Good luck.

 

[Hotrod1830]

Good luck on finding the Ghost in the Machine. When they are intermittent like that they hard to trace. I agree with your line of thought that it is a rub, moisture or heat issue somewhere in the harness or connections. Otherwise it would crap out altogether. I have an 863 F Turbo. Love this machine. Runs and works like a tank. Good luck.

best thing you can do is go over ALL the connectors and harness. Check for corrosion and dirt. Also check pin tension on the female pins. Damaged pins or dirt/corrosion often show up as a "hot" electrical problem.

 

[kilohertz]

best thing you can do is go over ALL the connectors and harness. Check for corrosion and dirt. Also check pin tension on the female pins. Damaged pins or dirt/corrosion often show up as a "hot" electrical problem.

Thanks guys,
Well I steam cleaned under the hood so I could see wire colours and not get filthy while working on the actuators, and decided to pull the actuator plugs off and check their condition, looked okay, definitely moist, these connectors are so poorly designed, tiny little pins with very little contact, I much prefer the blue/black type connectors on the 50 series machines.
Anyway, I sprayed a little WD40 in each plug and put it back together and and it ran perfect for the rest of the day. Ran it several times last night without issue. Cold overnight and tried it this morning, worked for 20 seconds and crapped out. I disconnected the same two grey actuator plugs and swapped them this time to see if the problem moved, well now it works again, but backwards sticks. Will drive it around again for the day and see if the problem comes back. I will try to split the male pins open a little more, and compress the female socket pins a little, hopefully fix it. It for sure seems like it is in those little grey plugs. I got the history report on the machine yesterday and found that the actuators have been replaced twice, the AHC controller once, new harness, complete new sticks, updated AHC package with float button.... the local shop made a pile of $$$ on this machine, but still didn't fix it. $10K in 3 years on the same problem. Wonder if maybe I should find a pedal machine. I have read that it's not just the 863, seems all the first gen AHC stick machines have issues. Too bad Bobcat couldn't come up with a retrofit kit to solve the problems.
More later.
Thanks!