1996 JLG 45HA repair questions

[DirtyHoe]

Hello,
I just bought a 1996 JLG 45HA 4X4 articulated boom lift. It has the Ford gas/propane engine. Serial #024262 0300022807. Overall it's in OK shape for its age, but needs some things repaired.

I find the JLG engine and hydraulic oil charts difficult to interpret. I live in the Willamette Valley in Oregon which gets 4 seasons, but is mild overall. Very few below freezing days and a few days near 100 degrees.

1. What should I use for engine oil weight?
2. Would Costco AW46 hydraulic oil made by Citgo be OK to use?

What is the gizmo(circled in red) mounted to the left of the engine? It's disconnected. Do I need it?

The horn is missing along with the tilt warning light. The tilt mechanism has a loose wire. Is there more than one tilt mechanism? I'm guessing this should be repaired for safety reasons?

The service manual is hard to understand because they talk about parts and pieces without any pictures. For example, how do you check and change the gear oil in the drives?

Thanks for any help and guidance,
Steve

 

[DirtyHoe]

The trailer was slightly overloaded. I had a 1/2" air gap between the tires and trailer sidewalls. Got it home in one piece.

 

[DirtyHoe]

Did I post this in the wrong area?
Where did all the experts go?

Steve

 

[willie59]

Motor Oil: 10W/30 or 10W/40 should work just fine in a mild climate, not extreme cold or extreme hot

Hydraulic Oil: AW32 or AW46 will work fine

I don't recognize the gizmo mounted on the engine, not sure what that is or what it does, looks like it's possibly connected to an oil pressure port.

The 5 degree tilt sensor is to alert the operator that the machine is on a slope and therefore could be unstable to operate. Yes, you should fix that. There should only be one tilt sensor on the machine, typically they work either an indicator lamp or an alarm, sometimes both

Gear oil in the drives refers to the oil in the planetary hubs on the drive wheels. You should see a plug on the outer cover of the planetary hubs. Drive the machine so the plug is at the bottom, remove plug and drain the oil. Then drive the machine until the plug is at mid point, 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock, fill the hub with gear oil until it is at the level of the open plug hole.

 

[willie59]

To wager a guess about the gizmo on the engine, if the engine has a mechanical fuel pump it may be a fuel valve (gasoline). It blocks flow of gas to the carb until the engine has been cranking momentarily until it builds oil pressure to open the valve. Is it necessary? Probably not. Is that a duel fuel engine that runs on propane as well?

 

[DirtyHoe]

Yes, it looks like the gas fuel lock in the parts manual. It's taking me a lot of hours to get familiar with all of these parts since I don't know anything about this machine. It's a dual fuel machine, but the propane tank and several hoses and other parts are missing. I don't know the history and there may be more missing and bad parts. I will tackle getting the propane system up and running at a later date.


Below is the main boom pivot bushing. What would cause the brass bushing to break apart and flatten out like this? No broken welds or other signs of damage. You can't see it, but the other end of this bushing is the same way. Like a tremendous amount of pressure smashed the bushing flat and caused it to deform and widen. I can't imagine a lack of grease would cause this? The bushing on the other side is in better shape. Also, the pin is secure and not rotating. I will replace the pin and both bushings. I hope the prior owner was not using it as a crane.

Thank you for your response. It is greatly appreciated!

 

[willie59]

I'm not sure what caused damage to those bushings, but I'd replace them ASAP, and maybe it's just the pic but those upper wear pads for the telescoping section don't look so good either. Make sure the auxiliary power unit works and works functions from the platform, a machine that age with old weathered hoses could pop a hose at any moment and with the engine running it could dump a lot of oil quickly, you might need the aux power unit to get you down.

 

[DirtyHoe]

I'll clean up the pads and post another picture of them.
What would cause this problem: When the tower boom is up and the main boom is horizontal(empty basket- I'm staying on the ground until repairs are made) the machine shudders(slip-sticking) when the tower telescope is being extended. The whole machine shakes(pretty aggressively). If the boom is mostly vertical it will stop. Do I need to lubricate the wear pads?

The auxiliary power is working.

I will be replacing the weather checked hoses. Who has the best pricing on JLG parts these days? My parts list is growing daily.

How do I adjust the model "SF" Precision Governor? Currently the idle is about 1400RPM(should be 800) mid-range is 1,500 and high is around 3,000. The engine randomly spikes after stroking the controls and peaks for a few seconds to 3,400RPM. Is the idle suppose to be backed off on the carb and all RPM's are controlled by the governor?

Also, the engine instantly dies if I stroke any hydraulic control before it is completely warmed up. It will do this a time or two then stop.

Thank you again for the great advice!

Steve

 

[OFF]

Stalling until the engine warms up is a normal thing for all gasoline powered lifts. You pretty much have to let them warm up on ground control (circulates the hydraulic oil) for 15 to 20 minutes before using them. That gizmo you showed with the hose going to it was a shut-off valve for the gasoline when the lift was dual fuel.
Sometimes an oil additive in the hydraulic system will stop the shudder. They don't recommend lubricating the boom wear pads, although as long as you aren't a sand blaster, I don't see a reason not to. Crane booms are lubed and they are virtually the same thing. I'll see what I can find for setup procedure on Precision governors when I get back to work on Monday. I know I have one. We had three 40HA's with that same engine.
I remember the throttle kinda blipped when you stepped on the pedal, but high engine only functioned in drive.

 

[DirtyHoe]

I can quit stressing about the engine stalling now. Waiting for it to warm up did the trick. Thanks.

I think its prior life was for sandblasting. Underneath the damaged bushing in the picture is a ton of valves(what do they operate?), hoses, and electrical. There was at least 8 inches of black coarse sand that was like concrete. It took me a few hours to dig it all out. The area around the swing motor is buried in sand too.

My latest problem is how do I track down my tower down function not working from the platform? It was working and it now quit. May have something to do with all the sand removal. I was super careful digging out all the sand around all of the components. I swapped PQ controllers and it did not fix it. The ground control switch works fine up/down. So does this mean my problem is electrical?

I'll try some lube on the pads after I get the machine cleaned up.

I not sure of the exact model of the Ford engine, but it does have the E-301 controller with the SF actuator.
The main thing I would like to figure out is if I should back off the carb idle screw and let the actuator arm control idle? Currently the carb idle screw is setting idle and the actuator adjustment bolt is backed off and not controlling the idle. Then I would like to figure out how to set the high idle from surging over 3,000RPM.

Thanks again for the help,
Steve

 

[OFF]

I did a reply earlier today on my phone and lost it all. That black sand is called "copper slag". it's the answer to sand blasting without getting silicosis. I would be looking over the valves very carefully, checking for a broken wire to one of the coils. Including ground wires. With everything buried in wet sand, wires rot pretty quick.

As I remember, that governor setup was sort of a 3 step thing. base idle, a slightly higher RPM while the controls were active, and then full throttle when the drive controller is fully stroked. I would use the carb idle screw to set a base idle. You want the governor to increase throttle as required to maintain RPM, but not to have the ability to kill the engine.

 

[DirtyHoe]

I'm not up to speed on the electrical yet. The PDF electrical drawings I downloaded from JGL's website are too blurry to read. I'm amazed at how complex this boom lift is compared to my 580C backhoe.

If a wire to a coil was damaged would the ground control switch still work? Or am I looking for a bad connection from the platform to valve? As you can tell I don't know how these systems work.

Steve

 

[willie59]

It's been a long time since I've worked on these, but seems I recall the E301 controls idle rpm and high speed rpm while providing throttle as required in both modes according to load demand. As for the carb idle stop screw, it's supposed to be backed off allowing the E301 and the actuator to control idle. If the idle screw is used it will cause a negative mechanical feedback on the actuator. The E301 has to be adjusted correctly for all this to work properly. And again, it's been a long time and I could be wrong, but I think they offered a separate "mid range board" option to allow the throttle to rev slightly above idle for working boom functions.

 

[OFF]

If a wire to one of the valve coils is not making contact, the function will not work from either ground or basket.
The basket wiring and the ground control wiring meet at the main terminal box. From that point, there is only one set of wires. Always the first thing to check when something in the basket doesn't work - check in on the ground controls. If it works on ground, you know the problem is in the basket. if it doesn't work on ground either, you know the problem is between the main terminal box and the control valves. (or in the main terminal box) ton of bosch style relays in there.
I can see Willie59 being right about not setting base idle with the carb screw now that I think about it. Possibly I used to set the carb screw low, about 500 RPM, just enough that the governor can't bounce the throttle plate completely closed.

 

[DirtyHoe]

OK, that points me in the right direction. So to summarize my tower down feature that is operated by the PQ controller quit working. I swapped the wire harness with another known working PQ controller. Still no tower down. The ground control tower down toggle switch works fine.
So I now need to check the wiring from the basket all through the boom and tower, and back to the ground control terminal? Do I just find both ends and do a continuity test? Is there just one wire on this function?

Steve

 

[OFF]

It's fairly uncommon for just 1 wire to break in the main boom harness. Although it could happen and JLG will usually leave a few spare wires that can used if it does happen. Most of the time, it will be a bad connection on one end or the other.

 

[willie59]

Aside from an obvious spot where boom cable is damaged, another common failure of wires in the boom cable is wires broken from cyclic bending in the powertrak as the boom telescopes in/out over and over for years, eventually this bending of the wires breaks them, you can't see it when this happens. As OFF stated, JLG typically had either spare wires or wires for optional functions that are not being used to get you by, but eventually you'll have to replace the boom cables if that's what's causing your problem.

 

[DirtyHoe]

On the Ford VSG-411 motor and the E-301 governor controller what cause a rich fuel mixture(I think)? The plugs are dry with black soot. The exhaust is a little back at idle and I get puffs of black smoke on RPM changes. Is this carburation or electronics?

The valves were way out of adjustment. Intake and exhaust clearance should be .009 and .012 thousandths of an inch using a feeler gauge. Mine was around .018 to .020. The motor sounds better, but I hope the flat tappets and camshaft are not worn.

Steve

 

[DirtyHoe]

Found another problem...
I can't find any good wiring diagrams and I have no idea if the yellow wire should attach to the alternator. The short lead on the alternator(circled in red is hot). The yellow wire is a few inches short from reaching it. I traced the yellow wire back to the electrical bus mounted on the back of the engine above the hydraulic pumps. I don't want to hook it up not knowing 100%. I would hate to burn up an expensive component. Could this have anything to do with my high RPM surge?

Steve

 

[DirtyHoe]

Aside from an obvious spot where boom cable is damaged, another common failure of wires in the boom cable is wires broken from cyclic bending in the powertrak as the boom telescopes in/out over and over for years, eventually this bending of the wires breaks them, you can't see it when this happens. As OFF stated, JLG typically had either spare wires or wires for optional functions that are not being used to get you by, but eventually you'll have to replace the boom cables if that's what's causing your problem.

I think I found my problem. I saw some electrical tape wrapped around a big cable( with a good size kink in it). It's located in the cavity where the lowest tower cylinder sits. I decided to pull it apart and inspect it. It got pinched by the hydraulic cylinder and turntable motor. Lucky find!