Having had many issues with two other 345's and having got them out of my hair at auction, I am now confronted with another one. This is the series of events. Boom and stick functions no fine control, then no left travel motor, no swing and no boom. Repaired swing, travel and bad boom cylinder, serviced hydraulics and start machine. Run for 5 mins and no build up of tank pressure. Switch off and check, all good. Restart and still no pressure, fully raise boom and extend stick and pressure kicks in. Run machine, still no fine control of boom and stick, pull back on levers and there is a pause of 2-3 seconds then boom and stick "jump" into action. Switch off and look at machine, no noticeable leaks or problems, pack up and come back next day. Next day crank machine and no tank pressure, build up tank pressure and set to full power. No fine control of boom and stick, all other functions working ok. Jump out of machine and walk around, knock in pump. Remove pump and inspect. Pilot pump is damaged replace, no noticeable damage to rotating groups but whilst it is out and due to 1100 hrs decided to replace rotating groups. Put pump back into machine and crank, still no fine control in boom and stick and the pump still knocks. Any idea's? Pump was rebuilt as per the book. It has a mid 2000's AGS serial number.
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I hate CAT 345's.
- Thread starter steed6557
- Start date
Having had many issues with two other 345's and having got them out of my hair at auction, I am now confronted with another one. This is the series of events. Boom and stick functions no fine control, then no left travel motor, no swing and no boom. Repaired swing, travel and bad boom cylinder, serviced hydraulics and start machine. Run for 5 mins and no build up of tank pressure. Switch off and check, all good. Restart and still no pressure, fully raise boom and extend stick and pressure kicks in. Run machine, still no fine control of boom and stick, pull back on levers and there is a pause of 2-3 seconds then boom and stick "jump" into action. Switch off and look at machine, no noticeable leaks or problems, pack up and come back next day. Next day crank machine and no tank pressure, build up tank pressure and set to full power. No fine control of boom and stick, all other functions working ok. Jump out of machine and walk around, knock in pump. Remove pump and inspect. Pilot pump is damaged replace, no noticeable damage to rotating groups but whilst it is out and due to 1100 hrs decided to replace rotating groups. Put pump back into machine and crank, still no fine control in boom and stick and the pump still knocks. Any idea's? Pump was rebuilt as per the book. It has a mid 2000's AGS serial number.
Did you purchase this at a auction. When you serviced it, did you send the hydraulic oil out to a lab? Did you cut open the filters?
Was the travel motor bad? Was the swing motor bad or was it the swing gear box?
The reason I ask is that it sounds like the system is contaminated. Start with sending your hydraulic oil out for analysis and cut open your filters to include your pilot filter.
You said mid 2000's. Is that the mid 2000's serial number or mid 2000's hours. We have 345's running with well over 25,000 hours and are still kicking, so I assume you are talking about the serial number.
The system was drained of contaminated oil after the various failures and obviously the filters all showed signs of metal contamination and were changed. Whilst running tests on the machine yesterday the pilot filter exploded so I guess there is still metal floating around the system and getting stuck in PRV.
The system was drained of contaminated oil after the various failures and obviously the filters all showed signs of metal contamination and were changed. Whilst running tests on the machine yesterday the pilot filter exploded so I guess there is still metal floating around the system and getting stuck in PRV.
This is what I would do. Cut open the pilot filter and see how much metal in in the paper media. Pull a sample from midway fluid level out of the main hydraulic tank. Send the sample to the lab for a particular count with metal contents and ask for the ISO 4406 count (<4 <6 <14 <25 microns)..This is going to tell you how bad the contamination is and at what microns along with what metals. Get a hold of a kidney loop machine (you can rent these in certain area's). Change the oil in the hydraulic tank and all of the filters. Drain your cylinders and you remove the spools out of your boom blocks and clean them. Do a live kidney loop and excercise the machine while kidney looping. IF, this works, run the machine for 40 hours and change all the hydraulic fluid and all the filters and resample the oil. Then each 250 hours sample and change the filters until the oil samples come back meeting the ISO 4406 count. I had machines where this worked and some that didnt.