Cat 246: Need Help Identifying Parts

S/N: 5SZ07867

As mentioned in a previous post, I had a fire under the cab on my 246. I was finally able to get back out to my property and clean out the area a little bit. It definitely burned up some hoses and some wiring, along with the a plastic panel. I would really appreciate with some help with some parts identification.

I can't seem to find this on the Cat site and am looking for the part number of the item in the red box (it now has a big hole in it):


Also, are there part numbers for this wiring?


And is there a better photo out there of this (so I can figure out what exactly is gone and where it goes)?


I reached out to a friend of a friend who works on diesel engines and hydraulics who should be able to do the work/help me. But, I'd like to have the parts (most of them at least) ready when he's able to get out to my property. Any other advice is certainly welcome.

Double check this with CAT but I'm finding the Engine wiring group is 197-6900 and Harness is 197-6901

Deleted

AllDodge said:

Double check this with CAT but I'm finding the Engine wiring group is 197-6900 and Harness is 197-6901

View attachment 234751

Click to expand...

The damaged wiring all originates from below and behind the right-hand (work tool) pilot control. I don't think any of the wiring for the engine was affected.

I think this is the part of the electrical schematic that is supposed to tell me what I am looking for...but, without any formal education on the matter or real world experience with figuring this stuff out, it's difficult to connect the schematic to the actual wiring I am seeing (or not) on the machine.

Going back to your OP photos.

What you starred on the Parts illustration is not available separately. It is part of the pilot valve assembly that is mounted directly under the joystick handle assembly (which is available as a separate part).

To identify what harness or harnesses you are looking at, try identifying major connectors first based on the number of pins and the wire colors in each connector.

Once you know which connector you are dealing with you can find the harness Part Number as follows. If you look on your snip from the schematic find CONN 21. It’s an 8-pin connector with one side marked A-C20 and the other side marked M-C1. That translates as “Harness A, connector #20” and “Harness M, connector #1”.

Somewhere on the same page as schematic should be a table with 3 columns. First column is A, B, C, for the harness identification letter, the 2nd column is the harness function (engine, panel, etc), and the 3rd is the Part Number of the harness. Hopefully that helps.

Nige said:

Going back to your OP photos.

What you starred on the Parts illustration is not available separately. It is part of the pilot valve assembly that is mounted directly under the joystick handle assembly (which is available as a separate part).

To identify what harness or harnesses you are looking at, try identifying major connectors first based on the number of pins and the wire colors in each connector.

Once you know which connector you are dealing with you can find the harness Part Number as follows. If you look on your snip from the schematic find CONN 21. It’s an 8-pin connector with one side marked A-C20 and the other side marked M-C1. That translates as “Harness A, connector #20” and “Harness M, connector #1”.

Somewhere on the same page as schematic should be a table with 3 columns. First column is A, B, C, for the harness identification letter, the 2nd column is the harness function (engine, panel, etc), and the 3rd is the Part Number of the harness. Hopefully that helps.

Click to expand...

That is helpful, thank you. As far as hoses go, does this look about right? I don't think I can see 157-1478 in my photos, but I think it's safe to assume it didn't fare better than the others.

01Time said:

S/N: 5SZ07867

As mentioned in a previous post, I had a fire under the cab on my 246. I was finally able to get back out to my property and clean out the area a little bit. It definitely burned up some hoses and some wiring, along with the a plastic panel. I would really appreciate with some help with some parts identification.

I can't seem to find this on the Cat site and am looking for the part number of the item in the red box (it now has a big hole in it):

Click to expand...

In case this is helpful for someone else in the future, I found the part# to the plastic assembly that had been melted during the fire, 192-2667. Now the question is if I want to spend $148US to replace it...the damaged part is not visible with the ROPS down.

Since all of the hoses were burned in half, I was unable to mark the hoses' positions prior to replacement. I've repaired the wiring and installed new hoses, but things aren't working properly.

Grapple on the bucket works like it's supposed to (assuming that's because it's controlled electronically), but nothing else works right. As a matter of fact, I can only tilt the bucket up. Not down, nor can I lift or lower the arms. I've played around with different configurations and I end up with no bucket movement. I've tried following the diagram from Cat, but it's not as helpful as you would think it should be. You have to piece together two different views and make a few guesses.

Is there a simple way to check if a hose is correct without having to change all of them? Or better yet, does anyone have a clearer photo or diagram of which hose goes where (into the fittings under the control)?

A hydraulic schematic could be pretty useful in this scenario.

92U 3406 said:

A hydraulic schematic could be pretty useful in this scenario.

Click to expand...

I have the schematic, but I'm not seeing where it indicates hose placement to the control. I could be wrong, as I'm not very experienced with reading these.

Normally they label the ports on the schematic. Yeah that schematic isn't much use for that. I don't know if there's an updated, interactive schematic for that machine.

92U 3406 said:

Normally they label the ports on the schematic. Yeah that schematic isn't much use for that. I don't know if there's an updated, interactive schematic for that machine.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately that's all there is.

Just wanted to update this thread and post some information that might be helpful for others in the future.

[After disconnecting the negative from the battery!] The burnt wiring (and a couple of connectors) were cut out and replaced with new wire. All of the right-side hoses were completely severed due to the heat and had to be replaced. Three of the left-side hoses did sustain heat damage and were replaced as a precaution. The hoses/o-rings were about US$550 and the wiring (I think it was eight different colors - 18AWG), was about US$20. If you subtract the time connecting the hoses incorrectly, it was probably about 2-3 hours of labor.

Trying to figure out where the new hoses were supposed to be connected to on the control and to what part of the valve was a bit challenging. Especially because Caterpillar only provides a crowded illustration as a guide. After trying to interpret the hydraulic schematic as a layman, following the diagram, and a lot of trial an error - finally got it all hooked up correctly.

During the attempts to figure it out, I had to go back my early youth, during my coloring book days, and enhanced the Cat diagram, making it 1000% more useful:

That is great, the next guy is going to be real thankful you went the extra distance

Terrific job! It's too bad that CAT doesn't follow suit and publish color diagrams and manuals (it's not like the technology isn't cheap enough these days).

I swear Cat makes their equipment a PITA to work on so you'll take it to the dealer.

JoeUser said:

Terrific job! It's too bad that CAT doesn't follow suit and publish color diagrams and manuals (it's not like the technology isn't cheap enough these days).

Click to expand...

In these days of accountants running businesses I wonder how far a project to go back maybe 50-60 years and re-produce all the black & white documents in colour would fly..? TBH that parts digram above isn't so difficult to follow even in B&W. There are only 6 hoses on it.

If you think that finding info on Cat machines is hard, then from the questions posed here on HEF it would appear that finding info on a number of other popular machine manufacturers is equally if not more difficult.