Cat 215C adding auxiliary hydraulics

[Ray-70]

Hello All, I'm brand new to the forum here and looking for a little advise on plumbing my Cat 215C with aux. hydraulics so I can add a hydraulic thumb.
I'm doing this completely myself and not looking to break the bank, but would like to make it nice.
The 215 currently does not have aux. hydraulics and I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction to either add another valve off of the main valve bank ( if a power beyond circuit is available?

Or would adding an electronic diverter valve to the bucket cylinder ( with a relief port ) be easier? Looks like the valve would be about $500 plus required hoses etc.

My current control valves seem to have capped ports at the bottom ( and also at the top ) and I was curious if those are power beyond ports?

If anyone has a 215 with aux. hydraulics I would be interested to see how they are plumbed.

 

[Nige]

Welcome Ray.

If you have a machine serial number I can look at what was available in the way of Aux hydraulic piping for it.

 

[Ray-70]

Thank you, my SN is 4HG01578

 

[Nige]

The only Aux piping that popped up was for adding a grapple. In view of the fact that system I imagine would be bi-direction I guess it ought to work. Let me find some more details.

 

[Ray-70]

Yes, anything bi-directional should work, probably just need the appropriate hoses to go from the piping to the cylinder.

 

[Nige]

I'm sorry I dug into it a bit and most of the parts are cancelled.

 

[Ray-70]

Ok, I appreciate you checking. Perhaps someone else with a 215C with Aux. will chime in and have an idea how the factory system ( or an aftermarket ) works? It's hard to tell looking at the parts manual.
It almost looks like they use a 3rd pump but that seems pretty strange. I'd think they would use an electronic solenoid tied into the power beyond ports. Parts book shows PN 6T6552 which appears to be a solenoid valve, but the piping arrangement still is unclear to me. Probably if I keep looking at the books it will eventually make sense.