I went out Friday afternoon on a call to check an MX115 that would not move in either direction. The tractor was shredding brush in a vineyard and just stopped in the middle of the field.
When I got there they had found another tractor and pulled the MXU to the end of the row for me. I'm glad because walking a quarter mile to work on a tractor is bad enough, but when the rows are full of pruned branches you get all skinned up.
I first did a visual inspection and saw wires hanging on the right side behind the battery box. The driver told me that the low range had stopped working earlier in the day. The differential lock light was on and the error warning light was flashing.
I hooked up the laptop to read the error codes but could not communicate with the controller. I was not too surprised by this since I have been having trouble with the cable on the laptop but I saw that the ADIC was online. It couldn't be the cable on the laptop if it was reading one controller.
The wiring had to be fixed and it was not accessible without lifting the cab or removing the rear wheel. The customer agreed to haul the tractor to the shop to get it going.
Saturday morning he hauled it in and I pulled the rear wheel off to get at the transmission harness. The transmission temperature sender wires, and one clutch solenoid valve wires were completely pulled off. Luckily I had most of the right terminals and connectors to do the repair. I didn't have the temp sender terminals but I did have some that were close enough to get it going.
Once the wiring was repaired I replaced the blown #33 fuse. This fuse is for the transmission CAN which explains why there was no communication with the transmission controller. With the new fuse installed I was able to connect to the controller with the laptop. I cleared the codes and ran the tractor for a while to see if the code repeated. The code did not repeat and I test drove the tractor around the yard for a while to be sure.
I'm not sure if the damaged wiring had anything to do with the blown fuse. I did not check the schematic to see if there was any relation. The customer was in a hurry to get back to work and said he would bring the tractor back when he was caught up for some other repairs.
I made a video of the repair here
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Friday, February 14, 2014
Powershift or bangshift
This time of the year we are getting everything ready for the coming season. There is not too much going on in the field yet.
A tractor came in this week for a tune up and inspection. The customer also complained that his powershift was shifting hard in some gears. The tractor was a Case IH MX 210 Magnum with a 18 speed full powershift. It has an electro-hydraulic control system that uses a controller to turn solenoid valves on and off to engage clutch packs. The clutch packs are arranged in a speed transmission and a range transmission. The combination of clutches engaged determines what gear the tractor is in.
The clutch packs are called: Odd, Even, C1, C3, C5, Reverse, Master, Low, Medium, and High. First gear uses Odd, C1, Master, and Low. When shifting to second Odd drops off and Even comes on. Shifts that change with only one clutch swap are smooth and quiet. When you get to the shift from sixth to seventh, even switches to odd, C5 switches to C1, and low switches to Medium. This is called a three pack swap. It also happens between twelfth and thirteenth. Three pack swaps are the harshest of the shifts and the loudest. If these shifts seem too hard or loud there is some adjustment that can be made. It can be done from the driver's seat through the A Post instrument controller.
It is best to calibrate the shifts when the tractor is warmed up and doing the operation that it is most used in. With the transmission oil warmed to operating temperature shut the engine off. Hold the prog key on the instrument control unit (ICU) while starting the tractor. Keep holding the prog key until the list of controllers shows on the display. Using the arrow keys scroll down to the transmission controller. Push the prog key to choose the transmission controller. The menu you are looking for is transmission setup. Use the arrow keys to get there and then push prog. If the transmission oil is not warm enough you will get a low temp warning. You can warm the oil with a restriction in the remote coupler or by steering to the stops. Once the oil is 60 degrees C you can proceed. The Eng RPM will show and you need to set the RPM around 1200 RPM. An asterisk should appear when the proper engine RPM is reached. Push program and the instructions will appear on the screen. When all the packs have been calibrated you can exit the setup menu, and exit the transmission menu and return to normal operation.. Drive the tractor though all speeds a couple of times and your shifting should be smooth with only a small difference at six to seven and twelve to thirteen.
I made a video here
A tractor came in this week for a tune up and inspection. The customer also complained that his powershift was shifting hard in some gears. The tractor was a Case IH MX 210 Magnum with a 18 speed full powershift. It has an electro-hydraulic control system that uses a controller to turn solenoid valves on and off to engage clutch packs. The clutch packs are arranged in a speed transmission and a range transmission. The combination of clutches engaged determines what gear the tractor is in.
The clutch packs are called: Odd, Even, C1, C3, C5, Reverse, Master, Low, Medium, and High. First gear uses Odd, C1, Master, and Low. When shifting to second Odd drops off and Even comes on. Shifts that change with only one clutch swap are smooth and quiet. When you get to the shift from sixth to seventh, even switches to odd, C5 switches to C1, and low switches to Medium. This is called a three pack swap. It also happens between twelfth and thirteenth. Three pack swaps are the harshest of the shifts and the loudest. If these shifts seem too hard or loud there is some adjustment that can be made. It can be done from the driver's seat through the A Post instrument controller.
It is best to calibrate the shifts when the tractor is warmed up and doing the operation that it is most used in. With the transmission oil warmed to operating temperature shut the engine off. Hold the prog key on the instrument control unit (ICU) while starting the tractor. Keep holding the prog key until the list of controllers shows on the display. Using the arrow keys scroll down to the transmission controller. Push the prog key to choose the transmission controller. The menu you are looking for is transmission setup. Use the arrow keys to get there and then push prog. If the transmission oil is not warm enough you will get a low temp warning. You can warm the oil with a restriction in the remote coupler or by steering to the stops. Once the oil is 60 degrees C you can proceed. The Eng RPM will show and you need to set the RPM around 1200 RPM. An asterisk should appear when the proper engine RPM is reached. Push program and the instructions will appear on the screen. When all the packs have been calibrated you can exit the setup menu, and exit the transmission menu and return to normal operation.. Drive the tractor though all speeds a couple of times and your shifting should be smooth with only a small difference at six to seven and twelve to thirteen.
I made a video here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)