Had a minor breakdown Thursday

[Don K]

I was sawing some cedar posts and 2X4's for a new chicken yard Thursday and ran into a snag at the end of my first log. Engaged my autoclutch to make a trim pass on some flitches and the motor didn't rev to full throttle. Looked up at my throttle acuator and it wasn't engaged. ??? After a momentary panic, I always do that, don't like mechanical failures or costly surprizes I took a breath and started to analyze the situation. Walked to the house to consult the wiring layouts, thought I might have a tripped breaker. Mill only has 174 hrs on it. :-\ No breaker in the circuit. Got my meter and pulled the leads off the offending piece. Getting 14+ volts to the actuator, hmmm! Time to call Woodmizer. Got a nice fella by the name of Doug. Told him what I had checked so far and he agreeded it was the acuator. Thanked me for troubleshooting the circuit before hand, said some folks just call and they spend some time doing it over the phone.  Told him I was glad I had the sense to figure it out. After a few minutes more one was on the way via Fedex.
Came Tuesday evening late after I had gone to work on night shift. For a dollar more shipping UPS would have delivered it that morning. Fedex is a late route for me. Decided to install it this morning after I woke up. Thought I would post a few pics that might help anybody else that might run into this problem. I took these pics after I had installed the new one, didn't take but a few minutes. Good as new. Doug sent me some instructions for checking adjustments which is what caused the failure in the first place I reckon.



 
This the new actuator on the mill. You can see the 2 wires i pulled to check for voltage.



 
Here is another view showing the adj. linkage to the throttle. This is a 35 hp Yanmar diesel on my LT40HD.



 
The treaded stud coming out of the acuator screws into the turnbuckle and held with a jam nut. I just removed the two mounting bolts and screwed it out of the turnbuckle.



 
Throttle actuator engaged. It takes 40 amps to engage the solenoid. Once engaged, the solenoid plunger must reach the back of the solenoid to trip a switch in the base of the solenoid. This allows the solenoid coil to hold at a 1 amp load. If the the plunger does not pull back far enough, it will hold at 40 amps and will damage the solenoid. There should be less than 1/32" of movement in the plunger at this time. I think mine might have been out a little. I had the key on and the Autoclutch engaged to pull it in. The mill was not running.



 
I pushed on the throttle to check the play in the plunger. It did not move so I hope this actuator will last a very long time.

Sorry the pics aren't so good, but I hope this might help someone in the future.

Don

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

All's well that ends well. Good job Don.

*****Great Pics  *****

[ladylake]

 Make sure your pressing hard enough to compress the spring , in not your just pressing against the throttle lever not the solenoid.   That's about the same solenoid I put on my Isuzu the run the throttle, about 4000 hours now and still working good.  Mine came off a Dodge diesel which I got real cheap used.  $5 each at a flee market, I bought 5 just in case they didn't last.    Steve

[Magicman]

All repairs and fixes have the potential to help someone else.

It is good to see you up and running Don.   

[drobertson]

Glad you have things worked out, my only concern regarding cedar and poultry is that cedar is not that good for birds, not sure how true this is, maybe a tale, but worth considering.  david

[Don K]

It is mostly for yard post and support boards for the wire due to rot resistance. Built my first pen with landscape timbers and pine in 05 and it is about to fall in on the chickens. Will build the coop and nest boxes out of pine again.

Don