Parts Rant

[Corley5]

  I was just finishing up with the harvester the other day when the delimbing clamps, knives, arms whatever you want to call them  ;D  wouldn't open.  I could close them after they sagged a bit.  I tracked out and started to track down the problem.  The previous owner had new switches in the cab for the controls so I put in a new set of switches of course that would have been way too easy of a fix.  I asked a couple "experts" and they told me it was probably a broken wire or a bad solenoid coil on the pilot valve.  I picked up a voltage meter and started checking things the next day.  I found the valve I needed by back tracking hoses which was no easy feat  ;D and found that I had 24 volts to the coils on each end of the valve but that one was not working.  I got the numbers off the valve which is a Denison and started making calls.  I called several shops and a Risely dealer and got the same results from all of them because they all had to go to Parker who now owns Denison.  Those results are that I have to buy the whole valve for 393.00 because we have no part #s at all on the coils.  So I have to buy a complete valve with the coils.  I've been assured that the new one will have part #s on the coils but the Parker distributor in NY will not give us those #s.  I have to buy the whole thing.  I've found similar coils for 30-40.00 but I've got to buy the whole valve basically just to get part #s.  I'm sure that I'll need more of them and there are four more valves with eight coils that I'm sure will need to be replaced in the future.  It's a steep price to pay for part #s.  I don't plan to change the valve.  There's nothing wrong with the old one.  I'm just going to put on the new coils on.  I'm not impressed with Parker.  Three shops and a dealership got the same response from them  : 

[mad murdock]

Parts are getting to be more and more of a pain that way IMO. The smaller shops are getting bought up by EATON or Parker, as the options decrease, the price shoots skyward.

[redlaker1]

if you grabbed a coil and went down to a hydraulic shop I am sure you could find one that matched,   there arent that many different coils out there on the parker stuff.   hopefully you could find the one you need.   

[Corley5]

  I took the coil to the three shops and I sent pics to the dealership with the all the dimensions and a tape measure in the pics.  They all meant a stonewall when Parker had to be called  : >:(  If one of them by chance would have had one in stock I suppose it may have been different 

[snowstorm]

parker is on a shopping trip buying everything. they bought motomit. they made a lot of the ctl computers. now parker dosent want to provide parts if its a few years old

[SPIKER]

have you tried the harvester manufacture?   I work for a large heavy equipment manufacture and with ISO9000 finding part numbers is much easier.   might be work a shot also look at evilbay for parts that look similar and have the same operations specs. voltage ect.

mark

[Corley5]

I called Roland Equip a Risely dealer in Escanaba for parts.  That's where I e-mailed the pics and dimensions to.  They actually fitted these Slingshot heads to these Hitachi carriers back in the 90s.  They were Bark River Culvert at the time.  They had to go to Parker.  They also told me that there were three different hydraulic shops from which they sourced parts.  Two of them are now out of business and the third is EK Hydraulics in Petoskey where I source most of my hydraulic parts and where I went 1st    I went back to EK and told them this.  Debbie went back thru their records as far as 95 and couldn't find where they had supplied valves for these builds.  I spent time on E-bay looking too but couldn't find anything that looked right but found similar ones in the 30 dollar price range  :

[SPIKER]

it sure is hard to find the right parts sometimes...

it might be worth a shot at the 30 buck one as usually the DC coils work in very similar fashion only worry are fitting them.

One thing you might take a close look at the coil and do some resistance measurements on a known good one and compare them with ones on-line that seem similar.   off hand I cant tell you what coil resistance should be but for valve specs are usually pretty low range.   depending on the coil type low of a few ohms to several thousands of ohms.   lower resistance means more current flows for higher coil pull force.

it also changes for on/off vs variable rate (proportional) control but proportional controllers are done in different ways some turn the valve on/off really fast so that it seems to open only part way while others use pilot ports that run either similarly 18~240hz or provide s pressure compensated system to only flow a certain amount of fluid at full valve opening.
MARK

[mad murdock]

Vickers (Eaton) has a decent line of spool valves, proportional valves coils etc, that are very similar to the Parker stuff, mebbe there is a compatible option?

[bushmechanic]

Hello corley5,just reading your post and I hear you buddy.What I do now is I have a notebook on all the equipment and write down all information as needed so in the future I won't have to be guessing at part numbers.When I'm working on a piece of our equipment and see a label with numbers on it I write them down in a notebook which is always in my pocket and later transfer that to a excerise book on that machine.Lots of times now the operator can call me from in the woods and I look it up in my book and order the part.Did you make sure that the coil was the problem-swap it with another coil that you know the function is working?Just by reading the post I think you might have a hydraulic problem.On the harvesters I have worked on the delimbing knives will also go to and not open when the seal kit is destroyed in the actuating ram.Hope you get your part.

[Taylortractornut]

And whats really sad is alot of partsmen  are gone now and some punk with a computer cant do crap without a number.     Ive saves several solenoid valves and solenoids from old electric lifts for  use on things like this.       I have a freind that had a run in with JD on parts he came to me and I had one in the box in stead of 500 plus taxe I got it to him for 25 bucks and  found some more for 25 each as well. 


Brothers 341 Bobcat mini ex lost a pilot valve.  He had to give the 1600 for a new part.  It didnt have an mfg mark but looked like a 500 dollar Parker section.

[Corley5]

I ordered the new valve  :-\  I'd have been farther ahead if I'd have bit the bullet and done it sooner when lost production is figured in  : :(  The new one should be here Tuesday.  When I tracked the problem to the solenoids I could hear the spool shift on the other end of the valve when the delimbers were closed and there was nothing on the other end when I tried to open them  :-\  Hopefully this will fix the problem whether it does or not I still needed a solenoid.  The good one had corrosion on the electrical plug and one the blades broke off when I took it off looking for #s  :

[Corley5]

The saga continues  :  I ordered the new valve expecting it to be here Tues, Wed or Thurs.  E.K. called me Thurs to tell me that Parker never shipped it.  She ordered it and got a confirmation # but no tracking #.  Parker just failed to ship the DanGed thing.  In the meantime Roland Equip called me late Mon afternoon and left a message that they'd found something on a shelf in their shop  8)  I'd already ordered the whole valve but called them Thurs after my call with E.K.  Mike sent me a pic of the valve they'd found with a coil like mine.  The valve is a whole different animal but the coil looks the same except it has two wires coming out of it instead of three prong plug.  My application only has juice to one of the prongs so I don't see why this one won't work and it has part #s and 24v stamped on it.  It should be here tomorrow.  Mike gave me the #s off the coil and I called E.K. Fri AM with them.  As of Fri at 3PM the only thing they'd heard back from Parker was that they were having trouble matching the Denison #s to Parker #s.  Glad I've got a good sawyer keeping timber production up.  I've been busy with late season firewood so I haven't really had much time to run the harvester anyway but what the H***.  Come on people  : :  If I'd have bit the bullet and ordered the whole thing in the first place I might be running  :-\

Parker suxs  >:( : >:( >:(

[Autocar]

Well it's my turn   :D The back seal on the rear, rear end was leaking on my Autocar so I pulled it out and had to order it form Cleveland. The company up there charged $8.00 to go from the front of the store to the back to get it off the shelf,U.P.S. charged $18.00 the seal was $73.58 total price was $99.58. Not a rant but sure isn't like the old days  : Ive changed about every seal on that truck at one time or another but that was the most costly. Just life in the twenty first century  :