Hi All,
I've been lurking for a while but this is my first post, thanks for having me.
I recently bought a 1989 PB200D from a dude who was using it for backcountry skiing. I plan to use it for light grooming on some winter trails and access to vacation property in the winter.
The guy I bought it from isn't even living in the country right now so he hasn't been a lot of help as far as operation, etc... and the guys who had run the cat the most were surprisingly clueless on the operation. I feel like I know more about it after about 2 hrs than they did after 10 years.
So here's the issue- I live about 250 miles away from where I had to pick it up- I made the drive out, got her fired up with no issues. I let it run for 10-15 minutes to warm up and began trying to use the aux hydraulics- they were sluggish at first but as it warmed up they responded nicely. The cat was parked up on a higher mound of dirt so I engaged the "forward" switch and gave it some throttle and it crawled down without issue. I slowed and stopped after about 50 ft- played with the front/ rear accessories for a few minutes, then tried to move the cat again. My memory is a bit hazy on whether the cat just wouldn't move at all or if it slowly stopped moving but in any event- I never got it to move again under it's own power which was very frustrating. Despite the lack of forward or backward drive I chose to load it up anyway hoping it was an easy fix so I wouldn't have to make a second trip. We removed the tracks, winched it up and headed for home.
So- I'm just looking for a little input from the pros, I realize this is a very old machine compared to what you all are used to working on but I'm sure more than a few of you have had your hands on these.
Things I know and questions I have:
1. I know the hydraulic fluid reservoir level is good- in all three reservoirs, I topped them all off (just to the full line, not literally).
2. Despite the fluid level I'm still getting some cavitation. I can hear a slight groan that comes and goes from one of the pumps and I am seeing some aeration in the fluid in the center reservoir (drive system) and the left reservoir (drivers side- I think its the front aux system).
3. I must have pushed every button- in every conceivable combination to try and get this pig to move again and the most I got was seeing the track jump maybe a 1/2' when I shifted it into fwd once and once when I flipped the switch to the right of the fwd/ reverse switch (labeled #2 in the photos)
4. The previous owner and those who have run this cat wouldn't shut up about "float control" and how I would lose control of the aux's if float control was on. They told me it would be engaged by pressing the far left foot switch (labeled #5- and yes I know there are two #5's ). I never found this switch to make the smallest amount of difference, I had full control of both front and rear aux controls regardless of the foot switch and it also had no affect on the drive.
5. Park brake-the park brake light on the column only turns off if the lever is fwd and the knob on the engine hump is pushed down. The operation manual I have doesn't show the knob on the hump at all- what's up with the two park brakes?
6. What's the second switch on the steering wheel? At first I thought this was the park brake but the operation manual shows this spot blanked off so now I'm not sure. I can definitely see that it has the ability to illuminate green but it never does.
7. poking around the fuse box this morning there was one blown fuse. I haven't tried replacing it yet, I was going to see if anyone that has the EWD could tell me what circuit that feeds- I just ordered an Electrical manual for the 200D which apparently has to come from Germany. The group of fuses pictured is the second grouping from the left.
8. Looking at the operators manual it shows a drive speed control knob on the left of the column but I don't have one of those- I do have the drive speed knob for the tiller but not one on the column unless it's hidden somewhere.
9.There are a few other odd buttons that aren't mentioned in the manual, like the red button by the key...glow plugs maybe?
10. Lastly- the operation manual mentions that the cat will not drive if the rear implement is all the way up, not sure how the machine knows the position of the implement- I never saw any kind of position switches but perhaps that's what I'm missing...
Guys- sorry for all the info, and sorry if these are total newb questions but I think I've done a decent job troubleshooting so far- I just need some more info to send me in the right direction.