Nice work! Electrical work is no fun and doesn't look like much but is just as important as an engine

Yes electrical work is very important on all these newer machines because they are computer controled. All it takes is one sensor to be faulty and if lucky you are in limp mode.

Being able to do this kind of work is a true talent and far too underappreciated. My brother has been having a charging problem on his truck. The dealer's crew called it a bad alternator and changed it out - NOPE. We had a laugh, because when the problem cropped up again, he immediately looked for a pot hold and ran over it - BAM - working again. He's found the cable with the problem, now he just has to find the time to dig into it. Dealers won't tend to do that because it's so time consuming.

Vix

Oops look below

Troubleshooting wiring can drive you crazy! I've done a fair bit of it over the years, it's not bad in the older stuff. It becomes a nightmare when other people have been in there hacking qnd wacking the wiring harness and using all one color wire. Then you have the factory engineers making it a nightmare! You have the switch to the relay, relay to the solenoid and at each step the color code changes. And of course they like to tuck things in out of the way places just to make things more interesting....

With the new cars, trucks and equipment they are making things more complex than they need to be. Too many points of failure in my opinion.

Total agreement!

Vix

May the gods of the old Yankee mechanics smile down upon you!

My brother was an auto mechanic for a half-dozen years back in the early 1970s, and a darn good one, at that. He was much in demand as he had clients driving in from out-of-state to have him work on their rides. He could do it all (except, perhaps, welding, which he hated) but he excelled at electrical. His main tools were a 6-12-24-volt idiot light for seeing if the juice made it that far, and a cheap-@$$ continuity tester if it didn't.

That said, even though the circuitry in my car all goes through the computer in the radio (what if the radio gets stolen? It won't even start), I think I should throw a set of these in my tool bag, just in case.

It's always nice to have the tools in the toolbag.

Its why I never screw with electrocute myself as I always find myself that guy. Glad you got figure it out.

It's simple when you understand the stuff like with anything. Over years I've seen some really fobared stuff done... you ask "What were they thinking?" Then you realize they didn't! And you wonder here they haven't killed themselves or someone else!

the amount of wiring on modern shit really makes you wonder how horrible it really woulda been to run old pony-motor-starting caterpillars

Two wires on the entire thing, the spark plug wires from the magneto on the pony motor, lol

I kinda like the electric start ponymotors... if the hand crank ones sit very long they can be a bear to start...

I do agree with you on keeping it simple and easy to work on. Newer is not always better... Sometimes it's worse.

Was thinking about that as I hit post, some wires is certainly a worthwhile trade.
Thinking it peaked out about in the '90s for equipment. Solid state regulator alternators for reliable charging, but still with mechanical injection pumps for reliable running and simple hydraulic valving rather than joysticks and computers.

Kinda funny when you look at cat 3208 'throwaway motors' in how they were trash for their era, but nowadays they're easy to look at fondly with how far we've fallen.

I will agree with you early 90s was the peak of things. Myself I look at the Detroit 71 and 53 series engines, I worked around the 6-71 mostly. I have seen the abject abuse the v8-71s and v12-71s take daily in fishing boat and they last for years and years. The Cats and Cummins 6 to 8 years.

Cold start throw the lines off full bore astern then ahead near full bore when they clear the gate full bore. No warm up nothing get aboard and go.

One boat they replaced a tired 8-71 with a Cummings in the spring and it didn't last the season.

But somehow a new engine every season has less environmental impact than a few hundred extra gallons of diesel... Really saddens me how political everything's gotten. Bring back the hippies of the '60s, fixing their old junk to keep from having new junk built.

Those were really something special with how modular and universal of powerplants they were. Parts availability second to none simply through absolute market saturation.

With the Detroits you could find parts just about anywhere in Alaska including most logging camps compaired to the Volvos and Cats where parts would need to come up from Seattle or Portland most of the time IF you were lucky.

With the Shinaku and Frontier we used less fuel then many boats our size and running speed. With the Dancer we were faster then most Cat powered 82 foot power scows, we had twin 6-71s we uesed less fuel when we hit the fuel dock for the same running time.

Yes the Detroits are so modular and use to be found everywhere... yeah they scream at you... but you know they will get you there and back home again and again.

electrical nightmares. Took 2 months to track the issue with my car last year. And then there is the cascade effect, just for shits and giggles. Good work on the repairs. *hugs*

Oh yes it can be a challenge at times. Thank you for the compliment.