old forklifts- ever had to re-wire one?

WILLEO6709 · Feb 24, 2017

We have a Toyota 3 series.... had it for 15 years... old when we got it. My guess is 1990-94. Its gotten so its cantankerous......but in finally tracing down the issue we are finding 8 volts on the fuel on solenoid at times.... let it sit a few minutes and its back up to battery voltage and starts fine. when its 8 volts you may as well walk away. It run good once running, is a handy size. no hydraulic issues.... and I hate to spend 8-10k on a different one for a machine that runs an hour or 3 a day.

anybody sell wire harness retrofits?

gbent · Feb 24, 2017

Troubleshooting tips in this order: connections, connections, connections, then anything else. You probably have one that is corroded. If you get a new wiring harness, you will find which one while replacing all the wires. It is also possible the corrosion is inside a switch, with the ignition switch being the most likely culprit.

If you wish to jury rig it, a simple toggle switch that gets power from the key on side of the ignition switch and goes directly to the fuel solenoid.

timvercoe · Feb 24, 2017

gbent has the solution.. Maybe call an autoelectric spec and pay a service call

Tim

PS thats my line of work.

Mud · Feb 24, 2017

I rewired my late 80s Clark. Bubba had tampered with the harness, I got tired of diagnosing it and chopped it all out and started fresh. Zero trouble past 4 years since. And it has breakers now instead of fuses if it ever needs them.

I can't say every feature got reconnected though, OSHA doesn't come around here much.

ewlsey · Feb 24, 2017

I rewired most of my Clark. The wiring on them is awful. All inline fuse holders placed randomly in the circuits. No real harness, just a bundle of wires with no wrap or real protection. It pretty well caught on fire once when an ignition wire shorted to the chassis and had no fuse.

moonlight machine · Feb 24, 2017

I can't imagine anything easier to rewire than a forklift, just do it.

m16ty · Feb 24, 2017

Most forklifts in the 1990s will have a fair amount of wiring on them.

Anything say 1980s or older, won't have much. Pretty much only electrical you will have (or need) is ignition, starter, and maybe lights.

Ziggy2 · Feb 24, 2017

Your problem sounds like a bad ground somewhere. Either at frame or engine.

It would be much easier to actually fix problem than to do a re-wire.

You have a $3 problem.

m16ty · Feb 25, 2017

I've seen those $3 problems take a $1,000 worth of labor to figure out.

Sometimes elecrical grimlins can be hard to trace, especially bad grounds.

Ziggy2 · Feb 25, 2017

m16ty said:
I've seen those $3 problems take a $1,000 worth of labor to figure out.

Sometimes elecrical grimlins can be hard to trace, especially bad grounds.

It is true that a $3 problem might cost $1000 in labor to fix but the problem is not that it actually takes $1000 of labor to locate but that $997 dollars of labor was wasted.

The problem is that most people take a very poor approach to troubleshooting problems, especially complex problems. I often see fairly knowledgeable people take a very non-systematic approach and waste many hours in addition to creating extra problems.

If a technician would just stop and think before doing anything when approaching the problem, they would greatly increase their probability of success and shorten the total time spent on the problem.

If a binary approach, (divide the problem in half), is used, most problems can be located in under 8 checks. That only takes a few minutes to do.

The problem is that most people approach the problem with the wrong mindset. In this case the OP already has in his mind that the problem is more complicated and troublesome to locate and repair than a complete re-wire.

The trouble with this approach is that you are embarking on a solution that might not resolve the underlying problem and more than likely add extra problems to the equation that you don't have initially. This only clouds and masks the underlying problem and consumes resources.

Unless the wiring harness is absolute trash as in having caught fire from a short or serious corrosion from being in the elements for years, then locating the underlying problem will be much quicker, easier, and cheaper.

WILLEO6709 · Feb 25, 2017

zig, that works great with an always present problem but when it comes and goes sometimes drastic measures are more reasonable. if you saw my wire harness you may agree.....

Tony Quiring · Feb 25, 2017

Learn to "sneak up on it".

This means do nothing until it fails then do less!

This means do NOT bang twist or wiggle anything in any way.

DO get a volt meter and very carefully make measurements in such a way to not disturb anything.

Check from center of battery post to the terminal then check from center of post to first connection on ground to be sure ground is good.

Next confirm good voltage at positive post then check other places along the way.

If you disturb the intermittent connection and it fixes itself then you need to wait until it fails again.

Yiu can get some clip leads and connect to assorted places and route them to where you can get your voltmeter on them.

The likely cause is a bad connection and glass fuses can drive you nuts.

If they snap in the connectors get weak and oxidized resulting in heat that can melt the solder that makes for a flaky internal connection but looks good.

Touch lightly the points being measured and check the wires at each end first then touch the fuse.

Ign switch also can get worn out .

Remember to STOPS AND DO NOTHING next time it fails then carefully sneak up on it.

Done this many times...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk

Ziggy2 · Feb 25, 2017

WILLEO6709 said:
zig, that works great with an always present problem but when it comes and goes sometimes drastic measures are more reasonable. if you saw my wire harness you may agree.....

It is even more imperative to use with intermittent problems. I know that these types of problems are very irritating but seldom does the nuclear approach get you where you need to be.

Now possibly your wiring harness might really be trash and needs to be replaced but the problem is probably not necessarily in the wiring harness but more likely in a switch, ground point or terminal connection. A re-wire might but more likely not actually solve the problem. This is why I'm always reluctant to encourage a person to use the re-wire approach.

We had a DeVlieg at work that would go dead whenever we ran a particular part. The problem was that the part was made in a single quantity about every four months and would occur during the same operation and of course had very tight tolerances.

Machine would go completely dead, they would call me over and depending on how far I was in the plant from the machine it might or might not be still acting up by the time I got there. If it was still acting up it was sure to stop doing it within 5 minutes of my arrival.

It took four tries but we finally found the problem. I knew it was heat related and process related. Turned out to be a limit switch that sensed when the transmission was in neutral for manual positioning that was out of adjustment.

I use this as an example of why following proper troubleshooting procedures is so important to follow, especially with intermittent problems.

To often, deviating from this path takes us on a rabbit trail down a dead end.

steve-l · Feb 26, 2017

I picked up a 1986 STILL 2 tonne ex US Army diesel forklift which ran perfect. I did a complete restoration with all new rubber and glass. The biggest problem I had was with the electrics was corrosion, but not just at the harness connections. In the effort to save money, the factory used the chassis for load return for virtually everything and there lies many potential faults on older machinery. Be certain that all chassis components have good clean earth bonds free of both corrosion and paint. Consider using dedicated bonding cable across all chassis components.

Mud · Feb 26, 2017

If you have 2 or more problems contributing to the same symptom(s), how do you proceed?

Ziggy2 said:
It is even more imperative to use with intermittent problems. I know that these types of problems are very irritating but seldom does the nuclear approach get you where you need to be.

Now possibly your wiring harness might really be trash and needs to be replaced but the problem is probably not necessarily in the wiring harness but more likely in a switch, ground point or terminal connection. A re-wire might but more likely not actually solve the problem. This is why I'm always reluctant to encourage a person to use the re-wire approach.

We had a DeVlieg at work that would go dead whenever we ran a particular part. The problem was that the part was made in a single quantity about every four months and would occur during the same operation and of course had very tight tolerances.

Machine would go completely dead, they would call me over and depending on how far I was in the plant from the machine it might or might not be still acting up by the time I got there. If it was still acting up it was sure to stop doing it within 5 minutes of my arrival.

It took four tries but we finally found the problem. I knew it was heat related and process related. Turned out to be a limit switch that sensed when the transmission was in neutral for manual positioning that was out of adjustment.

I use this as an example of why following proper troubleshooting procedures is so important to follow, especially with intermittent problems.

To often, deviating from this path takes us on a rabbit trail down a dead end.

guest · Feb 26, 2017

WILLEO6709 said:
We have a Toyota 3 series.... had it for 15 years... old when we got it. My guess is 1990-94. Its gotten so its cantankerous......but in finally tracing down the issue we are finding 8 volts on the fuel on solenoid at times.... let it sit a few minutes and its back up to battery voltage and starts fine. when its 8 volts you may as well walk away. It run good once running, is a handy size. no hydraulic issues.... and I hate to spend 8-10k on a different one for a machine that runs an hour or 3 a day.

anybody sell wire harness retrofits?

3 Series is 1970's vintage. I'm assuming gasoline? Is the solenoid on the carburetor? You might want to pull the solenoid and bench test it. Sometimes you can take them apart and clean them up.

I would load test the battery. And verify that when the voltage is down at the solenoid you still have 13.8 at the battery. If you have good voltage at the battery, jump the wire and make sure that solves the problem.

These old trucks usually don't have wiring harnesses so much as a bunch of point to point connections, but they're not complicated.

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