# BobCat 863 Hydraulic Issue



## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

I have a Bobcat 863 skid steer. A problem has begun when I use the auxiliary hydraulics on the brush grapple. Everything works fine and intermittently the hydraulics will not open the grabber. It is doing this on two different grapples.

If I hold the switch over, it will very slowly open one side, then the other. It closes fine like always.

Can anyone tell me where to begin looking for a fix?

Thanks,

Tim


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Have you tried shutting off the motor and re-starting?......I have had a very infrequent "lapse" with my hydraulics and that seems to always remedy mine.

Regards, Mike


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

Vol said:


> Have you tried shutting off the motor and re-starting?......I have had a very infrequent "lapse" with my hydraulics and that seems to always remedy mine.
> 
> Regards, Mike


Yes, it will go back to normal for a little bit. Some times I can let it idle for a minute and the problem goes away, then begins again.

I feel it is either the switch going bad or a bad connection on what ever it is the switch activates to open and close.

Guess I will raise the cabin and try to figure out how things work.


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

Is your auxiliary control an on/off switch or a potentiometer control? The valve that runs the auxiliary circuit will be electrically controlled, it could be sticking or have a solenoid problem.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

Gearclash said:


> Is your auxiliary control an on/off switch or a potentiometer control? The valve that runs the auxiliary circuit will be electrically controlled, it could be sticking or have a solenoid problem.


The control has both. An on/off trigger for continuous, and a side to side control to extend and retract hydraulic cylinders.

It begins acting up when it is asked to extend the cylinder.

I will look for the solenoid and check the connections.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

Okay, you could have a pot getting flaky, or a computer issue, or a wiring problem, or a solenoid problem, or a valve sticking. If it will act up consistently then a multimeter will likely track down the problem. I'm just guessing here as I'm not familiar with Bobcat at all, but if this machine is quite new it may be possible to pull up error codes for this problem.


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