Side Trac Errors

[Waxman]

My Superior Side Trac is over-rotating. Last time it did something similar it was a bad motor brake. I replaced the brake in October and it ran fine till recently.

I did find a rubbed through cable for the rotate motor and instead of replacing the cable I was able to use a spare wire within the shielded cable. Now I am wondering if the problem could be in the wire/shielded cable and should I replace that?

I think I have eliminated the proxes being the issue, but there are several that must work with each other to govern rotation.

 

[Waxman]

I replaced the rear ultrasonic sensor and got the machine to make one complete presoak pass with no errors.

Time to put things back together and run a wash cycle completely to test again.

 

[Waxman]

Still over-rotating at odd places. Just like a bad motor brake but it is fairly new and tight.


???

 

[Fatboy769]

Waxman, I don't know anything about the Side Trac machine, but isn't the ultrasonic sensor for sizing of the vehicle? I would definately replace the cable if it has rubbed through it.

 

[Waxman]

Yes the ultrasonic sizes the vehicle.

The machine is acting like it did when I had a bad motor brake, over-rotating at all corners. Motor brake is only 2 mos. old, so I do not think it is that. Maybe a bad wire to the motor.

 

[ken-pro]

Is the motor brake passive or active?

ie: Does the motor brake apply as soon as power is removed from the motor (Passive) OR does the brake need to have another power source supplied (Active)?

I am not really familiar with how one of these works but if the brake requires another power source applied maybe this has failed? A faulty brake relay or contactor perhaps?

I would definitely replace the worn cable before investigating any further.

 

[Waxman]

The brake has wires that tie into the wires on the motor, so I think they have the same power source; a contactor inside the gantry. Motor stops and then brake engages almost instantly.

The brake works fine when I rotate the wash arm manually.

I am also going to check the communication cable, which connects PLC in pump room to gantry. My friend Gary in Colorado has had to replace his on same machine. I had an HP hose blow out last week and maybe it did some damage to the cable, as they run thru the same chain track system.

 

[soapy]

Anytime you have cables running through a flexing boom you will eventually have a cable failure. Many times the wires is failed under insulation and you have no way of knowing the wire is bad. Check your communication cable and see if they ran any spare wires. Locate the wire that carries the signal for your rotate prox and swap it with a spare wire if you have any. I keep few different rolls of wire around just for this reason. Not a bad idea to keep a length of multiwire cable around.

 

[Waxman]

Good advice Soapy; thank you. It seems too coincidental that the machine is behaving as if the motor brake is bad though it was new in October.

I will do what you suggest.

 

[Waxman]

There was apparently a sticky relay causing the over-rotate issue. I swapped it out with another relay and problem is (for now) cured.