Vector carriage Jam

[Whale of a Wash]

My 2yr old vector is sizing the back of the vehicle on the HP pass poorly and sometimes puts the arms into the rocker blasters, does it on a every 2-3 day period. Most of the time it is a minivan or a very large truck. I'm thinking the sonar is getting weak, and putting the arms way too far back, and jamming. any suggestions
John

 

[Waxman]

sounds like the ultrasonic is flaking out. my touchfree sizes on the first presoak pass so I know when it's the ultrasonic's fault.

On my machine I can re-teach these. Can you?

 

[Chad]

John, out 4yr old vector did this. It was our gearbox. On the rear of large vehicles during the Hp pass the water pressure would move the carriage backwards and carriage jam. Hope this helps. Chad

 

[MEP001]

New tires might temporarily tighten up the machine to lessen the drift until you can replace the gearbox.

Your rocker blasters are too close if the machine can hit them. Can you move them back?

On my machine I can re-teach these. Can you?

No, Vector uses a proprietary version and it must be replaced if it's acting up.

 

[soapy]

If you do have a bad gear box try taking it to a local electric motor repair shop. They will also fix gear boxes. I have had luck with my local shop rebuilding propietary gear boxes in some instances.

 

[Chad]

Wished I would have known about repairing the gearboxes, the price of a new one was pretty crazy. Next time.

 

[Waxman]

John

What happened with this? Did you fix it?

 

[Whale of a Wash]

The very Infrequent problem -finally went full time. Had to just replace the cable over to the butterfly prox switch. Pretty quick fix once , the problem is more than a once a week thing.

 

[mac]

On repairing gearboxes, you can do it yourself pretty easily. Locate the manufacturer and order seals and the two shafts. If it's a proprietary gearbox, you can still order the seals and parts for a regular one. One company I know has a proprietary gearbox, but the only thing they changed was the seal to a high temp one. Regular ones work fine. The problem though is that the parts cost more than a new box in most cases.

 

[wyatt]

This is a somewhat related question.

My Vector is faulting out "Carriage Jam"

The problem seems to be with the proximity switch that controls the side to side motion. The prox switch goes along a long row of teeth telling it how far it has traveled. Anyways mine seems to get lost because it goes all the way past the row of teeth and jams all the way to the passenger side.

My settings have never allowed motion from right to left. I have opted to keep it at zero so in theory mine should never move in the first place.

I'm assuming its a bad prox switch but wondered what else I should try.

Thanks

 

[JGinther]

The carriage is the whole unit. The motor for the carriage drives the unit to the front and rear of the bay. You are explaining the 'Shuttle' in your description, but the error is 'carriage jam'? Did you 'fix' some wiring recently?

 

[wyatt]

Yes, sorry shuttle jam.

 

[JGinther]

Prox switch or qc cable would be first thought. If you jog the shuttle, does it respond properly?

 

[wyatt]

Yes it does jog side to side no problem.

 

[JGinther]

Then probably the prox or qc cable is the culprit. Does it fail when you reset the machine? Or just randomly during a wash when other washes work fine?

 

[wyatt]

It was failing right after resetting the machine. Then after I jogged it a few times it will stay working for 6-12 hours and then fail again.

It doesn't fail during a wash, it does randomly when it purges I've noticed. Don't have any idea how that's related but that's usually when I get the fault code is after I hear it blow air out of the arms.

 

[MEP001]

I can't see how the purge should cause it since a shuttle jam error should only come up while the machine is running.

I'd recommend taking a look at the "picket fence" that the prox reads, make sure the prox gap is correct and that the gap is the same at home and jogged at least halfway over. The "picket fence" is steel, if it shows heavy rust and the powdercoat is peeling, take it down, clean off all rust and repaint it. The prox has a tendency to corrode into the aluminum carriage, so be careful trying to adjust it if you need to. I usually end up hammering the old one out and drilling the threads. I don't know why they thread them when they can't powdercoat the threads, especially when the nuts it comes with hold it in place more than sufficiently.

 

[wyatt]

Thanks for the input, it is up and running for the time being. I will see if it gives me any further trouble.

 

[wyatt]

My prox switch is toast now... completely rusted out and broke in half. Can someone please let me know if a switch from kleenrite will work? Please send a direct link as well as the new plug and wire to connect it.

hoping to overnight it and get back up and running.

last time I went through Belanger it took forever so I’m hoping a kleenrite prox will work.

thanks!!

 

[wyatt]

I'm assuming this will work?

Hydrospray Replacement Parts|12mm Encoder (Turck/PNP/Modicon)|car wash

The Best Price On 12mm Encoder (Turck/PNP/Modicon)

www.kleen-ritecorp.com

I also went to this website because they have the vector manual and in the manual it has this as the part number. BUT in the manual it shows there's two prox switches. Mine only has one prox switch..

PROX SWITCH AB PLSTC 12MM

Used on Vector Shuttle ass...

www.ascws.com