April 14, 2009

• Problem Solved

  A little over a week ago, I brought a Mustang 2109 skidloader home from Texas. It had one problem: it wouldn’t crank when you turned the key. However, it would start just fine if you manually applied power to the ignition wire going to the solenoid on the starter.

  Yesterday I called Mustang headquarters in Wisconsin, and got routed to their technical parts department. The guy I talked to was incredibly helpful. He gave me the part numbers for several different manuals, then found that he had the wiring diagram on his system. He converted it to a pdf file, and emailed it right over to me – no charge. He also told me they have a service hotline you can call for diagnostic help – also free! I’m very impressed with their service, especially considering that I’m no dealer, and they didn’t simply direct me to call my nearest dealer.

  I took the wiring diagram to a friend of mine in Hutchinson who has a print shop. He printed it on a 36″ x 36″ paper for me. Then I traced the wiring on the diagram to a relay between the ignition key and the solenoid. Raised the cab, located the relay and removed it. Took it to my workbench, and hooked it up to my DC power supply. I could hear and feel the relay click – but got no continuity across the two posts that were supposed to permit power to go to the solenoid. Bingo.

  Today I went to Rose Motors in Hutchinson – just two blocks from my shop. I showed the relay to one of the guys at the counter, and he thought it looked like a standard relay. A few minutes later he came back with an exact match! I was thrilled! I had had visions of calling Mustang headquarters, getting directed to a local dealer, who would then order an obscure part from Mustang, who might then come back and say its backordered…. etc etc. This was just SO easy.

  Went home, plugged it in, lowered the cab, turned the key – and it fired right up. Every time.

  I’m one happy guy.

  Next project: building a bucket, forks, and tree jaw.

  • 11:11 pm
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