Diverter valve wiring

[S B Rural Contracting]

Hi all, I'm looking for a bit of help with how to wire in a solenoid diverter valve to my Kubota kx61-3.

The plan is to fit a diverter valve to the hydraulic piping for the offset ram, so that I can switch between offset and tilting hitch on the rh foot pedal. This leaves the left hand foot pedal free for the standard aux circuit to be used with the tilting hitch still functional.

I'm confident enough with plumbing in the hydraulics but a bit stuck with the electrical side of things. My main concern is if I run a pos cable from the battery to the solenoid diverter via a switch, the solenoid will stay energised with the engine turned off if I forget to switch it off. I.e. I'll end up draining the battery on a regular basis.

What's the best way of tapping into an ignition live? I was optimistically hoping to use a spare space in the fuse box under the seat, thinking that there was a common positive but it looks like each fuse has its own positive so that won't work.

Help very much appreciated

Sam

 

[doobin]

Off the back of the ignition switch is easiest. Just stick a fuse inline at the start.

 

[CPS]

As @doobin says ignition live with a heavy switch and an inline fuse.
we have done a few this way for rotating grabs

 

[S B Rural Contracting]

Ok great, thanks for the help. Any idea if that will affect the immobiliser/anti theft seeing as it's a Kubota?

I think the solenoid draws about 3a so wasn't planning on using a relay, I take it it will be ok without?

 

[CPS]

Ok great, thanks for the help. Any idea if that will affect the immobiliser/anti theft seeing as it's a Kubota?

I think the solenoid draws about 3a so wasn't planning on using a relay, I take it it will be ok without?

Take the supply from the cigarette lighter

 

[S B Rural Contracting]

A little later than I was hoping for but I managed to get the diverter wired and plumbed in over the weekend. I find it really helpful to see photos of the process etc before starting a job like this but couldn't find anything online. So I'll attach some photos for reference for anyone else doing it in the future.

First step is to find a place where the diverter valve will fit, not exactly an easy job. Made up a little bracket to hold the valve that bolts onto a couple of existing bolts with just enough space around for all the hoses.
As suggested by CPS (thanks) I took a 12v love feed from the cigarette lighter wiring. This circuit is also used for the beacon and the two circuits are crimped together on the terminals at the back of the socket. Instead of trying the impossible to crimp three wires together under there I made up a little 3 way wire and crimped that onto each respective wire. Ran the wire through plastic conduit to give it some protection. Was a pain to feed through until I figured out it would help to bend over the end of the wire first. Wire from power feed to switch, then switch to valve. Connected up the wires to valve and connected a wire to earth. Tested and all works.

On the hydraulic side of things what I've done is located the slice of the main valve block that controls the boom offset. Controlled via the rh foot pedal on this machine. From there I removed the two hoses that go to the offset ram. Here you want to put two new hoses to p and t ports on the diverter valve. The two hoses that go to the offset boom can be attached to a pair of ports on the diverter valve and the other pair of ports will feed the extra auxiliary lines. I stuck on 3/8" BSP hoses about 5m long and they're just right.

Everything is really tight for space under the floor and it was a royal pain in the arse to get it all fitted together properly. More and more bits had to come off to gain access.

When it was all together and everything was tight I fired her up for a test. All was good apart from the boom swing moving in the opposite way to the foot pedal. No problem I though, just swap the hoses over. The trouble is is that despite my best efforts I got oil on everything and then it all got really really slippery. Really tricky to hold a loose diverter valve, a bent/twisted hose and then try to get the treads to meet nicely. How can you tell which way the oil is moving through a valve? I guess I could have traced the hoses on the original set up.

Last job to do that I might get done tonight is to fix the hoses on to the boom and dipper.

Hope that helps someone who's thinking about doing the same.