Snowplow Forums banner

Variously not working...Fisher 7'6" SD 10 years old

2K views 37 replies 7 participants last post by  TwiceStroked 
#1 ·
It was 9 days ago this started.
 
#2 ·
Hit wrong key and didn't get to finish question. Sorry
Went to use plow. Hit up. Nothing. Hit left button - it goes to the right and stays there. Wont go up or down. Tried pushing it into a bank a few times to get plow up to go to town and get machanic to look at it. After pushing piston a few times to the left all of a sudden the controls work again.
Mechanc changed solenoid under hood. Next dday same thing.
Mechanic changes the hydraulic fluid and cleans the filter. He mentions a lot of corrosion on 3 pin connector going to the plow but he doesnt want to keep just running up my bill by changing alot of parts.
Next day same thing. So I buy an new wire harness that goes to the valves on plow. It works fine.
Next day not working again.
Mechanic replaces valve that makes it go left ( i think) says it was not working and that might make all the valves act strangely.
Next day not working - plow goes left and right and up but won't come down. This is different from the last few times it wouldn't work.
I decide I'm going to replace the other 2 valves myself but then have an idea to throw a hairdyer on the pump just above where the valves are mounted.
After 5 minutes of heat the plow works fine again.
Pulling my hair out. Decide not to replace the valves. Plow my yard and the neighbors no problem and decide to see what happens tommorrow ,Sunday.
I might mention everytime the plow did not work the temps were in the 20's like this morning. My imagniation says when it was above 30's its been working fine the times before.
What have we missed??
 
#7 ·
All it takes is a teaspoon of water, when frozen, to screw things up.
However, I have seen several valves, somehow damaged from having ice in the system, look fine,act fine, except they would stick when cold. Perhaps from "deadheading". Last one was a A valve on a meyer, would only stick and not work, when below about 10f. Some older valves can be disassembled, cleaned,sanded/polished. Good luck!
 
#9 · (Edited)
I’ll get a different plow from a different mfg if the valves can be damaged from Deadheading,

to destroy a valve your going to need a lot more than a teaspoon in the system to freeze and expand destroying the valve.

If you really had that small amount of water a couple tablespoons of I heat Would be a temporary fix also
some will do that I don’t.

If you really believe you have that much water in the system it’s time to drain the whole system flushing with fresh fluid,
get the fluid out of the rams disconnect the hoses at the Rams compress the ram get all the fluid out drain hoses clean out the reservoir and Fill with fresh fluid.

When you pull in reservoir off take note is the screen covered with black Crap ,chunks of rubber or does the stuff around the filter resemble thick snot
 
#12 ·
Update
Brought in to the mechanic that has been working w me. Took off cover from pump solenoids and found no power going to the magnet? Said he pulled on the wire harness under hood which is run tightly in fron of the battery and suddenly the plow went down. He thinks worn wire shorting maybe but electrical is not his expertise. Thought maybe me using the blowdryer on pump was a fluke fix.
Its strange that the original problem I brought this in for is different from what is happening now. As far as electrical possiblility i recall that I changed the harness going to the pump on the plow side; the 3 pin harness - could that be defective from factory?
Contacted two other plow machanics. One can't get me in til Thursday mornng to look at it. Second company said maybe new harness bad but the problem would have ot be consistent to check it out- they also said they had seen strange things happen w Fishstick controller going bad and said maybe try to swap it.
This is getting very frustrating. Intermittant problem is the worst. Since he touched it yesterday it had worked fine plowing the rest of the day.
Will try again later today.
 
#13 ·
Plow not working again. No amount of tugging on wiring where the machanic said he did has made it come work again. Still won't go down.
Its too bad they did not make the Fishtick cord long enough I can control plow and do any testing up front myself. Waiting for a helper to run plow control so I can get my volt meter on it.
 
#15 ·
So much crap in there and they have it run so tight to the battery not sure I could get a pic if I knew how to post one.
No obvious wear marks . Zero tape or splices. Actually looks brand new like day they installed it.
New solenoid as of last week and everything is clean and shiny an tight.
Plug at grill is clean. This the 3 pin plug I'm talking about that goes to the pump. Checked w meter an I have voltage on truck side pins. I'm thinking its the single pin by itself that goes to the white wire that controls the down control of pump? Hard to check by myself but it seemed at first there was no voltage at white wire on pump but there def was voltage on truck side.
I'm just thinking that this new trouble started after I replaced the harness last week going to the pump while trying to figure out the original problem I had last week.
Bad harness from the manufacturer?
Of course after messing around and checking voltages the f--kin thing started working suddenly. Once it starts working it has continued working for the day so won't know again until tommorrow.
Really appreciate your help. Thank s much.
 
#19 ·
I did not touch anything on the truck side of harness except to yank on the bundle of wires he said he touched. That side of the system is brand new last year when installed on my new truck.

I was checking voltages with plow side disconnected on the truckside plug. Had voltage hits on all three pins on that plug Through deduction I think the single pin goes to the white wire. Orignally with everything plugged in I was getting no voltage on white wire on pump. Of course I put the whole thing back togther to test voltage again and it was working!!
As a test I put the old harness back on and will try it again tomorrow because once it starts working its good for the day.
I hear what your saying about new harness unlikely bad but in my world of electronics I 've had a lot of stuff defective out of box chasing me down rabbit holes until I tried the old stuff.
Another tech on phone is telling me the coil to the valve might be bad - it seems like if it was I would still have voltage going to it but it wouldn't magnetize.
 
#20 ·
Seniors are you wount post pictures seeing as you don’t think we can diagnose anything using your pictures here’s another one you
To run down when your wiring loom goes through the firewall does it run through a grommet.

but be sure to call your local tech and ask him.

coils are rearely kind of bad sometimes when they start to go they swell up and then when you Energizer them the rod won’t move and they burn up.

So yeah if he’s yanking on the loom it was a problem in the loom

goodluck
At least it’s not full of water and frozen lol
 
#21 ·
Seniors are you wount post pictures seeing as you don’t think we can diagnose anything using your pictures here’s another one you
To run down when your wiring loom goes through the firewall does it run through a grommet.

but be sure to call your local tech and ask him.

coils are rearely kind of bad sometimes when they start to go they swell up and then when you Energizer them the rod won’t move and they burn up.

So yeah if he’s yanking on the loom it was a problem in the loom

goodluck
At least it’s not full of water and frozen lol
Yes that is what my tech said about the coils also. My yanking on the loom of wires inside truck did nothing. I had no voltage at the white wire going to the down coil. But I did have voltage at all three pins on truckside plug. Fisher is saying maybe I got a bad harness also.
Man I wish it was water and ice in pump or something simple as that. Electrical, motor or has a vagina its gonna give you trouble.
 
#22 ·
Even new harnesses like you say could have issues did you replace the harness on the plow side? what is your plug like? is it really making good connections? Are the pins and sockets in good condition? you can take a ohm meter or use it in diode mode and check for continuity or resistance useing the ohm setting on the wires
From the plugs wires to the coils

did you crawl under there and physically look at where the wires pass through the firewall
Or did you just tug on them?
 
#23 ·
Even new harnesses like you say could have issues did you replace the harness on the plow side? what is your plug like? is it really making good connections? Are the pins and sockets in good condition? you can take a ohm meter or use it in diode mode and check for continuity or resistance useing the ohm setting on the wires
From the plugs wires to the coils

did you crawl under there and physically look at where the wires pass through the firewall
Or did you just tug on them?
So its not the new harness as after lunch I tested again and it wouldn't go down. Thats the old harness back on. When I went to start testing again the damn thing started working again so there was nothing to look for. Going to look at where fishstick goes through firewall after lunch.
 
#25 ·
Update
Local garage lent me there spare joystick. Plow started working soon as they put it on. Let me use it over ight and the plow seems to work fine now. Shelled out $435 for a new Fishstick. Dealer says the stick is only warrantied for one year unless they sold me the plow also. I had reused my old plow but they installed everyting new on truck side. They admitted the Sticks aren't very reliable and they go thru a lot of them but said the old joysticks which cost the same amount didn't last much longer.
This plow is only used for my small driveway parking area so not much. Never abuse the stick and it looks brand new. I know electronics can be finicky but this thing is garbage if they don't last more than one season.
Contacted Fisher and they just responded to contact dealer about any warranty. Thanks for your money but bugger off is what I got out of that.
 
#38 ·
Just my .02, my 2004 fishstick is still going strong.
Summers inside in the Non-S&I seasons.
First yr I 4got where I put it.
Live and Learn
A place for everything and
Everything in its place.
I did buy a replacement circuit board back when everyone was having issues haven't used it.
But in my experience Murphy's law rules.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top