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I bought the EC20B in 2007, with 700 hours, it had been used by a garden nursery so had an easy life! Inevitably things fail.
In May 2021 I had to replace the starter, I've had my notes sitting in a greasy pile on the desk and I finally typed them up so I wouldn't lose them or forget for next time, and I thought it would be useful to add them here - someone might find them useful.
I've been quietly reading this forum for years, soaking up Muz's advice and tips, and anyone doing starter replacement on one of these beasts should first read Muz's topic
https://www.plantandconstruction.co....en-again/1092-
Without that, I would never have worked out how to do it.
So, read that topic, then prepare your own personal version of digger at 10 degree tilt on a scabby pile of sticky clay soil up to the bottom of the counterweight; with gentle drizzle and a sympathetic audience making useful comments like 'it's properly bugg$^d this time iinnit?'. This is my personal 'how I did it' modifying 'Muz's guide' as I went along, and will be of no use to experts who do this every day, but then, they won't be reading this will they....
For most of this I used a standard 1/2 inch drive socket set, with 4 inch and 12 inch extensions and a universal joint, metric ratchet spanners, screwdrivers etc. nothing too serious.
First, disconnect the battery - some of the wires we're pulling off are permanent 12v and there's no point blowing a fuse accidentally
Remove the yellow engine hood.
- Slacken the jubilee clip holding the flexible air intake hose to the air filter, remove hose at filter and thread back through the hole in the bracket fixed to the hood behind the right hand hood hinge so the hose sits by the radiator.
- Unplug the small push-on plastic breather hose fixed to the hood behind the left hood hinge.
- Undo the four 5mm allen bolts holding the hood to the chassis
- Unlatch the hood stay (the thing that holds the hood open) by pushing the bottom bit to the left and unclipping
- Hold the open part of the hood on your head and use both hands to wiggle the fixed part up where the back right corner is pinched between the radiator and the canopy piillar
Now remove the seat - you'll have to do it later unless you like lying on in on your gut and reaching down into the engine bay, so you may as well do it now
- Mine has a grammer MSG20 seat, weights a ton and doesn't fit up between the arms
- So I undo the four 13mm bolts holding it (which ARE a pain in the arse and even they need a long extension bar - everything Muz says about volvo access difficulty I agree with...)
- Then I push the metal seat base backwards and rotate it to vertical behind the arms while pulling the seat back forwards to lie flat - in other words rotating the seat around the axis through the two arm hinges, then it lifts out and you only have a minor hernia...
If you have the equipment, you can remove the counterweight - I didn't do it because I was on rough ground and once it fell to the floor I would never have got it back up again by hand. You can do this with it in place. Remove the two bolts either side and drop it down on it's hinges (FEEL that hernia...)
Fuel tank next (which sounds so easy...)
- Loosen the jubilee clip holding the fat air hose to the inlet manifold and just swing the hose forward for now
- Remove the lower end of the diesel hose that goes up from the fuel pump to the 'metal and glass water capture filter thingy' (must have a proper name...), and put the end in a jamjar, then remove the top end of the hose and watch the fuel go into the jar rather than all over the chassis / your shoes / clothing / counterweight
- Do the same with the two diesel hoses that run from the top of the tank (mark these hoses, it makes reattaching much easier)
- Detach the metal and glass filter / water trap
- Pull the fuel filter out of it's clip
- Slacken the jubilee clip holding the fat hose to the air filter and remove it
- Detach the black and white wires from the vacuum sensor on the side of the air filter
- Disconnect the plug that connects the fuel tank level sensor that is located about 20 cm from where the wires go into the top of the tank
- Remove the three 13mm bolts holding the air filter bracket assembly to the tank and remove it
- Now you've got access, pull off the back wire connector from behind the inspection lamp socket and undo the red wire with a 4mm straight screwdriver. This red wire will blow 5A fuse #5 if you didn't disconnect the battery...
- Fold the air filter assembly over above the alternator as far as the hydraulic breather (that comes through the firewall from the hydraulic fluid tank) will allow - you could disconnect this, but you don't need to and mine was crimped on so I didn't want to mess with it
- Remove the 17mm bolt holding the front edge of the fuel tank
- Wiggle the tank forward to release it from the rear clamp and lift out
This is something that I've not seen mentioned anywhere on this forum, so I guess is a difference between the EC20 and the EC15 - the back of the fuel tank is held in place by a flat piece of metal with a 5mm rubber damper, on two spacers secured from underneath by two nuts one of which is as impossible to access as the bottom bolt of the starter. Getting the tank OUT is easy - you just wiggle and pull, but getting it back IN is a specialist job - more on that later...
Now, another difference - I COULDN'T do the engine-swivel-boogie that Muz likes - perhaps the EC20 tray is different to the EC15; perhaps the angle of the machine meant something was sitting differently to they way it would on the flat, but I simply couldn't shift it so my engine stayed in place.
Exhaust system - I found I simply had to dismantle everything.
- As part of this I disconnected the wire on the coolant temperature sensor where it sits by the alternator and exhaust manifold - I didn't want the risk of ripping out the wire by accident.
- Four 13mm bolts to detach the downpipe from the 90 degree elbow on the back of the exhaust manifold - As Muz has said in many places, this is 'strength of a gorilla and fingers of a midwife' territory. three bolts come off with a universal joint on a ratchet bar, one of them I finally managed to shift with a 15cm long ratchet spanner on the bolt, and a 60cm jemmy to lever it round with the straight end of the jemmy against the firewall below the manifold, middle of the jemmy against the ratchet spanner and me hauling on the curved end of the jemmy above the engine. Once it gives, which it does with knuckle crushing speed at the point where you're giving it full-beans, you pick yourself back up off the floor and retrieve the jemmy from the neighbours greenhouse, and it's finger tight.
- Then you can fairly easily access the 6 13mm bolts holding the exhaust manifold to the back of the engine block.
Now we have to detach the silencer (which is welded to the downpipe and also has a separate short straight pipe coming back out) from it's various fixings
- On top of the silencer is a flange. Two horizontal nut/bolts hold it to an L bracket then a third vertical bolt holds the bracket to the chassis. I think Muz removes the two horizontal bolts (or this may be different on the EC20), but I tried that and failed, so I undid the single bolt from above by going down behind the alternator with both extensions on my socket bar and using a 19mm socket.
- Down by the main hydraulic pump remove the one 13mm bolt holding the very back end of the exhaust.
- Now, on your back under the machine (having manually dug away all the clay between the tracks and lifted the counterweight back up). On the bottom of the silencer is a much heavier flange with a single nut and bolt. A 17mm ratchet spanner and a small adjustable spanner removes it fairly easily.
- Slacken the 13mm bolt on the clamp that holds the silencer short pipe to what I call the 'outpipe' (the last bit of the exhaust), and separate the two pieces, Sadly, neither can be removed, there's no gap big enough, but you can now use the movement in the silencer assembly to move it over by the alternator
Now, at last, you can do what you SHOULD be able to do without all the above!
Starter
- One wire is a push-on, the others need a 13mm spanner - you DID disconnect the battery didn't you? It should be safe, but those are meaty wires....
- As there's nothing in the way, you can now easily access the two 12mm bolts holding the starter to the engine, as Muz has said multiple times, without doing EVERYTHING above, you will not be able to undo the bottom bolt on an EC20.
Rebuild is the reverse but on the EC20, the big problem is the fuel tank. See the rear bracket here:
If you try to shove the tank back in with the two nuts holding the rear mount tight, the tank catches the rubber damper and you can't locate it properly. After literally hours of fiddling about with it, the only way I could make it work was:
- BEFORE you reattach the clamp between the silencer and the outpipe, and before you attach the outpipe 13mm bolt
- From underneath, remove the nut holding that bracket nearest the engine, and leave the other one on one turn
- This gives you enough clearance to wiggle the tank back under the loose rubber strip
- The nut nearest the engine will do up with a 17mm socket on a universal joint if you move the outpipe out of the way
- The other one is impossible with normal tools - there is a plate below it too close to get a socket with universal joint on it, there is not enough throw for even a 12 degree short throw ratchet spanner, you need to fabricate a socket like this
With the driving arm at this 45degree angle, you can tighten it one click at a time reaching around above the exhaust that you've shoved as far out of the way as possible.
- - - - - - -
Sorry folks, tried to attach images but it won't let me.
In May 2021 I had to replace the starter, I've had my notes sitting in a greasy pile on the desk and I finally typed them up so I wouldn't lose them or forget for next time, and I thought it would be useful to add them here - someone might find them useful.
I've been quietly reading this forum for years, soaking up Muz's advice and tips, and anyone doing starter replacement on one of these beasts should first read Muz's topic
https://www.plantandconstruction.co....en-again/1092-
Without that, I would never have worked out how to do it.
So, read that topic, then prepare your own personal version of digger at 10 degree tilt on a scabby pile of sticky clay soil up to the bottom of the counterweight; with gentle drizzle and a sympathetic audience making useful comments like 'it's properly bugg$^d this time iinnit?'. This is my personal 'how I did it' modifying 'Muz's guide' as I went along, and will be of no use to experts who do this every day, but then, they won't be reading this will they....
For most of this I used a standard 1/2 inch drive socket set, with 4 inch and 12 inch extensions and a universal joint, metric ratchet spanners, screwdrivers etc. nothing too serious.
First, disconnect the battery - some of the wires we're pulling off are permanent 12v and there's no point blowing a fuse accidentally
Remove the yellow engine hood.
- Slacken the jubilee clip holding the flexible air intake hose to the air filter, remove hose at filter and thread back through the hole in the bracket fixed to the hood behind the right hand hood hinge so the hose sits by the radiator.
- Unplug the small push-on plastic breather hose fixed to the hood behind the left hood hinge.
- Undo the four 5mm allen bolts holding the hood to the chassis
- Unlatch the hood stay (the thing that holds the hood open) by pushing the bottom bit to the left and unclipping
- Hold the open part of the hood on your head and use both hands to wiggle the fixed part up where the back right corner is pinched between the radiator and the canopy piillar
Now remove the seat - you'll have to do it later unless you like lying on in on your gut and reaching down into the engine bay, so you may as well do it now
- Mine has a grammer MSG20 seat, weights a ton and doesn't fit up between the arms
- So I undo the four 13mm bolts holding it (which ARE a pain in the arse and even they need a long extension bar - everything Muz says about volvo access difficulty I agree with...)
- Then I push the metal seat base backwards and rotate it to vertical behind the arms while pulling the seat back forwards to lie flat - in other words rotating the seat around the axis through the two arm hinges, then it lifts out and you only have a minor hernia...
If you have the equipment, you can remove the counterweight - I didn't do it because I was on rough ground and once it fell to the floor I would never have got it back up again by hand. You can do this with it in place. Remove the two bolts either side and drop it down on it's hinges (FEEL that hernia...)
Fuel tank next (which sounds so easy...)
- Loosen the jubilee clip holding the fat air hose to the inlet manifold and just swing the hose forward for now
- Remove the lower end of the diesel hose that goes up from the fuel pump to the 'metal and glass water capture filter thingy' (must have a proper name...), and put the end in a jamjar, then remove the top end of the hose and watch the fuel go into the jar rather than all over the chassis / your shoes / clothing / counterweight
- Do the same with the two diesel hoses that run from the top of the tank (mark these hoses, it makes reattaching much easier)
- Detach the metal and glass filter / water trap
- Pull the fuel filter out of it's clip
- Slacken the jubilee clip holding the fat hose to the air filter and remove it
- Detach the black and white wires from the vacuum sensor on the side of the air filter
- Disconnect the plug that connects the fuel tank level sensor that is located about 20 cm from where the wires go into the top of the tank
- Remove the three 13mm bolts holding the air filter bracket assembly to the tank and remove it
- Now you've got access, pull off the back wire connector from behind the inspection lamp socket and undo the red wire with a 4mm straight screwdriver. This red wire will blow 5A fuse #5 if you didn't disconnect the battery...
- Fold the air filter assembly over above the alternator as far as the hydraulic breather (that comes through the firewall from the hydraulic fluid tank) will allow - you could disconnect this, but you don't need to and mine was crimped on so I didn't want to mess with it
- Remove the 17mm bolt holding the front edge of the fuel tank
- Wiggle the tank forward to release it from the rear clamp and lift out
This is something that I've not seen mentioned anywhere on this forum, so I guess is a difference between the EC20 and the EC15 - the back of the fuel tank is held in place by a flat piece of metal with a 5mm rubber damper, on two spacers secured from underneath by two nuts one of which is as impossible to access as the bottom bolt of the starter. Getting the tank OUT is easy - you just wiggle and pull, but getting it back IN is a specialist job - more on that later...
Now, another difference - I COULDN'T do the engine-swivel-boogie that Muz likes - perhaps the EC20 tray is different to the EC15; perhaps the angle of the machine meant something was sitting differently to they way it would on the flat, but I simply couldn't shift it so my engine stayed in place.
Exhaust system - I found I simply had to dismantle everything.
- As part of this I disconnected the wire on the coolant temperature sensor where it sits by the alternator and exhaust manifold - I didn't want the risk of ripping out the wire by accident.
- Four 13mm bolts to detach the downpipe from the 90 degree elbow on the back of the exhaust manifold - As Muz has said in many places, this is 'strength of a gorilla and fingers of a midwife' territory. three bolts come off with a universal joint on a ratchet bar, one of them I finally managed to shift with a 15cm long ratchet spanner on the bolt, and a 60cm jemmy to lever it round with the straight end of the jemmy against the firewall below the manifold, middle of the jemmy against the ratchet spanner and me hauling on the curved end of the jemmy above the engine. Once it gives, which it does with knuckle crushing speed at the point where you're giving it full-beans, you pick yourself back up off the floor and retrieve the jemmy from the neighbours greenhouse, and it's finger tight.
- Then you can fairly easily access the 6 13mm bolts holding the exhaust manifold to the back of the engine block.
Now we have to detach the silencer (which is welded to the downpipe and also has a separate short straight pipe coming back out) from it's various fixings
- On top of the silencer is a flange. Two horizontal nut/bolts hold it to an L bracket then a third vertical bolt holds the bracket to the chassis. I think Muz removes the two horizontal bolts (or this may be different on the EC20), but I tried that and failed, so I undid the single bolt from above by going down behind the alternator with both extensions on my socket bar and using a 19mm socket.
- Down by the main hydraulic pump remove the one 13mm bolt holding the very back end of the exhaust.
- Now, on your back under the machine (having manually dug away all the clay between the tracks and lifted the counterweight back up). On the bottom of the silencer is a much heavier flange with a single nut and bolt. A 17mm ratchet spanner and a small adjustable spanner removes it fairly easily.
- Slacken the 13mm bolt on the clamp that holds the silencer short pipe to what I call the 'outpipe' (the last bit of the exhaust), and separate the two pieces, Sadly, neither can be removed, there's no gap big enough, but you can now use the movement in the silencer assembly to move it over by the alternator
Now, at last, you can do what you SHOULD be able to do without all the above!
Starter
- One wire is a push-on, the others need a 13mm spanner - you DID disconnect the battery didn't you? It should be safe, but those are meaty wires....
- As there's nothing in the way, you can now easily access the two 12mm bolts holding the starter to the engine, as Muz has said multiple times, without doing EVERYTHING above, you will not be able to undo the bottom bolt on an EC20.
Rebuild is the reverse but on the EC20, the big problem is the fuel tank. See the rear bracket here:
If you try to shove the tank back in with the two nuts holding the rear mount tight, the tank catches the rubber damper and you can't locate it properly. After literally hours of fiddling about with it, the only way I could make it work was:
- BEFORE you reattach the clamp between the silencer and the outpipe, and before you attach the outpipe 13mm bolt
- From underneath, remove the nut holding that bracket nearest the engine, and leave the other one on one turn
- This gives you enough clearance to wiggle the tank back under the loose rubber strip
- The nut nearest the engine will do up with a 17mm socket on a universal joint if you move the outpipe out of the way
- The other one is impossible with normal tools - there is a plate below it too close to get a socket with universal joint on it, there is not enough throw for even a 12 degree short throw ratchet spanner, you need to fabricate a socket like this
With the driving arm at this 45degree angle, you can tighten it one click at a time reaching around above the exhaust that you've shoved as far out of the way as possible.
- - - - - - -
Sorry folks, tried to attach images but it won't let me.