Genie Manlift joystick troubleshooting and repair, help!

Mr. Wrench said: Yes those are the trim pots that have the green stuff on them. You just have to carefully remove the glue/sealer to adjust them. They usually take a small flat screwdriver. Click to expand... A very very small flat screwdriver at that. Lucky me, I got one made for that when I was at JLG school at the McConnellsburg factory in 2002, still have it.

im going to give it a shot as soon as this winter storm subsides! i think you guys have me heading in the right direction. thank you all for the help i will post what happens mack

well the weather finally got warm enough to let me give this a shot. I have a good hot battery , when i follow the directions and check voltage none of the trim pots seem to do anyhting but one of them. I was able to adjust the voltage on just the one. Any thoughts why it doesnt work? FYI the only reaso i was replacing this was the boot was worn out and i seem to always have difficulty with the primary boom going u and down all the time (works intermittently) and the swing is VERY slow to move. I put the old one back on just to see if it still worked.

Well...did it still work???

BTW, is this like a Z45/25 or something?

Z45/25 and yes when i put the old one back on it worked, but i tried adjusting the trim pots on the old one and saw no noticeable change in voltage, my meter is a good one (fluke) really lost here

It's really hard to tell looking at a picture, but when I go back and look at the pic in post #9, are you certain you have that new joystick hooked up right with the circuit boards? Again, if you're standing in the platform and open that lid, the swing/primary boom controller is to your far left, shown in post #9. That's a dual axis joystick. The circuit board on your left is for swing, the circuit board on your right is primary boom. As for the joystick, those Molex connectors have to be connected to the correct circuit board. This is hard to explain, but to attempt to make it simple as I can, on that joystick, you have two potentiometers, two round things, and two microswitches on the opposite side of those potentiometers. Standing in the platform with the lid open, the potentiometer directly in front of you is for swing. On the opposite side of the joystick is the microswitch that controls swing. That potentiometer and microswitch has to connect to the circuit board on your left. I could be wrong, but looking at that pic in post #9 it looks like those are connected to the circuit board on your right, which would be wrong. I'm posting your pic with some red arrows pointing out the swing potentiometer and micro switch, you may have to enlarge the pic to see the arrows. Make sure you have those connected properly.

Well, just saw that you posted before I posted, kinda wipes out my previous post.

kentuckynet said: Z45/25 and yes when i put the old one back on it worked, but i tried adjusting the trim pots on the old one and saw no noticeable change in voltage, my meter is a good one (fluke) really lost here Click to expand... Just to clarify for the sake of those reading this thread and that we're both on the same page, are you changing out the joystick by itself? Or are you changing out both joystick "and" the two circuit boards with new ones?

up until now its been a new joystick and two circuit boards, but i returned the new one due to the fact when i adjusted the trim pots the voltage would not change. Soooooo should i start a new thread as my question is now going to change??? Using my old joystick and both old control boards....... The swing requires you to push the joystick all the way to make it move and it moves very slowly. The up and down is very similar maybe a little faster, what would be the steps to make them move with less stick force and move faster? Is there fix for this???

I would suggest keeping this thread going, that keeps a lot of different troubleshooting information, and hopefully results, in one easy place for others to follow. To answer your question, ideally, if the joystick and circuit board are operating properly, all the things you mentioned are adjustable with those trim pots. However, it does require good voltage at the circuit board + terminal. That's why I suggested several posts back that the first thing you need to do is check the voltage at the + terminal, both static with footswitch depressed, and while operating the joystick. A good nominal 12V is preferred, but you may see voltage drop because of the distance of wire feeding voltage to the platform. You'll still get good operation if you see voltage at around 11V at the + terminal, but if it drops to 10V or below you're going to have operation problems. 8 to 9V they pretty much quit working.

i went back and re-read this entire post, one thing im not sure about, where is the f and g terminals youre talking about? I wasnt worried about having 12v due to me good hot battery but i figured i should do what you say. But i have no idea where to find these location?

Go back to your post #16, it's in that service manual page you posted. But that A, B, C, D, etc, that's the Genie manual, you won't find that on those Circuit boards. I'm talking about testing voltage at the terminal strip of the circuit board. You'll see identifying marks on the side of that black terminal strip. You'll have a wire connected to the R terminal, which activates Hi drive, a wire connected to the + (positive) terminal, a wire connected to the - (negative/ground) terminal, and a wire connected to the A terminal, which is proportional output. Connect your volt meter to the + and - terminals, start engine, when you step on the foot pedal it powers up the + terminal, you should see a good static 12V. When you engage the joystick the voltage may drop slightly, but if it drops under 10 volt you're going to experience operation problems. Your post #19 shows a pic of that circuit board terminal strip. BTW, would you like for me to change the title of your thread since it's kinda moved way beyond removing the knob?

yes please feel free to change the title and thank you again for all your help, mack

Done.

seems like i take one step forward and two steps back no matter what i try and do to this machine! The foot pedal has needed repalced for a long long time, it came in today. I took a picture of how the wires were before i removed them. But to my amazement i must have reversed the teo you can see very well. One is a ground and its almost the same color as one of these in my picture. When i step on the pedal it doesnt rev up, it engages the controls but doesnt increase the rpms. When i flip the switch to speed it up on the console it still doesnt. Any ideas? I trimmed back all the wires with no insualtion on them and put new ends on them.

Don't know why they have a ground hooked up in the footswitch as it's not necessary. And I don't know if it applies to your serial number, but on our Z45/22 the black wire, power in from TP26, to common (C) terminal of foot switch. Red wire connects to normally closed (NC) and goes to TP25 to power start. White wire connects to normally open (NO) and goes to TP24 which pretty much powers up all functions of the platform controls when you step on the foot switch. You need to follow the wiring schematic for your machine in the service manual. If you don't have that you can download it from the Genie website. Genie schematics and diagrams are fairly straightforward, clean, and easy to follow. They can be invaluable doing troublshooting like this.

thank you i will see if i can download it

No need for thanks, just doing what I can to help, that's my contribution before I'm gone. I've been working on these machines for over 40 years. I get the impression that this is a new experience for you. And that's good, I had to start at one time, we all do. Embrace it, buckle up and get ready for the journey and be ready to learn. The good part, these are not "high tech" machines to learn on, no computer or CanBus controls, just hard wires, a good canvas for learning the fundamentals.