c/elevator-mechanics

4

gray875•16d ago

Spent 6 months fighting a sticky hydraulic valve before a guy from Detroit showed me the trick

I was swapping valves on a 20 year old Dover unit in an office building near St. Paul and could not get the hydraulic fluid to stop foaming. An old timer walking by told me to bleed the air out of the return line before even touching the valve itself. I did it on the next job and the whole system ran smooth in under 10 minutes. Has anyone else run into this issue with older hydraulic setups?

6

mark_ward•16d ago

Old timer in a St. Louis freight elevator taught me something I still use

I was working a modernization job at a 1920s building downtown a few years back. This older mechanic, maybe 68 years old, came up to chat while I was wrestling with a stuck controller. He said "son, you're fighting the machine instead of listening to it." Then he tapped the relay panel with his knuckle, heard something, and pointed right at a loose contact that took me 20 minutes to find. He walked off without even saying his name. Has anyone else had a random encounter like that where one line from a stranger just stuck with you?

14

claire_davis31•1mo ago

Shoutout to that one door switch that finally gave up on me

I had an Otis elevator in a 12-story office building in Phoenix acting up all last week, doors cycling open and closed for no reason. Turned out to be a crusty door zone switch that I'd passed over three times because the contacts looked fine from the outside. Has anyone else had a seemingly good component just fail in a weird way like that?

30

jana881•1mo ago

Question about a weird elevator setup I saw in a Chicago hotel this weekend

I was staying at this older hotel near the Loop on Saturday and their service elevator had this really strange controller setup. The buttons were laid out in a circle instead of a straight line, and the emergency stop was on the bottom right instead of the usual top corner. They had a handwritten note taped to the panel saying "press slowly" in Sharpie. Has anyone else run into a setup like this where the wiring or controller placement just seems totally off from what we're used to? I'm wondering if it's some older code thing or just a bad retrofit.

18

brianreed•1mo ago

That talk with an old union guy at a supply house

I was grabbing a new limit switch at the local supply house in Philly last Tuesday and an old-timer named Lou starts telling me about how he never trusts digital leveling sensors on jobs older than 1990. He said he's seen three close calls because those sensors get confused by old building vibrations and misread the floor every time. Has anyone else run into weird behavior from digital gear on those pre-war installs?

0

logan658•1mo ago

Motor controller swap I did on a Dover that went sideways

So I swapped out a motor controller on a Dover elevator in a 12 story building last month. Everyone says to stick with OEM parts or you'll have nothing but problems. But I used a third party unit from a small shop in Ohio and saved the building $2,800. After 3 days the controller started throwing a fault code I could never get to clear. Had to go back and rewire the whole damn thing with the OEM part anyway. I learned that sometimes the cheap route costs you more in labor and headaches. Has anyone else had luck with off brand controllers on older Dover models?

14

the_brian•1mo ago

Had a building manager scream at me in a lobby in Atlanta last Tuesday

I was doing a routine leveling adjustment on a 20 year old Otis in a mid-rise office building. This manager comes running over yelling that I was messing with the car and making it slow. I just stopped, looked at him, and asked if he wanted the doors to line up with the floor or not. He calmed down after I showed him the gap was almost an inch off. Anyone else run into people who think they know your job better than you?

6

gavin365•1mo ago

Stop using WD-40 on elevator guide rails. It's not a solution.

I keep running into maintenance guys who spray WD-40 on guide rails to quiet down a noisy elevator. That stuff is a cleaner and a light lubricant, it's not meant for the weight and friction of elevator rails. I had a job last month in a 12-story building where someone did this and the car started jerking after three weeks because the WD-40 just attracted dust and gummed everything up. You need a proper rail grease like Shell Gadus or an OEM spec lubricant. If you're using WD-40 on rails, what are you actually using for the ropes and bearings? Has anyone else seen this shortcut cause a call back?

8

jamieb80•1mo ago

Finally admitted to myself that adjusting limit switches by feel is dumb

Been doing it for 8 years. Every time. Get in the zone, tweak the switch, test it, tweak again. Last Tuesday at a Schindler 330a in a 12-story building downtown, I got called out by the building super. He watched me go back and forth 4 times before the car leveled right. He just goes 'you know that thing has a digital readout for a reason right?' Never even crossed my mind. Grabbed the manual right there. Fixed it on the first try. Who else learned a basic trick way later than they should have?

28

king.eric•1mo ago

The day I learned to stop greasing guide rails by feel

For 12 years, I always just greased elevator guide rails until they looked wet. Then last month in a 40-year-old Otis in Minneapolis, we had a call about a rough ride. I pulled the car into inspection and the guide shoes had caked-up grease so thick i could peel it off in chunks. An old-timer on the job showed me how to use a rail gauge to check the film thickness instead of eyeballing it. Turns out I was putting too much on for years, causing extra drag and wear on the shoes. Has anyone else measured their rail lube or do most guys still just go by feel?

11

ben_lewis•1mo ago

The day I stopped wrapping cables like it was Christmas morning

Used to spend 20 minutes perfectly coiling every control wire on service calls, all neat and tidy. Then I saw a senior mechanic in Chicago just zip-tie the slack to the rail and move on, and realized my method was wasting time nobody pays for. Anyone else overthink cable management early on?

16

shanef34•1mo ago

Blew $400 on a controller board I didn't need

Had an MCE elevator acting up. Flashing error code 42. I was sure it was the main controller board. Ordered a new one from the supplier. $400 later plus shipping. Turns out it was just a loose wire on the door lock relay. Coulda fixed it in 5 minutes with a screwdriver. Anyone else jump to the expensive fix first?

21

claire_davis31•1mo ago

Old timer told me I was burning through door motor brushes too fast

Guy named Steve from Local 3 in Chicago watched me swap a set on a Otis Gen2 and just said 'your gaps too tight son'. I was setting them at 0.020 like the manual said but he showed me to open them to 0.028 in that specific model. Cut my brush replacement down from every 4 months to almost a year now. Any of you guys run into weird tolerances that don't match the book?

16

mark_ward•1mo ago

That moment I forgot to check the governor tension on a 10 stop mod

We were finishing up a mod at a 6 story office building downtown last Thursday. Got the doors timed perfect, safeties checked, but I skipped the governor cable tension because I figured it was fine from the factory setup. Ropes started bouncing during the final test run and the car jammed between floors. Took us 3 hours to reset and re-tension everything with a tensionometer. Anyone else had a governor issue that looked fine on paper but totally failed in the field?

35

the_brian•1mo ago

Talked to a kid who got into the trade through a YouTube channel last week

He was 19 and said he learned more from watching a guy with 200 subscribers troubleshoot a busted MRL machine than he did from his whole apprenticeship textbook, and it hit me that the way we pass down knowledge has completely flipped since I started.

13

caseythompson•1mo ago

TIL that adjusting the door hanger roller depth by 1/8 inch fixed a chronic leveling issue

Had a 2017 Otis Gen2 in a 12-story building in Austin that kept throwing door fault codes every three weeks. After replacing the belts and track sensors I was still getting complaints. I finally grabbed my feeler gauge and found the top roller was sitting 1/8 inch deeper than the bottom one. Has anyone else had to shim those Gen2 hangers to get them to track straight?

20

kimfisher•1mo ago

Old Otis controllers vs new MCE boards - night and day difference

I worked on a 1980s Otis elevator in a 12 story building in downtown Atlanta last month. That old relay logic controller weighed maybe 400 pounds and took up a whole room. We swapped it for a new MCE iBox controller that fits in a cabinet the size of a microwave. The before and after on response time was crazy, went from 4 second door delays to instant. Anyone else seeing a big shift with these older buildings finally upgrading?

4

martin.riley•1mo ago

Old timer at the union hall told me I was riding the safeties too hard

He said I was slamming the car into the limits every time instead of feathering the final approach, and it took me about a week of retraining my hand to feel the difference. Now my stops are butter smooth and I'm not replacing guide shoes every six months. Any of you guys ever get a piece of advice that made you completely change your technique?

18

the_thomas•1mo ago

Question about using a laser level for hoistway plumb checks

I was talking with a retired mechanic at our union hall yesterday, and he said he'd never trust a laser for final inspection because 'you can't feel the air like you can with a plumb bob.' But then he showed me his old notebook from 1998 where he had to redo a 30-story guide rail job in Chicago after his bob line got caught in a draft. I'm starting to think maybe the tech has gotten good enough to rely on. How many of you guys use lasers for your critical vertical alignments now?

14

ivan774•1mo ago

TIL that using a digital level for guide rail alignment is a total game changer compared to the old water level method.

I was working on a full rail replacement in a 12-story building downtown last month, and my foreman insisted we try a new digital level he bought. I was skeptical, thinking my trusty water level was just fine. But after setting up the digital one, we got the first two rails plumb in under 30 minutes. The old way would have taken at least an hour and a half with two guys running hoses and checking bubbles. The digital tool gave a clear readout to a tenth of a degree, and there was no mess from spilled water or air bubbles to chase. It cut our total job time by almost a full day. I'm fully converted now. Has anyone else made the switch and found it saves that much time on a big job?

11

drew_jones31•1mo ago

Had a weird call at the old hospital on 3rd Street that made me rethink door lock checks

I was out on a service call last week for a stuck car at St. Mary's, the old brick building downtown. The nurses said the elevator kept stopping with the doors slightly open, maybe an inch, then closing again after a few seconds. I figured it was a simple door lock or detector issue, right? But after checking the usual stuff, I found the problem was actually a worn roller on the car door hanger. It was letting the door sag just enough to break the lock circuit when the car was perfectly level, but only on certain floors where the hallway floor was a bit higher. I mean, I've seen worn rollers before, but this one was so subtle it only messed up on a specific alignment. I ended up replacing the roller and adjusting the track, and it's been smooth since. Has anyone else run into a door issue that only showed up because of the building settling on certain floors?

14

gibson.morgan•1mo ago

I know everyone swears by the standard sequence for adjusting the governor rope tension, but that's exactly what cost me 6 hours on a Montgomery job.

Followed the book and kept getting false trips, but finally got it by adjusting the tension with the car at the top floor, not the pit. Anyone else run into this on older traction units?

13

evahenderson•1mo ago

A comment about my gear bag setup got me to try something new

Another tech saw my bag and said, 'You're still carrying all that weight on one shoulder?' He showed me his two-bag system, one for tools and one for parts. I split mine up last week and my back already feels better. How do you guys manage your daily carry?

6

grant478•1mo ago

Had to choose between a new hoistway door lock or just the solenoid on a 90s Otis

Went with the full lock assembly because the old one had worn rollers. It added about 40 minutes to the job, but the alignment is perfect now. Anyone else find the whole unit swap is often worth the extra time on those older models?

21

mary_nelson71•1mo ago

Shoutout to the old-timer who told me to count my service calls

I finally tallied them up and hit 10,000 last week. It hit me how many different buildings and weird problems that number represents, like that one in the old textile mill with the relay from the 70s. Anyone else keep a count, or am I just weird?