c/elevator-mechanics

I bought a cheap knockoff governor tester back in 2019 and it cost me $400

Saw it online for a fraction of the price of the real tool, figured it was worth a shot. Hooked it up to a governor on a traction job, and the readings were all over the place. Ended up chasing a problem that wasn't there for half a day before I borrowed a proper tester from a guy at the shop. Anyone have a brand they trust for that kind of gear that won't break the bank?

Spent $400 on a laser alignment tool for the hoistway. Best money I ever spent.

Finally got the call back noise down on that old Dover in the city building

It was a high pitched squeal every time the car moved for about a month. Turned out to be a worn sheave bearing that we just swapped. Anyone know a good source for those older Dover parts now?

Shoutout to the guy who told me to use a 3/8 drive for the motor coupling bolts on that old Dover last week

I was stuck between my 1/2 inch and the smaller one, and going with the 3/8 gave me just enough swing in the tight pit to get them all torqued down right without stripping a single head.

I finally realized I'd been greasing the governor rope sheaves backwards for two whole years after a trainee asked why I was doing it 'the hard way'.

Has anyone else had a moment like that, where a simple question from a new guy made you question a long-held habit?

Bought a cheap knock-off door lock sensor kit online. Wasted $120 and a whole Saturday morning.

Got called out for my old-school hoistway cleaning method at a site in Tampa

Last week I was finishing a full mod in a 12-story office building in Tampa, and I was doing my usual thing with a broom and dustpan for the pit cleanup. The new site manager, a guy maybe ten years younger than me, walks over and just stares for a minute. He finally says, 'You know they make wet-dry vacs for that, right? You're just kicking dust back into the air.' I felt like a total dinosaur, lol. Three years ago, that's how everyone did it on my crew, and I never thought twice. But he was right. I borrowed his shop vac and the pit was spotless in half the time, with zero dust cloud. It's a small thing, but it made me realize I might be stuck in my ways on other stuff too. What's one 'old way' you guys have had to drop recently?

Warning: The old bank building on 5th Street has a weird elevator controller setup

I was there yesterday to check a call and found they're still running the original relay logic from the 70s, but someone added a modern safety circuit right on top of it. The mix of old and new parts convinced me that a full rip-out might be safer than trying to patch it again. Has anyone else run into a retrofit like this where the layers just don't feel right?

PSA: A hotel job in Vegas made me rethink my approach to door zone adjustments.

Their main bank had a constant 1/8 inch misalignment causing callbacks, so I started checking the sill rollers first every time. Anyone else run into a specific fix that became your new standard procedure?

Had to pick between a new hoist rope or a full traction sheave resurfacing on a 15-year-old Otis unit

The budget only allowed for one, and I went with the rope replacement thinking it was the bigger safety issue. Turns out the worn sheave grooves were causing way more vibration and wear on the new ropes than we thought. Now we're looking at another call-back in maybe 6 months to do the sheave job anyway. Anyone had a similar choice go sideways on an older system?

Got a call for a stuck car in a 1970s building last month, the before and after was wild.

Honestly, the old relay logic panel was a rat's nest of wires and looked like a science project. After we swapped it for a new controller, the whole machine room is just a clean box with a few cables. Anyone else had a job where the upgrade felt like time travel?

Shoutout to the crew that finally showed me the right way to check a governor rope tension

I mean, for years I was just giving it a firm hand pull, but last month a guy from the Otis crew on the downtown high rise job showed me how to use a spring scale set to exactly 50 pounds to get a real reading, and idk, maybe it's just me but I feel like half the callbacks for erratic leveling I see are from guys skipping that step, so what's your go to method for a governor check?

I doubted the new digital tension meter until it saved a job in Chicago

I was working on a high-rise traction unit and my old analog gauge kept giving me jumpy readings on the governor rope tension. The super was getting impatient, so I borrowed a coworker's Digi-Tech T-2000 just to shut him up, and it gave me a rock steady 250 lbs reading on the first try. Has anyone else had a tool they didn't trust at first completely change their mind?

Vent: Got called out for a stuck elevator in a 12 story building downtown

Last Tuesday, I was finishing up a door adjustment on a 12 story office building when the fire alarm went off. The power cut, dropping the car about 6 inches and jamming the doors on the 8th floor. I had to manually crank it down to the nearest landing, which took almost 45 minutes in the dark with just my work light. The building manager was not happy about the delay. Has anyone else had a fire alarm cause a worse jam than a normal power loss?

Got called out for a stuck car in a 15-story building downtown

It was a Friday afternoon in the city center, and the car was stuck between floors 8 and 9. The main controller board had a fried relay, which I didn't have on my truck. Had to call the supplier for an emergency part, which took two hours to arrive. Ended up bypassing the relay temporarily with a jumper wire just to get the car to the nearest landing so people could get out. Felt like a hack job, but the building manager was breathing down my neck. What's your go-to move when you're stuck waiting on a part and need to get a car moving safely?

Unpopular opinion: The old school manual governors are more reliable than the new digital ones, but last week in a 1972 building in Cincinnati I saw a digital one catch a fault the old one would have missed.

I'm torn because the digital unit flagged a tiny speed drift we'd never have caught on the analog dial, but the old ones are so simple there's just less to go wrong, so what's your take on which is actually safer for a 5-story traction job?

Changed my tune on using a digital inclinometer for guide rail alignment

My lead, Frank, kept pushing me to use his old-school water level for the rails on a 15-story job in downtown Phoenix, saying the digital stuff was just a gimmick. I finally borrowed a co-worker's digital inclinometer last month and got the rails within 0.02 degrees of plumb in half the time. Anyone else find a new tool that made an old task way easier?

Rant: I swapped out the old relay logic for a new PLC on a 90s Dover and the callbacks dropped from weekly to zero in a month.

The building manager in St. Louis just emailed me to say it's the quietest the machine room has been in years, so what's your go-to fix for those finicky relay systems?

Changed my mind about using a laser level for hoistway plumb checks

I always figured a laser was overkill and my plumb bob was fine, but a job last month in a 12-story building changed that. The client needed a fast verification on a new guide rail section, and my partner brought his DeWalt DW088K. We got a perfect vertical line in maybe 30 seconds, versus the 5 minutes of waiting for the bob to settle in the drafty shaft. The speed and accuracy on that one task sold me. What other quick-check tools have you guys adopted that actually save real time on site?

Just lost a full day's pay on a 'universal' door operator part

I had a call for a sticking door on a 90s Otis unit. The local parts house sold me a generic door operator they swore would work with a simple adapter plate. Spent four hours installing it, only to find the timing was off by a hair and it kept faulting on the safety circuit. Had to pull the whole thing, put the old unit back, and order the exact factory part. That was $350 in parts I can't return and a full day's billable time gone. The worst part was explaining to the building manager why their elevator was down for an extra day. Always check the factory tech bulletin now, even if the supplier says it's a direct swap. Has anyone else been burned by these 'universal' parts on older models?

Stuck for 4 hours on a phantom door lock fault in a 20-year-old hydraulic unit. The limit switch was fine, but the cam adjustment was a quarter-turn off.

My foreman said to always check the governor rope tension first, even if the call is for door issues.

I got a call for a sticking door on a 15 story office building downtown. I was ready to dive into the door operator, but I remembered his advice and checked the governor in the machine room. The rope was way too loose, which was throwing off the whole safety circuit. Tightened it up and the door problem went away. Anyone else had a simple check fix a bigger seeming issue?

I used to fight with the governor rope tension for way too long on every job.

An old guy at a training in Chicago told me to just set it to 40 pounds of pull on the scale and be done. I've saved at least 15 minutes per car for the past year. Anyone else have a simple trick that cut out a whole step?

Unpopular opinion: I started using a cheap magnetic level from Harbor Freight on my rail alignments.

Figured it would be fine for a quick check, but it was off by a full 1/16 over 10 feet compared to my Starrett. Now I'm wondering if anyone has actually found a decent budget level for spot checks, or if it's just a waste of money.

My journeyman told me to always double-check the slack rope switch on a 90s Dover, even if the indicator says it's clear. He was right, found a bent actuator arm last week.