c/elevator-mechanics

Had to choose between the stair climber dolly or hand carrying a 400lb traction machine up 3 floors

So I'm at this old building in Philly last Tuesday, no freight elevator and this thing has to go up to the 4th floor. I figured the dolly would save my back but I dropped it on the second landing and the machine cracked a marble tile, cost me $200 out of pocket lol. Has anyone else been stuck between using a lift tool or just manhandling it, and which worked out better for you?

That moment I learned door hangers need to be level, not just tight

Been doing elevator mods for about 8 years now and always just cranked those door hanger bolts down as hard as I could. Last week I had a job in a 12 story building where every single door was dragging on the sill. Took me three hours to realize the hangers were torqued so tight they bent the track just slightly. Backed them off, leveled each one with a 6 inch level, and the doors glided perfect. Any of you guys ever over-tighten something simple and create a bigger headache?

Got told I was doing door hanger adjustments all wrong after 3 years in the trade

I was at a job in downtown Portland last month and a senior mechanic from Otis watched me mess with a leveling sensor for like 10 minutes before he finally spoke up. He said I was overcomplicating it and that most issues on Series 1 controllers come down to a simple 1/8 turn on the limit switch instead of touching the sensor itself. I tried his method and it fixed the problem in under 2 minutes, but now I'm wondering if I've been wasting time on the wrong adjustments all along. Has anyone else had a veteran call them out on a habit you thought was standard?

Am I the only one who used to spray WD-40 on every sticky door track until an old timer told me that just attracts more dirt?

Last Tuesday on a job in downtown Austin I watched a guy with 30 years in the trade use a silicone-based lubricant on a hotel elevator door track instead and the thing slid smooth as butter, so now I'm throwing out my can and grabbing some Super Lube instead, anyone else swear by a specific brand for door tracks?

Tried a thinner guide rail oil on a stuck MRL governor and it locked up worse than ever

Everyone says to use lightweight oil to break free seized parts, but I put Mobil 1 on an Otis Gen2 governor rope sheave last Thursday and it gummed up the brake pads so bad the car wouldn't move for 45 minutes. Had to pull the whole assembly and scrub it down with brake cleaner. Has anyone else had that happen with synthetics on safety components?

Overheard a guy in the supply shop say he never lubricates his guide rails

He said he's been running the same car for 12 years without a drop of oil and I'm curious if anyone else out there skips the lube or if this guy is just lucky with his building conditions?

The week from hell with a seized guide rail on the 14th floor

Last Tuesday, I got called to a building downtown where the car was shaking like crazy on every stop. Turns out someone had dropped a chunk of concrete down the shaft and it wedged the guide rail bracket on floor 14. Took me and my partner three full days to chip it out and realign the rail because the bolts were rusted solid. Anyone else ever deal with debris getting dumped in the hoistway by careless construction crews?

The day I spent 4 hours fixing a door that worked fine

Got a call last Tuesday for a slow close issue on a Schindler 330a in a midtown office building. Turned out the door coupler was just a quarter turn loose, but I tore half the cab apart before I checked the simple stuff. Anybody else waste a whole morning on what turned out to be a one wrench fix?

That time an old timer showed me a rope hitch trick I still use 12 years later

I was swapping out a governor rope on a 1982 Otis in a downtown Atlanta building last Wednesday, and this retired mechanic happened to be there visiting his grandson who's the building manager. He saw me struggling with the splice and just said 'you're overthinking it, treat it like a shoelace not a knot.' Showed me this simple figure-eight loop that holds tension way better than anything I learned in school. Has anyone else picked up a weird trick from an older mechanic that you never see in the manuals?

TIL I was adjusting brake shoes completely backwards on mod lifts

Been doing elevator mods for about 4 years and always set the drum brake shoes by feel. Then last week my foreman watched me do a stop test on a 3-stop hydro in a parking garage and the car dropped a solid 6 inches before catching. He just looked at me and said "you been setting them too loose this whole time." Turns out I was using the wrong gap measurement, I should have been checking with a feeler gauge at 0.015 instead of just eyeballing it. Anyone else ever have a senior mechanic call out something you thought was fine for years?

PSA: Check your limit switch magnets before assuming it's a board issue

Spent three hours troubleshooting an intermittent door reopening problem at a 12-story apartment building in Austin last Tuesday. Turns out a weak magnet on the car door limit switch was the culprit, not the controller. Has anyone else wasted a day chasing ghosts like this?

Stopped chasing high speed doors after a job at the St. Louis warehouse

I used to think faster was always better for elevator doors, especially on busy floors. But last month at a St. Louis distribution center, we had a rack and pinion setup with doors opening in 2.5 seconds. The limit switches kept failing every 3 weeks because the momentum was slamming them. I swapped in a standard 5 second door set from a 1990s Otis unit and it ran 8 months without a hiccup. The building manager even said the slower doors reduced false calls by half. Anyone else find that spec sheet numbers don't always win on site?

Appreciation post: that old freight elevator at the warehouse on 47th

Spent 3 hours Tuesday trying to quiet a rattling on a 1960s Otis freight car. Turned out the guide shoe shims were just loose, not worn. I backed the bolts off, cleaned the crud, and torqued them back to 50 ft-lbs. Smooth as glass now. Anyone else find simple fixes on ancient units that save the headache?

Rant: Rail oil comparison on a KONE MonoSpace blew my mind

I've been using the standard Schindler rail oil for years, just because it's what we always had. Last month I swapped to a synthetic blend on a KONE MonoSpace in a 12 story building downtown. The difference in noise and wear after 3 months is night and day, the synthetic just stays put way better. Has anyone else made the switch and seen similar results?

Tried a 3-in-1 rail oil on a Schindler and regretted it instantly

Last week I ran out of my usual rail oil so I grabbed this 3-in-1 can from the truck. Figured it was all the same stuff, right? Nope - within 2 hours the car was chattering on the guides and the safety chain wouldn't reset. Had to spend my Saturday flushing all the rails with mineral spirits. Has anyone else had a generic lubricant mess up their pickup rollers?

Found out the Empire State Building's elevators travel at 1,400 feet per minute

Door lock screws backed out on a busy Friday afternoon

Last week in a 12-story office building near downtown Austin, I had a car get stuck between floors because the door lock contact screws vibrated loose. Took me 45 minutes to find it since the controller showed a random fault code. Anyone else run into this on older Otis units?

Appreciation post: That older Otis controller I found in a building from 1987

I was swapping out a drive on a 1987 Otis elevator last month in a old office building downtown and pulled the cover off the controller. There was a hand written note taped inside from the original installer, dated August 1987, saying he adjusted the leveling after a 2 hour ride out from the shop. That thing ran 37 years without a major issue. Just struck me how simple and solid those old relay setups were before everything went digital and proprietary. Anyone else run across old paperwork or notes inside a controller like that?

The door lock bypass that almost killed a passenger

Been seeing a lot of guys on here recently talking about jumping the door lock circuit to troubleshoot a stuck car. I get it, you want to save time and not run a thousand feet of pickup wire. But I caught a guy at a site in downtown Chicago last week who had the safety chain completely bypassed with a paper clip. The car was sitting at a floor with the doors open and he had the mainline disconnected so nothing would move. But if someone hit the fire recall or a power surge hit that controller, that car would take off with the doors open. That passenger would have fallen down the shaft before the brakes even caught. I know we all get lazy on a Friday afternoon but this is how people die. The union hall still talks about the guy in 2019 who got crushed because he bypassed a gate switch and forgot to pull it back. Is your shop actually checking for stuff like this during annual inspections or is it just the state guys?

Hot take: WD40 isnt the fix for sticky guide rails

Spent three hours last Tuesday wrestling with a car that kept jerking on the fifth floor at an office building downtown. Threw some silicone spray on the rails as a last try because the old timers swore by it, and it actually smoothed everything out. Any of you guys switched from WD40 to something else and seen better results?

Decided between roller guides and slide guides on a mod job

Had to choose for a 12-floor passenger bank downtown. Went with roller guides because the rails had some wear but man, the installation took twice as long as I budgeted. Has anyone dealt with that kind of trade-off on a tight schedule?

Spent 5 years adjusting brake drag the hard way till a old timer set me straight

Was using a feeler gauge to set the clearance on elevator brake magnets every time and getting inconsistent stops, then a 30 year veteran walked over and showed me to just listen for the hum of the contactor and adjust by ear, and now my alignment is perfect every single time... has anyone else had a trick like that totally change how you set up brakes?

Had a talk with an old timer that flipped my thinking on relay logic

Yesterday I was swapping out a controller in a 1978 Otis in a building on Main Street in Akron, and the building super, a guy named Frank who's been there since the 80s, said 'you kids just swap boards, you never fix the real problem.' He pointed out how the old relay systems taught you to trace each circuit one by one instead of guessing. Got me thinking, are we losing too much troubleshooting skill by just doing full replacements? Anyone else feel like we rely too much on swapping parts instead of fixing them?

Fed up with guys using door lock bypass clips on residential jobs

I keep pulling up to service calls where someone jammed a zip tie or paper clip into the door lock bypass on a MRL, and now the whole controller's got a phantom fault. That hack might save you 5 minutes on site, but it leaves the next guy chasing a ghost code for 2 hours. Anyone else deal with this nonsense from the same type of installer?

Controller board fried on a 20 year old Otis last Tuesday

Had a MCA-2 board just smoke out on a high rise in downtown Portland, spent 4 hours tracing a short in the hall call wiring before we found the real issue was a bad capacitor that had bulged, anyone else seeing these old boards fail more often now?