Got called out for a weird grinding noise in a 20-story building downtown

It was a Tuesday morning, and the call said the car was shaking on the 15th floor. I get up there, run it, and it sounds like a bag of rocks in the hoistway. Took me three hours of checking rails and guides before I finally spotted a broken guide shoe bracket on the counterweight side. The bracket had sheared clean off, letting the counterweight sway. Ever had a noise that sounded way worse than it actually was?

2 comments

2 Comments

wade_hall17d ago

Sounds pretty bad but is it really that big a deal? A bracket breaks and the weight sways, but the rails are still there to catch it. How much damage can it actually do swinging a few inches? Feels like one of those things that sounds scary until you actually look at it.

shah.olivia18d ago

Man, a sheared bracket sounds gnarly. Did the counterweight actually hit the rails or was it just swinging free?