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?

2 comments

2 Comments

kai_west7d ago

Man that's rough but honestly it happens way more than people admit. We all pick up weird habits early on and nobody corrects us until something goes wrong or a senior catches it. At least your foreman just called it out instead of making a huge deal out of it in front of everyone. Those little 0.015 gaps are the kind of thing you don't think matters until it really really does. Good on you for taking the lesson though, a lot of guys would have just gotten defensive.

camerona797d ago

Used to do the same thing with finishing nails. Thought I was saving time by not measuring each one. Took one bad pop-out on a cabinet face to break that habit real quick.