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Pro tip: always check the safeties before leveling a car in an old hydraulic
Was working on a 1970s Otis in a hospital basement in Milwaukee last Wednesday. Hit the leveling valve and the whole thing dropped about 8 inches before the safeties caught. Scared the crap out of me. Turns out the guide rails had a ton of buildup that was messing with the gripper engagement. Spent 2 hours cleaning and adjusting them before it was safe again. Anyone else run into rail gunk like that on older units?
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violaramirez5mo ago
Did the buildup look greasy or more like rust flakes? I had a similar thing on an old Dover in a parking garage in Chicago where the rails were caked with this weird waxy sludge mixed with metal shavings. The safeties would grab but then slip half an inch before catching. Took me and a guy from the building maintenance crew like three hours with rags and brake cleaner to get it all off. We found out later some floor buffer wax was dripping down from the cleaning closet above the shaft.
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murray.jana5mo ago
That waxy sludge buildup is just like how gunk collects in the corners of life when nobody bothers to clean it out...
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