Saw a crew in my building trying to adjust the governor rope with the car on the pit floor

They had the car parked down there to work on the buffers, and one guy was trying to tweak the rope tension. I had to stop him and explain that the governor needs the car's full weight to set right. We ended up putting the car at the top landing, ran a full speed test, and the overspeed switch tripped exactly like it should. Has anyone else run into this on a recent job?

3 comments

3 Comments

wright.taylor24d ago

Yeah, that "pit is really tight" thing is exactly the excuse I hear... they just want to skip the proper setup. Had a guy argue with me last month about it on a hydro, said the same thing about the rope tension. We did the full test and the car kept creeping, proved my point.

oliviahenderson24d ago

What kind of building was it? I've seen that same shortcut tried on older traction elevators where the pit is really tight, but it never sets the tension right. Did the crew lead give you any pushback when you stopped them?

cameron9633d ago

Oh man, tell me about it. I mean, I've definitely been the guy who's like 'nah, this is fine' when I was younger and way too confident, and boy did I learn my lesson the hard way. It's kind of like the elevator version of trying to fix a leaky pipe with duct tape and a prayer. Yeah the crew lead definitely gave me some side-eye at first, but once we actually did the drop test and saw the car settling a full inch, his face kinda went from annoyed to 'oh, crap'. I guess sometimes being the party-pooper saves you from being the guy who gets chewed out by the building manager later.