That old timer in the Buffalo freight elevator changed how I look at brake adjustments

I was wrestling with a sticky brake on a 1994 Dover in a parking garage last March, and this retired mechanic named Pete walked up and said I was overthinking it, just tap the shoe alignment with a brass rod instead of cranking the spring. He showed me a trick with a feeler gauge and a half turn where I was doing full turns, and the car rode smooth after that. Have you ever had a random stranger come by and make you feel like you were doing the whole thing backwards?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesley8011mo ago

Oh man, that's the BEST feeling when someone spots the simple fix you've been missing! I had almost the EXACT same thing happen with a 1986 Otis in a hospital in Rochester, an old elevator guy named Frank walked up and showed me to back off the governor tension by two clicks instead of my usual four, and it ran quiet for the first time in years. It's AMAZING how those old timers have forgotten more than we'll ever know about these machines.

jason_robinson1mo ago

Pete sounds like he knew his stuff. I've had a guy in Pittsburgh show me a similar trick with a screwdriver on an old Otis.