Off-Season Maintenance

1. In the last few years we have had all too many large bearings to replace. Bullwheel bearings fail from lack of care, improper grease, misalignment and moisture. It is a good practice to clean all grease from these bearings every two or three years and inspect them very closely for sharp edges on the rollers, rust on rollers or races. You may think this is a lot of time and money to spend since you have not had any trouble. Not so! A mid-season breakdown will cost much more to fix, to say nothing of the time the lift is out of service and customer dissatisfaction. If you have ever sat on a lift for forty-five minutes waiting to be evacuated, you know what I mean.
2. Another item for spring lay-up is greasing all line sheaves and tower machinery, and checking sheave frames to see if any are frozen to the shaft. (This last happens more to older lifts.) Check sheaves for bearing and liner wear as they are easier to replace in summer.
3. Check tower for alignment. If you have sheaves wearing on one side or the other, fix it. Misalignment will cause faster wear on sheave liners. Are all sheaves plumb? Sagging sheave assemblies may be caused by wear on the shaft or hub, and could lead to derailment.
4. Check drive train alignment on open gears. Make sure the bottom of the teeth have not loaded up to the point of contact, since this will force misalignment, excessive wear and a lot of noise.
5. Changed oil in gear box? Check owner’s manual for details. If you have an inspection plate, pull it off and check gears for wear.
6. Look at any couplings you may have on the drive train, and inspect electric connections on the motor. One area pulled a one-hundred h.p. motor out, took it 150 miles to have it repaired, only to find a loose wire on one phase. It cost three days down time. They now have all motors completely checked every summer.
7. Breaks are very important. You should check shoes and alignment, and don’t forget the antirollback, as some get out of adjustment very easily.
8. When lubricating the cable do it on the ingoing side of the bullwheel, as this gives the oil a better chance of getting inside. Do it on a warm day and heat the oil for better penetration. This is also a good time to check for broken wires.
9. Grips slipping? Check cable for size. A cable that is undersized will sometimes let grips walk.
10. Another thing to remember: Use only grease recommended in the owner’s manual or equal, and don’t listen to a fast-talking salesman tell you his grease will do it all.
11. Use the auxiliary engine to run the lift a few yards every two or three weeks. This will keep grease from settling to the bottom of the bearings.
12. Jack up the counterweight during hot weather. Taking the load off will stop some stretch.
13. Ice and snow on the bullwheel can render some breaks and rollback devices useless, so think about putting a roof over it. In most cases it can be anchored to the terminal steel, and cost to benefit ratio is the best you will ever get.
14. Another important piece of equipment is an hour meter, giving a positive record for the life of replacement parts, maintenance records, etc. In the not-too-distant future cable life may be determined by the number of hours it has run. I have seen hour meters priced from $15-25.

A good maintenance program is the best thing your lift will ever have. If you have a problem — or a solution to one — that might help someone else, we would like to include it in the next article.

The Michigan-based C. E. Smith, President of Redeye Sling and Cable, or Smitty as he is universally known, is Mr. Answerman and Mr. Fixit and Mr. Spliceit all rolled into one when it comes to lifts. This is the first of a regular series of practical, down-to-earth articles by Smitty in SAM.