Shoutout to my foreman who insisted on checking the governor rope tension first

We had a call for a noisy traction machine at a building on 5th Avenue, and I was ready to dive into the motor bearings. My foreman, Carl, said to always check the governor rope tension before anything else, even if it seems unrelated. Sure enough, the rope was way too loose and slapping against the sheave, making all that racket. Tightened it up and the noise was gone in ten minutes. Anyone else have a simple check that saved them hours on a job?

3 comments

3 Comments

benclark21d ago

Honestly, that sounds like a lucky break more than a rule. I get checking the obvious stuff, but a loose governor rope making a traction machine sound like bad bearings? That seems pretty far fetched. I've seen those ropes slap and it's a light ticking, not a deep mechanical grind. Are you sure there wasn't something else going on you just didn't hear anymore? Seems like a stretch to make that the first step every single time.

john65020d ago

Seems like a stretch" is exactly the pattern, benclark. People hear a weird noise and jump straight to the most expensive, complicated fix. Half the time it's something dumb and loose, a zip tie slapping a frame or a heat shield rattling. You fix the simple thing first because it costs you nothing to look, but it can cost a lot to ignore.

kaid4715d ago

Nah, benclark, sometimes the simple fix is the whole problem.