Had a hoist rope jump its sheave groove on a 10-story job last Tuesday

I was doing a full rope change on a traction unit in an old office building downtown. We had the new ropes run and were starting to tension them when I heard this loud metallic CLANG from the overhead. One of the ropes had popped out of the machine sheave groove because the deflector sheave alignment was off by maybe an eighth of an inch. My partner killed power right away. We had to re-seat it by hand, which took two of us pushing with pry bars for almost an hour in that tight machine room. Checked every other sheave with a straight edge after that. Has anyone else run into this from a worn deflector bearing letting things shift?

3 comments

3 Comments

singh.harper22d ago

Used to think those small alignment issues were no big deal. Seeing a rope jump like that shows how fast things can go wrong. Now I check every sheave twice before tensioning.

zara_sanchez22d ago

Remember that a jump can also mean the rope is already damaged before it even leaves the ground. I saw a line with a soft spot from a past bad fleet angle just snap under normal load. The visual check is key, but running your glove down the length to feel for any flat or mushy sections takes two seconds and finds hidden trouble.

the_alice22d ago

Rope jump" is a scary sight, man. Double-checking is cheap insurance.