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Three years ago I learned the hard way about counterweight rail alignment | Elevator Mechanics - Vivisector

Three years ago I learned the hard way about counterweight rail alignment

I do a lot of mod work on Otis units from the 80s and 90s, and last week I swapped out a controller on a 1993 elevator in a six story office building. The new board kept throwing a fault code that had nothing to do with the actual problem - turns out someone had bypassed the door lock monitor on the 4th floor landing maybe 10 years ago. Took me two days to trace that one out because the wiring wasn't labeled anywhere. I finally found the jumper hidden behind a junction box cover with some old electrical tape. Ever run into a bypass job from a previous contractor that made you want to pull your hair out?

3 comments

3 Comments

violag804mo ago

Ran into a mess last year where a previous guy had swapped the phase wires on a Mow-Egle controller to get around a bad starter contactor. Ended up fixing it with a pencil and some electrical tape because the terminal block crumbled apart in my hands. Three hours later I found out the original problem was just a seized door operator belt that took twenty minutes to replace.

wendy_henderson214mo ago

So you're telling me the fix was "just" a belt but you spent 3 hours chasing a wiring hack that someone else left behind. Maybe that previous guy had a good reason for swapping the phase wires, like maybe he was working with junk parts and did what he had to do to keep it running. Sounds like the real takeaway here is that sometimes a messy fix is better than nothing when the actual part you need is backordered for weeks.

ray_sullivan4mo ago

Fair point, but counterpoint: a wiring hack that reverses phase rotation is a fire waiting to happen. Sure, the previous guy might have been in a bind, but that fix created a hidden trap for the next person who touched it. In my experience, a note taped to the inside of the panel or a quick text to the boss goes a long way. Leaving a breadcrumb means the next repair doesn't turn into a three hour snipe hunt. Sometimes a messy fix is necessary, but leaving no trace of it is just bad manners.