Saw a slick trick for motor brake adjustment at a 12-story office in Denver

Last month I was working on a MRL elevator at an office tower on 17th street. The brakes were making that awful grinding noise on every stop. One of the senior guys from Otis happened to be there doing a PM and showed me how to use a feeler gauge to set the air gap to exactly 0.015 inches. He said most guys eyeball it and that’s why they burn through lining in 6 months. Has anyone else tried using specs that tight on older units?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowan8495h ago

That 0.015 air gap trick is solid advice but I would be careful on older units with warped rotors. I tried it on a 25 year old machine in a building near Union Station and the brake started dragging after a week because the rotor wasn't perfectly flat. Your mileage may vary depending on the condition of the rotor face.

oscar3904h ago

Yeah, 'your mileage may vary' is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Sounds like your rotor was more like a potato chip than a flat surface.