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I finally figured out why my governor tests were always off by a hair
Been doing elevator work for about 8 years now, mostly in and around Cincinnati. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why my overspeed governor tests would come back just slightly out of spec, like maybe 2-3% too high or low. I'd check the cable tension, clean the sheave, replace the shoes, all the usual stuff. Nothing fixed it consistently. Then about 6 months ago I was swapping out an old Otis governor on a 10-stop office building and I noticed the previous guy had put the wrong size cable on it. Like the cable was within spec for the car but the governor was rated for a different diameter. I'd been making the same mistake for years on other jobs too, just grabbing whatever cable was handy without double checking the governor's label. Now I always match the cable to the governor first thing before anything else. Has anyone else run into this where the wrong cable size was throwing off your test results?
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jordancoleman23d ago
Hell yeah, that's a good catch... I bet half the guys out there don't even think to check that. It's one of those things where you just assume the cable is right because it's on the spool or whatever. I've seen it where a slightly undersized cable will let the governor slip just enough to trip a little late during the test, especially on older units that are already borderline. The weird part is nobody talks about it because they think it's some other issue with the governor itself.
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