Can we talk about those 'permanent' magnet brake adjustments everyone swears by?

I was dead set against messing with the factory gap settings on those newer Kone magnetic brakes after a bad experience 3 years ago at a hospital job in Nashville, but a senior mechanic I trust finally walked me through his method on a stuck car and it rode smooth for 6 months now. Has anyone else had a different outcome after trying it on a 1990s Otis with the old drum brakes?

3 comments

3 Comments

lopez.quinn16d ago

The magnet gap thing is definitely one of those "pick your battles" deals. I read a post on an elevator forum last week where a guy out of Chicago swore by leaving the factory settings alone unless you have a multimeter and a torque wrench handy, because he saw a 1992 Otis catch fire after someone misadjusted the drums. But then I also heard from a retired mechanic in Boston who said the old Otis drums with the asbestos linings were actually MORE forgiving than the new stuff, so you could get away with a quarter turn and it'd be fine. I'd be real cautious touching the '90s Otis though, those magnets can lock up hard if you overdo it and throw the shoe off center. What was his method exactly?

taylor1216d ago

Ngl @lopez.quinn that Boston mechanic might be onto something though. The older Otis stuff really did seem to have more wiggle room before things went sideways. Maybe it's just the way they were built back then, less computerized and more mechanical tolerance. The '92 Otis though, that's a whole different beast. Those magnets are no joke and if you mess with the gap even a little wrong, you're asking for a headache.

taylor.sean16d ago

Pretty sure the 1992 Otis wouldn't have asbestos linings, that stuff was mostly phased out by the late 80s. You thinking of a different model or did the Boston guy mean something else?