Had a governor rope jump the sheave on a 15-year-old Dover in a Kansas City office building

I was doing a full 5-year inspection on a traction unit, and when I ran the governor test, the rope popped out of the sheave groove. It happened because the sheave was worn down almost a quarter inch in the center. The rope was just riding on the lip. I had to shut it down right then and order a new sheave assembly. The building manager was not happy about taking a car out of service for three days. Has anyone else seen this kind of wear on a Dover governor sheave from that era?

3 comments

3 Comments

wesley_adams1mo ago

Yeah, that worn sheave is a classic issue, and we just machined a new groove in ours to get it running fast.

jennifer2041mo ago

Wasn't there a service bulletin about that exact wear pattern? I heard they had a bad run of sheave material back then.

milacraig1mo ago

We had three units from that batch fail in under a year. Machining a new groove bought us some time too.