auto lift maintenance what do you do ?

[rfuerst911sc]

The other day I was on 914world forum and was reading about an incident that happened recently at Automobile Atlanta . They apparently have a two post lift outdoors that they use to clean car chassis/engines/transmissions . Per the owner he had the lift professionally inspected two months ago . While raising a car they had a cable snap and down crashed the car ! No one was hurt but car was damaged . Per the owner the safety pawls were functional but the lift was in between pawls . That's scary you would think the furthest it could drop might be 3-4 inches .

So that got me thinking for those of you that have either a 2 or 4 post lift what basic maint. do you perform ? And what about visual inspections ? What are you looking for ? I bought a used 2 post lift last year and have not installed it yet still finishing up the garage it will go into . But after reading that accident account if nothing else I will look all the cables and rollers over carefully . Be careful out there !

[john walker's workshop]

I have 4 in the shop and 2 in the house I just bought. Check that the anchor bolt nuts are tight, eyeball the cables and lube the rollers occasionally. No issues in 25 years.

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by john walker's workshop

I have 4 in the shop and 2 in the house I just bought. Check that the anchor bolt nuts are tight, eyeball the cables and lube the rollers occasionally. No issues in 25 years.

It is nice to get feedback from someone with real experience thank you .

[svandamme]

I cannot imagine a lift dropping from 1 cable snapping.
They are supposed to have 2 cables and even then, fall in the locks.

And even then a steel cable does not snap completely in one instant.

Sounds like BS if you ask me, the entire story seems a bit far fetched.

[Gretch]

Originally Posted by john walker's workshop

I have 4 in the shop and 2 in the house I just bought. Check that the anchor bolt nuts are tight, eyeball the cables and lube the rollers occasionally. No issues in 25 years.

I also make sure the cables are lubricated to avoid rust........... and keep the area between the posts under the floor plate clean of debris so it stays dry as that is where the cables live most of their life. my lift is indoors......... I am sure that makes a difference.

[rfuerst911sc]

Only stating what I read . There were pics posted of the car on its side . I agree with you that it is odd the lift arms dropped to the ground . My lift if I remember correctly has two cables one on each side . So in theory if one cable snapped then one side lift arms would drop , but I would think it could only fall to the next safety pawl . I will be looking mine over when I install it .

[rfuerst911sc]

And my lift cables are overhead vs. under a floor plate .

[URY914]

Cables (actually wire rope) should be kept greased.

[bell]

We have 8 2 post lifts at our shop, yearly were grease all the vertical channels, and have a lift maintenance/ repair company come inspect all the cables/ switches.
For operation ALWAYS initially get the car off the ground and give it a shake/ rock, and make sure the lateral arm locks have dropped into place. Then once you raise the car ALWAYS set the raised car on the locks. If a cable fails or cylinder line fails it'll keep it from killing you.
The reason that car probably fell was when the cable failed and it dropped that couple inches it bounced and jostled it enough to fall off the arms.
In my 8 years at our shop I've always followed these procedures and have had 1 car shift in the air, itwas a 911when the rear arm shifted and shot out, it caught the car by the rocker which I had to have repaired/ painted (that was my fault as i didn't check the arm lock).
another time was the motor stuck going up with a cayenne, I caught that one before any damage happened by killing power to it. We have all our lifts setup with a way to quickly kill power just in case something like that happens.

[rattlsnak]

Something fishy about that. The safety catches should have caught it. I have seen more shops than I would like to say that "alter" the safety catch system by wedging in pieces of wood etc in them as when it gets slack in the release cable wont pull both sides free and mechanics are too lazy to tighten the slack or the shop to cheapo to call someone to fix it.

[pen15]

Had a cable break on a 4 post lift just a month ago. Started the day with just a little fray in it. 3 trucks later it broke with one hell of a bang. Locks caught it. I know better now, any fray at all In the cable is dangerous.

[Jeff Alton]

We have 8 lifts and follow similar routines to Bell. We have them serviced every year for 2 reasons. 1) We have to for WCB 2) It makes sense.

[tdw28210]

Unless the car somehow bounced off the arms (unlikely as we are talking 3 inches between locks) there there is a good chance that lift was gerry-rigged somehow. They don't crash to the floor when a cable snaps.

Anyway, check the floor bolts and make sure the cables aren't twisting and fraying. On my 4 post, if I let them get too slack when resting on the locks, they twist. I also run Caterpillar fluid conditioner in mine too.

[bell]

You'd be surprised the force of the bounce if it freely drops just an inch, the momentum has to go somewhere, multiply the weight by gravity and the load more than doubles. So the weakest thing holding up the car fails. Doesn't take much to unsettle a car in the air if a lift component fails. Gravity will always win.

[mepstein]

The lift looked like it was used up, buried in a junk yard, dug up, left outside for 10 years, thrown away, stolen from the scrap yard and then installed at the shop. I would have felt safer if the car was propped up with old cinder blocks and cardboard boxes. Lucky no one was injured or killed.

[tdw28210]

Originally Posted by mepstein

The lift looked like it was used up, buried in a junk yard, dug up, left outside for 10 years, thrown away, stolen from the scrap yard and then installed at the shop. I would have felt safer if the car was propped up with old cinder blocks and cardboard boxes. Lucky no one was injured or killed.

That is easily the biggest POS lift I have ever seen used in a functioning shop and I have been in some pretty sketchy garages.

That shop should be ashamed. Hopefully they are insured. But if I am their insurer and I see this picture, I may tell them to go pound sand. Sure hope the 914 owner doesn't get shafted in all of this.

[Neilk]

Looks like a nice 914. I would force the AA to dismantle the lift so the car can be flipped over on its side rather than dragged backwards. Hopefully it isn't totaled. Any other pictures?

[Jeff Alton]

Hard to believe they didn't see a failure in their future....

[billybek]

Not like the Teener was heavy or anything like that...

[biosurfer1]

Shocking, for such a reputable company