That moment I realized I'd been cleaning governor cables wrong for 5 years

I was at a service call in an old building downtown last Thursday, a 12 stop hydraulic that makes that grinding noise when it levels. The building super is standing there watching me, which always makes me a little nervous. I start wiping down the governor cable with the rag and solvent like I always do, and the super just goes "you know you're supposed to dry it after that, right?" I laughed it off at first, told him I've been doing it this way for years. But then he pulled out his phone and showed me a maintenance bulletin from the manufacturer that says leaving solvent on there can actually make the cable slip in a high speed test. I checked two of my regular buildings the next day and found residue buildup on both of them. Has anyone else been making this same dumb mistake or am I the only one who never read that part of the manual?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancy82410d ago

Oh man, you are definitely not the only one. Did the same thing for about four years before a senior mechanic happened to walk by and point it out at a routine maintenance check. He was nice about it at least, just kind of laughed and asked if I'd ever noticed how the newer cables seem to grab better than the old ones I'd been cleaning. Felt pretty stupid when I checked my own tool bag and found the rag still damp from the job before. Now I keep a separate dry rag in my pocket specifically for that step. That bulletin must be floating around somewhere, I've never got a physical copy but I've heard other guys mention it too.

the_jake10d ago

Ended up doing something similar myself once, except I was wiping down the contacts with the same rag I just used for degreaser. Felt like a total idiot when my buddy pointed out why my cables kept getting sticky after a few days. Now I just keep a stack of those little blue shop towels in my toolbox just for cleaning connectors, never mix them up with the greasy rags. It's one of those things you don't think about until someone literally shows you the crusty residue left behind. Makes you wonder how many other simple tricks we all just miss because nobody bothers to write them down in a clear manual.