Old timer taught me to grease the guide rails by hand in Buffalo last winter

I was on a service call for an Otis in a 12 story building near Niagara Square and this guy who had been doing it since the 70s showed up to help. He said "stop spraying that canned crap and feel the rail yourself" so I got a handful of lithium grease and did it by feel for the first time. The car rode way smoother after that and I never went back to the spray can method. Has anyone else had an old hand show them something that seems simple but nobody teaches anymore?

3 comments

3 Comments

diana6171mo ago

Old timers always know the weirdest stuff. My dad was a mechanic and he swore by using your own spit to check a fan belt's tension, said you could feel it better than any tool.

ivanscott1mo ago

Gotta gently push back on the spit belt trick. Your dad might have used it, but that's not really for checking tension. It's more for seeing if the belt is glazed or shiny on the underside. The spit sizzles or beads up if the belt's too smooth and slipping. Tension you can just feel by pushing on the belt with your thumb.

sage3081mo ago

That spit trick reminds me of something my grandfather taught me about checking if an old wooden fence post was still solid. He said to tap it with your knuckle near the ground line and if it made a dull thud, the wood was still good, but a hollow sound meant rot inside. He learned that from his father who homesteaded in Nebraska. Funny how those old tests stick with you. @diana617, your dad probably had a dozen more tricks like that too. I still catch myself tapping fence posts before I replace them, even though I know better than to rely on it completely.