That old timer on the 35th Street elevator mod back in 2012 showed me to put a dab of soap on the rail clips before bolting them down

I was fighting with squeaky guide rails for two days on a passenger elevator at a 12-story office building and after trying grease, shims, and even swapping out the shoes he just walked over and said try this trick and the noise disappeared instantly, has anyone else run into rail chatter on older Otis setups where nothing seems to seat right?

3 comments

3 Comments

angelamurphy1mo ago

That soap trick saved me on a vintage Otis gearless in a high rise, I used a bar of Irish Spring and it killed the squeal instantly. Plain dish soap on the rail clips is the only thing that stopped mine from chattering at every floor.

carr.luna1mo ago

And soap really does break up that high frequency squeal better than grease somehow.

alext521mo ago

Soap on rail clips, that's the trick everyone swears by? Is an elevator squeak really that big of a deal?