4 replies to this topic

[mmsa]

Last year I went around to all of our Doppelmayr Detachable hold down sheave assemblies and replaced the glacier bushings. The hours on the various lifts were 5,000 to 12,000. I discovered that around 8,000 hours the axle sleeve that the glacier bushings contact are in good shape and reusable. After about 9,000 hours the sleeve shows some minor wear. At around 9,000 hours all the sleeves were badly worn and required replacement. When the bushings are worn to the point of replacement a brown stain begins to show below the 2 sheave rocker.
I think Doppelmayr recommends replacement of the bushings at around 5 years and not in hours.
This year we are replacing all the glacier bushings in all (56) 4T/4D assemblies. I just completed the first 1 today and it takes approx. 2 days per sheave assembly. About half the time is spent cleaning all the excess grease. The axle that is between the 2 sheave rocker is really tuff to get out. I had to build a 10 ton axle pusher and it too all of that to get some of the axles to budge. I will post some pics if I can figure out how.

[mmsa]

I see I made a typo. At 7000 hrs the bushing s are good 8000hrs shows a little wear and 9000 sleeves need replacement.

[liftmech]

Our Doppelmayr just turned 10,000 hours this season. The crew who works on that lift is on the opposite schedule from me, so I don't know if they plan on dropping some assemblies or not. I haven't heard of any problems over there but it sounds as though you got to yours before problems developed.

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[mmsa]

One note I should add, on our gondolas with 12,000+ hours. We thought we would find a lot of worn bushing sleeves because of the amount of hours. No worn sleeves at all. Then we thought about it and with the 20 - 30 second spacing as compared to the 6 second spacing on the chair lifts. We have checked the support sheave assemblies and found no noticable wear on any of our lifts. The hold down sheaves have to climb up and over the grip hence the wear. We lift the haul rope and rock the assembly to get the grease to where it is needed, so lack lubrication is not the problem.

[puk]

Could you be more specific as to the age of your lift, type of glacier bushings, the part that you refer to as an axle, is that actually the spacer bushing? and if so is it tennifor treated? That is the black finish you may have seen on OEM parts. Also do you have springs under your zerks to aid in electro-static discharge? In my experience , I have found that depress assemblies hold up much better than the support assemblies most likely due to the degrees of rotation as the grip travels through the assembly. If you can get your hand on the SKF tech publication on glacier bushings, it has some very good info in it, although Doppelmayer has been using Glycodor brand for some time. Luck!