Wierd Ball Lift Problem

[8270tom]

Lanes 25 & 26 ball lift. If I set the up tracks and lift centered the belt flies off the top pulley, but when I misalign them both the lift belt stops jumping off. Had to shake my head on this one. Lift and tracks look crooked, but works. Have any of you had a similar occurance?

[Tablejam]

Something is off. Could be the offset shafts- causing the lift to sit pointing to one side instead of directly at the lift rods, could have a bent link, the lift rods might be off in that one is closer to the lift towards the top or higher than the other (if you stand on the top of the machine where the top of the lift rods are and look down both of them should be even with each other AND both be the same distance from the lift)- this will cause the belt (eventhough the lift belt looks centered to the lift rods) to track to one side. Also could be slop somewhere in the lift or the upper pulley assembly is turned.

If the lift belt is centered to the lift rods and the belt tracks to one side, I would bet the rod on the opposite side of where the belt is tracking is closer to the lift than the other rod, doesn't take much to cause this problem.

[8270tom]

Thanks, will look into it.

[Pin_Head]

Exactly like TJ said, I did have that very same problem, it turned out the upsweep rail on the even lane sat nearly 3/4" higher than the odd lane, levelled the rails and problem went away...

[lafarge jr]

when you set up a lift you have to make sure that the belt is at the top of the ball all the way up. it may not look centered but if the belt itself is centered over the top of the ball it cant fly off.. I have several that look crooked but the belt is where it should be on the ball itself. i learned a long time ago that center means the belt on the ball not the belt acording to the uprails.

[rivmike]

^ Yes, same here.

[Tablejam]

Centering the belt to the rails is really only a starting point. Sure it works most of the time but like Lafarge Jr. and I'm sure many others on here, due to one, several things, or nothing, setting up certain lifts this way won't work- of course lifts rods that are all wonky don't help nuthin' either. The ultimate goal is to keep the belt centered on the back of the ball all the way up (or at least keep it from flying off!). Though most of my lifts are centered well there are one or two oddball ones that won't work unless they are "off", and that's fine with me as long as they keep the belt on and send the balls back. My motivation to keep them all working properly is this.... I HATE putting those damn belts back on... HATE IT!!!

[felix]

Tuffy Ball Lift Compression Tool
Part # 000-024-603--T

[8270tom]

The Stahl's tool is a real back saver.

[pinfeed]

We have one as well...Absolute must have for every house.