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Importance of restraint gear replacement
What are restraint gears? Restraint gears are the half moon gears on the arms of the car lift, most commonly found on 2 post car lifts as well as in ground car lifts. They keep the arms from swinging when the 2 post lift is raised up off the ground. Generally when the 2 post lift is raised up off the ground it means that there is a car on the car lift. And if there is a car on the 2 post lift you don’t want the arms to be able to swing because if they swing while there is a car or truck on them it can drop the car or truck off the car lift. Obviously dropping a car or truck off the car lift would be very bad because it could in the best case scenario only cause damage to the vehicle and or car lift, but worse case scenario it could fall when there is a technician working underneath the 2 post lift which could cause bodily injury or even death. This could be avoided by simply having your 2 post lift inspected and maintained yearly. Car lift repair Ames is a pretty low cost option, especially compared to what it could cost you if something were to happen. How do you check if your restraint gears on your 2 post automotive lift work? Raise the 2 post automotive lift off the ground with no vehicle on it, than check if you can swing the arms or not. if you can move them just a little but than they catch they might just need a little adjustment which can easily be done by just simply loosening the restraint gear bolts on the 2 post automotive lift and moving the restraint gears in until they fully engage with the gear on the pin. If the restraint gears or gear are rounded off you will need to purchase new restraint gears and have the car lift repair Ames done or install them or call us to come out and install them or purchase the car lift parts through us.
Usually if the half moon gear is worn out (the gear bolted to the arm) the pawl gear (gear on pin) will also be damaged, so be sure to check those as well. Another common issue with restraint gears on 2 post lifts are the pins being froze up in the carriage, this is a little more hairy and takes more work, you can normally get them loose by heating them and tapping them with a hammer. You will need to replace the gear on the pin because when it gets hot it weakens it, and you wouldn’t want the gear to break under a load. Another common issue is for the restraint gear on the pin on the 2 post automotive lift to be turned around away from the half moon gear. This happens either during the installation of the car lift, someone just forgot to make it line up, or more often than not it happens because the restraint gear loosened up a little and then the restraint gear on the pin jumped probably while under load and got caught sideways. If you call us at 800 674-9302 for car lift repair Ames, we will come out and inspect your 2 post lift restraint gears and how well they engage, we can than either replace them with the vast amount of car lift parts that we keep on hand for car lift repair Ames or we can adjust them and or get them freed up and moving. Most restraint gear replacement jobs total up to about three hundred and fifty dollars to replace by the time the cost of the car lift parts is added and the cost of labor and tax are added in. Three hundred and fifty dollars to fix the restraint gears on your automotive lift is very minimal in the scope of things, it can extend the life of your automotive lift as well and more importantly protect your technicians and your customers car and trucks. It’s always important to apply heat to the restraint gear bolts on the arms of the 2 post automotive lift restraint gears before you try to break them loose if you decide to fix your own 2 post automotive lift. Otherwise the restraint gear bolts on the automotive lift can break in the arms of the car lift which can be a major headache to say the least, you can either drill the bolt out or if there is a little bit of the bolt sticking out of the arm on the car lift you may be able to use a set of easy out sockets or be able to grab the bolt with a vice grip locking pliers or call us for auto lift repair.
Here at Automotive Lift Services when doing car lift repair Ames we normally heat the bolts with a heat conductor gun first so that they come out easier, we also use this instead of a torch on the car lifts when doing the auto lift repair because it is much less likely to cause a fire or burn the paint off the arm of the car lift which than puts toxic fumes in the air that you breath in from heating the bolts that hold the restraint gears on the car lift. Even just having one restraint gear on your car lift faulty can cause a catastrophe such as a car or truck falling off of the lift and injuring a technician or the vehicle or causing major damage to the car lift or all of the above. which is obviously very bad. If the restraint gears are engaging properly on the car lift than when you raise the lift off the ground again only do this test with no car or truck on the automotive lift, than the arm will not be able to swing or at least not very far it should have a little play in it, a little play in the restraint gear on the auto lift is good because it makes it easier to line up to your lift points on the car or truck. Give us a call for car lift repair Ames for your car lift and we will check your lift out and give you a quote for free.
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