Garage Lifts

[Tom]

I have a similar groan that seems to be resonating from uprights, I don't hear it from the ram/pump, but like you said it's tough to tell. I'd be interested to hear what the CAT additive does when you obtain it.

I guess I need to go and re-lube everything again. Thx for the reminder

Congrats on it being back to normal now!

Happy to report the lift is completely groan-free this morning too, so I think all the lube did the trick. I'll still put the Cat oil additive in once I get it, but that stuff is not easy to get. I couldn't find it anywhere online. The places that claim to have it all had to back-order it once I added it to my cart. And to buy it from Caterpillar itself is not an easy chore. You have to create an account first. Then you can add it to your 'cart' but you can't actually buy it. Instead, Cat sends your cart to your local Cat dealer via email, and so now I'm waiting for that dealer to get back to me. In the world of "e-commerce sales friction" this is like 24-grit sandpaper.

At any rate, if helpful, here are the parts I lubed to make my BendPak quiet....

I used regular old bearing grease on 8 Zerk fittings....

Bendpak-lube3.jpg (833.51 KiB) Viewed 692 times

bendpak-lub2.jpg (840.79 KiB) Viewed 692 times

I sprayed white lithium on the plastic blocks that rub against the post, and on the pulleys (sheaves), and rubbed the cable itself with 90weight oil -- per the manual.

bendpak-lube4.jpg (950.66 KiB) Viewed 692 times

Not sure if all lifts have these Allen bolts holding the pulley axles in place. But mine were finger tight at best. Tightening them down cut the groan by half I'd estimate!

bendpak-lube5.jpg (677.57 KiB) Viewed 692 times

[Bill in Bama]

Good to hear. As with most things, a bit of regular,maintenance goes a long way. Note to self to lube my lift and my garage doors.

[Tom]

Good to hear. As with most things, a bit of regular,maintenance goes a long way. Note to self to lube my lift and my garage doors.

Right? Go figure -- regular maintenance -- who knew? Still no word from Caterpillar. I have the carriage style garage doors now, with big gate hinges, so maybe I should hit those with the lithium grease too now that I think about it. When I had a traditional roll-up garage door, the single best thing I ever did was replace the old metal rollers for nylon rollers. It transformed the door. It went from a rattly old contraption to sounding smooth as silk going up and down. If you have metal rollers, google nylon garage door rollers for endless links and videos on the subject.

[Tom]

The week is nearly over, and Caterpillar has not responded at all. I guess they don't make their living selling oil additives to shade-tree mechanics, but still.... Why set up an online store, only to ignore requests to buy stuff? Weird.

[Bill in Bama]

I can't remember where I bought my anti-chatter fluid, but of course it was before the shortages of everything. Still, Cat is remiss in not acknowledging your request.

[Tom]

I can't remember where I bought my anti-chatter fluid, but of course it was before the shortages of everything. Still, Cat is remiss in not acknowledging your request.

Yeah, I guess I'll look around for other options. Do you happen to remember which additive you used?

[Bill in Bama]

No, but I 'might' still have the bottle, as it didn't call for all of it based on the formula. I'll try to look for it today.

[Bill in Bama]

Tom, I can't find it, so over the years I must have used it all. But I did Google "hydraulic system anti-chatter fluid" and found the Cat fluid available at Peterbiltparts.com. Lucas, Liqui-moly and others sell a similar product, but the Cat oil seems to be available at peterbilt.

[Bill in Bama]

Uh-oh, I just read further and it's unavailable. But try one of the other products that come up, you don't have to buy as much or spend as much either.

[Tom]

Uh-oh, I just read further and it's unavailable. But try one of the other products that come up, you don't have to buy as much or spend as much either.

Thank Bill. When you put that fluid in your 'cart' on the Peterbilt site, it ends up saying they are out of stock but will back-order it. I initially figured there was no point in going through a middleman like that if they just had to order it anyway, but went ahead and just placed the order with them (i.e., the back-order). I figure Caterpillar is less likely to ignore Peterbilt. If this doesn't work, I'll try another brand....