Rebuilding an Airlift MagnaGlide Carriage

[ScottV]

I have Airlift polycarbonate doors on all of my automatic bays, with their Magna Glide operator. It is a stainless tube with magnets inside that slide up and down via air pressure. There is a carriage that rides on the oustide of the tube that the door attaches to. The carriage has wipers, seals, o-rings, and a series of metal rings inside it that adhere to the magnets and lift / close the door. These systems work well, but require constant wiping down of the tube to remove any buildup that occurs and prevent galling of the stainless steel.

At my one site with 4 Airlift doors, I have had to replace 4 of these carriages due to corrosion, etc. The first 2 were covered under warranty, but in recent weeks I have had to purchase 2 more at $800 a piece. I asked my distributor to inquire with Airlift about any rebuild program they might have and he was told that there isnt one.

I understand why companies prefer to sell only new replacements, but with something like these carriages, that actually have serial numbers on them, and have shown to be a problem with wear and corrosion, you would think that some sort of return / rebuild program would be started. It certainly would look better for the manufacturer to offer a program for their customers to rebuild what seems to be the weakest link in their system.

Just a thought.......

ScottV

 

[bneckrock]

Scott- It sounds like you have the vertically operating Airlift Magnaglides. The horizontal version is quite a bit more, but they do offer rebuilt Magnaglides at a small savings, but they will not sell the rebuild kit. Most likely and O-Ring is failing. Do you have a lubricator on your airline? I think that is important.

I had one fail last year and was presented with two choices, new at around $2,000 or rebuilt at $1,500 (not including a core charge of a couple of hundred bucks). I thought the freight on the core charge would pretty much negate the value. I decided the air cylinder must be able to be rebuilt.

I took it to a hydraulic cylinder rebuilder (not common in all areas, but they exist where there is industry.) They warned me that they might not be able to do the job and I figured the worst case would be the loss of the core value. They cut the cylinder open, replaced all the rings and wipers, welded the cylinder closed for $357. They told me it was a piece of cake. Look in the yellow pages for hydraulic cylinders.

Good Luck

(BTW, the air glide cylinder is quite common in other applications, I've been told.)

 

[ScottV]

Bill,

These are actually the horizontal ones and are attached to my ceiling. It's not the tube that is bad, but the carriage (collar) that slides on the outside of the tube. See, I leave my doors open during the summer and don't cycle them. My Distributor told me that while that carriage sat in the open position for so long, it corroded and froze itself to the tube. They had to dismantle the seals and wipers in order to free it up and take it off of the tube.

Clearly this was caused by my decision to leave the doors open. I'm not disupting that. It's just that this carriage is $800 and I can't understand why they dont have a rebuild program for these, when all they are is a machined collar with a bunch of removable internal parts.

We use oilers on our doors and I did have to buy one of the tubes once and it did cost a little over $1,200.

 

[bneckrock]

I understand, but I refuse to believe that the wipers, rings, etc. are proprietary to Airlift. If you can get the carriage off, I'd take it to a someone in the hydraulics business. It's a standard size. The only thing that's unique is the length, not the diameter. I hate it when you can't find a workaround.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

I just rebuilt a magnaglide last week/ airlift sent me the seals. After the tube is down its easy to use a block of wood and knock the carriage off the tube.
Then remove the seals. Inside the carriage you will find a rust buildup that needs to be removed--easier with a non magnetic tool. The rust actually cut into my tube a little but i used emery paper to elimate the scratches. They recommend JB80 on the outside and airtool oil for the inside. Mine was so tight it wouldn't move and works awesome now. The tubes should be cleaned once a month with JB80. If you don't have oilers putting six inches of oil in the line will keep it working. The original seal was just a nylon bushing the new one has wipers on it.

 

[ScottV]

Whale, I'm not sure if you have the same unit as I do, but I just spoke with Brooke at Airlift and she assured me that they do not sell seals for the O07R2000 Magnaglide Carriage. They sell seals kits for other carriages, but this particular one they do not. The only option is to purchase a completely new carriage at $800. She said the reason that they dont want operators rebuilding these carriages in the field is because of the complexity of parts that are stacked inside, and getting everything put back together properly.

I told her that I'm sure this isnt her decision, but that I would appreciate it if she passed along the suggestion that Airlift needs to develop and offer a rebuild program for these carriages, as I'm sure that I'm not the only owner / operator that has had problems. To offer seal kits for other carriages, but not these top of the line models, is unacceptable. Even if they manage the rebuilds by taking them back, doing the work, and charging the operator a couple hundred $'s it's far better than having to buy brand new ones!!

I also looked at their website which has some very helpful sections in it, and under the Magna Glide trouble shooting section it has flow charts for diagnosing problems with the stuck doors. In most cases, if easy fixes in the flow chart dont address the problem, the end fix is "replace carriage" or "replace tube."

Lets see whether they take my suggestion and do something with it.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

I called today for 3 more seal kits. I got the same crap from them, i need to go to dealer and pay big money. The tech sent me seals two weeks ago for free.
A Monkey can replace the two seals after the two snap rings are removed.
I also am as mad as you now about their service.