Stealth Mode

Want to keep your center's machines operating smoothly? Use your ears.

Many noises are early warning signs of a failure to come. These warnings can be drowned out by the crash of pins and the thud of bowling balls. Use the quiet part of the day and your ears as a tool for maintaining the equipment you depend on.

Test your equipment by going in early and turning on lane number one. Listen, shut it down, and turn on number two. Keep going all the way across the center, making notes on which machines sound as if they're tunneling to the center of the earth. Repeat the procedure, but this time cycle each machine. You can also do this from the service aisle behind the machines.

Run your lane conditioning machine without any distracting noise from bowling, television or music if possible. This key piece of equipment warrants attentive listening every day. Unusual sounds should be addressed immediately. Remember that Kegel tech support is available to help you with your lane machine 24 hours a day.

Try to determine what noises you are hearing and where they might be coming from. A plan of attack for this procedure is to go after the big noises first. The loud stuff can be covering up the softer noises that are just as important. Remember to listen to only one machine at a time.

Bearings, bushings, belts and clutches will "talk" to you if you take the time to listen. Motors and solenoids also have a dialect that can be interpreted as an upcoming problem. A buzzing relay should put the buzz in your ear as to its condition. The equipment will tell you what needs to be checked. With practice the language gets easier to understand.

To help with the mental part of this preventative maintenance procedure, think of it as a "search and destroy" mission. Hunt down the noisemaker and repair or replace it. The quest may be different on each machine, with similar sounds having several different causes. You may have to remove belts or unplug motors to assist in the search for the offending component. A mechanics' stethoscope can help track down noisy bearings.

Before starting this diagnostic procedure, stock your shelves with the appropriate oil and grease needed. Spare bearings, clutches and other parts should be on the shelf and ready to install. An oil can with a long flexible spout, along with a good grease gun with needle tips make things much easier.

Be prepared to spend some time taking apart complicated assemblies. Squeaks and rumbles can come from bushings and bearings buried deep within the machine. The sound of a drum solo from a pinsetter could mean an hour or two of "belly work" on a pit.

Various rollers, mounts and drive mechanisms can go from working condition to failure overnight. Urethane can become brittle with age, causing a purring machine to roar with disapproval when customers arrive. Belts and pulleys can be a source of noise. Check for proper tracking and tension. Belts with a glazed surface can make an annoying squeak and should be replaced. Inspect pulleys for wear. A mirror-like surface on the inside of the flanges can make a noise that can be mistaken for a bad bearing.

Motors can be a big contributor to the sound coming from the machine. Many have bearings that can be greased without disassembly. If you are not familiar with the proper procedure to grease these motor bearings, consult a local motor shop. Over greasing can lead to failure of the motor!

A noisy gearbox can be an expensive undertaking. The parts and hours involved with rebuilding a gearbox can take a bite out of a center's maintenance budget. The fact that the sound is coming from such a key component demands that it be repaired before it becomes a major breakdown during the league season.

Listen to the ball lifting mechanism on the approach. Some can be completely silent when idling and make a lot of noise when lifting a ball. It's very important to keep this part of the center as quiet as possible. The bowlers are nearest to this equipment and it can make a huge impression on them. The hand dryer should not sound like an F-18 fighter jet warming up for takeoff. Some of these motors have small bearings that are replaceable. Also check the fan itself to see if it's hitting the housing.

Listen to your air conditioning units as they cycle off and on. If it sounds as if a compressor is laboring to start up, check it out. Blower assembly bearings can make some serious noise if not lubricated. The exhaust fans in both the restaurant and restrooms are often overlooked, flip the switch and listen for possible future problems.

Refrigerators and coolers should run without much noise. Listen to them as they cycle off and on. If something sounds “weird”, check it out or call a professional. Nobody wants to walk into the center one morning to be faced with hundreds of dollars of spoiled inventory.

This is a good time to give your sound system a test. Listen for bad speakers, poor balance and distortion when the volume is turned up to late-night levels.

By enacting "Operation Hush" two or three times a year you can keep your center quiet and help get your machines running in top-notch fashion.