Mechanics hard time trouble shooting rides part 1

Description: It happens to every ride mechanic out there. The ride breaks down. You head out to get it back up and running. Hours later the shift is changing and you’re no closer to figuring out what the problem is. Today’s video is stories of when rides take out their problems on ride mechanics.
SLC lift slow down 09:05
Regatta motor wiring 16:20
Boomerang catch wagon stall 22:55
Crazy bus vibrations 38:20
Huss frisbee drive problems 47:37
Impulse coaster fiber optics 56:35

[@litz13]

I'll give you a good one from the world of arcade games. Late 90s, Sega released their Nascar driving game, in both a regular (29") version and a deluxe 50" sit-in version. At something like $24k, the big ones were pretty much limited to amusement parks, Dave & Busters, etc. So, I get a call to go out and fix one (at the time I worked at a distributor as a manufacturer's rep) with a dead CPU. Go out there, replacement CPU in hand and find the bad one is so hot the chips have desoldered from the undersides of the circuit boards and fallen off. Why? On this game the CPU is located under the seat, with an inner structural wall forming the sides of the cavity it sits in, and about a six inch gap to the outside of the cabinet. There's a really nice 4" cooling fan mounted in that exterior wall too. So I get to looking and realize the interior wall is solid wood. Front to back. That fan is doing nothing but cooling dead airspace. 4" hole saw, a nice brand new hole in the inside wall, and game is fixed. Never overheated again. Sent off pictures to the Sega Service folks along with the melted CPU. My pictures are, to this day, still available as part of an official Service Bulletin. *That* is how you know you've made it in an industry. 😎

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Haha! That’s cool! I to have some pictures in some ride service bulletins. It’s interesting when I come across them.

[@litz13]

@@ryantheridemechanic 😎

[@IAmAnonymyz]

Frustration is real.... Especially when you follow the manufacturer troubleshooting steps to the TEE and replace the component (s) the manufacturer says to replace only to have that same problem reoccur.... Dealing with that issue currently on big rig ...

[@Spike-sk7ql]

I deal with it all the time on cars and light trucks. The best one is the Mopar diag charts. Some of them literally tell you to install a new say...... ABS module, and recheck, in like step TWO. It's enough to drive you mad! Sometimes though, it's a bad part out of the box. Even dealership components. Cam phasers are a prime example.

[@IAmAnonymyz]

@@Spike-sk7ql only thing worse than Mopar is Diamler 🤣🤣🤣

[@Spike-sk7ql]

@@IAmAnonymyz 😂😂 Mercedes Benz too. Jaguar is the worst I've ever worked on. Except for trying to help out my neighbor with his John Deere combine. JD can kiss my ass now. I will never buy anything JD again. Hell.... the way theysay, THEY STILL OWN TGE HARVESTER, NOT THE FARMER!

[@Project_Storm1999]

How do drive tire launches work i never really understood how tires can launch a train and act as a block brake ( intamin hot racers) thanks for the videos awesome as always

[@RanHam]

We had a motor drive fault out ever 5-9 days. Checked everything and couldn’t nail it down, even changed the drive out. For some reason I decided to take off the shell of the db connector that was for the encoder cable. At the time I thought I broke a wire off the connector when I did that. I soldered it back on and the fault went away. That wire must have been holding on by a thread.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

The time! and money right!

[@nickkleminsky]

I can understand not recording any "base data" to a point but to not have an electrical diagram seems crazy. I feel your pain I enjoy the mechanical/ troubleshooting style talks Finding ghost problems. I work in a different industry but go through the same stuff, of course.

[@misterenigma2013]

So funny, I'm working on a customers car that is being very problematic right now and I come in and this video pops up...Great timing brother :)

[@theunKnownoriginchristianmusic]

Have you ever had any wild life cause issues with a ride?

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Yes. That’s in part 2

[@illeyejahmalone]

Could you make a video about what happened with the Deja Vu to Goliath failed move and upgrade? The ride was great at Six Flags Magic Mountain, but was somehow messed up supposedly irreversibly when modifications were made after it was moved to Six Flags New England. It was a super cool ride and was very imposing on the midway but I never got to see it operate. I heard various rumors about why it was eventually taken down and presumably scrapped but I've never heard anything that was definitive. Could you make a video shedding some insight into that? Maybe ask some mechanics you know with other parks or people with Premier or Vekoma as they may have some insight. Would be super awesome. Cheers

[@ryantheridemechanic]

It would be at o be hear say from mechanics. Manufactures would never disclose anything about someone’s ride.

[@illeyejahmalone]

@@ryantheridemechanic even mechanic hearsay is better than speculation from enthusiasts on online forums who "swear they know a guy"

My god I’m so in love with this channel, thank you so much for sharing all informations

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Your welcome!!

[@FortyGumble]

Just started watching your channel and content. Wanted to say, absolutely fantastic breakdowns of the mechanical aspects of these rides. Very fascinating.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Thank you.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

And welcome!

[@FortyGumble]

@@ryantheridemechanic Thank you! By chance, do you mess around with No Limits Coaster 2 on PC?

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@FortyGumble used to but not anymore. Now I just have a Mac

[@Bogarttherideop]

If anyone can beat Max Verstappen in F1 it’s gotta be Ryan the Ride Mechanic.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Haha!! That guy has some skill for sure! I wonder how Redbul will come out in 2025 with the new changes from the FIA

[@Bogarttherideop]

@@ryantheridemechanic considering that Adrien is leaving the team it might actually change quite a bit. I feel like they’ll still dominate but hopefully we see more action from the other teams. I’m especially curious for the new Audi team

[@Project_Storm1999]

I wish there was video of you talking to ghost people 😂😂 imagine corporate walking by seeing that saying these guys are crazy 😂 in all seriousness I hope Casper and his friends enjoyed the ride

[@ryantheridemechanic]

As a ride operator I probably would have been fired haha

[@Balootoyoutoo]

Dont the limit switches on the ride have some sort of led indicator map in the control room? Surely that would make it a hell of a lot easier in diagnosing which switch is causing failure?

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@Balootoyoutoo most do not. Indicators can back feed circuits and cause an open switch to read closed. Any indicators are an entirely different system laced in to the ride.

[@stevehafke3614]

Intermittent problems are the worst. You know something is broke but you can't reproduce the conditions to cause the failure consistently.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

How about, you need to lock out the equipment to check it but locking it out clears the problem you’re trying to fix. Annoying

[@bradsyoutube]

I was watching an old discovery special of behind-the-scenes at Cedar point. They were doing the morning test runs of their coasters with a maintenance person on board. Is this normal? It doesn’t seem like that happens anymore.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

So wood coasters have carpenters ride it daily to verify the track is good. Steel coasters maintenance never really rides.

[@Jenlovescoasters]

I ride my woodie 4x in a row daily. Some of my previous parks had me ride my steel coasters, some didn't. I always rode when I could though. Not only am I a ride mechanic, I'm also a coaster geek. I did the math the other day, and I computed that I have ridden my woodie over 4000 times 😂

[@LTCoasters]

Somebody taking a ride on the coaster is part of the ops checklist. At least one member of ops has to ride before guests are allowed on at that park and ops can't ride before another daily block check is done. It's an easy way for guests who pay attention to know how close the ride is to opening for the day. Oh, and Steel Vengeance has to be signed off by both carpentry and maintenance.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@Jenlovescoasters that’s a lot.

[@bradsyoutube]

@@Jenlovescoasters that HAS to be some kind of record 😎

[@MichaelNolhan]

49:00 Would this also not put excessive wear on the wheel, or issues from heat on the motor or even friction?

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Not really they don’t have that much traction. More audible than anything. Plus those get changed twice a year depending on use.

[@SavageMark824]

I absolutely love these type of videos!

[@AAustinn9]

Top quality content Ryan! Thank you! ❤

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@AAustinn9 thank you!

[@thisguy_w0n]

Love the stories videos! Thanks Ryan

[@brandonbrown2480]

I have a question regarding VooDoo. What were the issues with it? Also why did it run with such a poor cycle program. I remember the program seeming more intense when it was newer. Maybe it just that I was young.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Always ran program 4 “topspin” others were just a series of swings without the topspin.

[@brandonbrown2480]

Okay. Thanks for the reply and awesome videos.

[@rvplc9428]

Discovery Kingdom?

[@supercobraz2788]

Yes 😊 That's my home park I go to

[@beyonddeadgirl9621]

Loved this video! You literally explained how frustrating trouble shooting problems is, I loved the ghost people part, made me giggle a little not gonna lie. Can’t wait for part 2!

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Great! Yea I loaded a lot of ghost guests that day.

[@Clipstreu]

Another great video! As a ride operator turned live entertainment manager/electrician/programmer/designer/installation engineer/draftsman (yes it’s a lot of hats), I love hearing troubleshooting videos. Troubleshooting abilities in a “the show must go on” environment are the hallmark of a good technician vs a great technician in my field, and is a science combining SOPs, manuals, common sense, and intuition. Working on buildings sometimes 75+ years since their as-builts, it’s always fun to hear how different disciplines deal with troubleshooting their “end user” issues, especially when documentation is lacking and it’s left up to someone to “just figure it out and get it running”

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Yes! I had the mindset of “the buck stops here” I was also called in when everyone else failed. That was also hard as everyone else started with “call Ryan” haha!

[@MrMakoFL]

Interesting about the HUSS Frisbee. I rode a traveling one here in the U.S. and IIR it required city power to swing fully to ~90°. It would also shake when run across the tires. I think it was a mechanical nightmare.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

They seemed rough to set up. Ours had an installation flaw we discovered. The tires ran inline but when examining the print they should have been side by side. The two drives were offset by about 200mm but (I’m guessing) when they placed them that aligned the drives with each other. Not offset. So it caused some unusual arm movement on high swings. Watching it closely it moved ina figure 8 in the air.

[@MrMakoFL]

@@ryantheridemechanic oof

[@supercobraz2788]

Yup, sounds like good old Tasmanian Devil.

[@StubbyPhillips]

Fascinating stuff. Thanks!

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Sure thing!

[@Spike-sk7ql]

Making more content is freaking cool. Thanks!

[@Dave-K-Notts]

Excellent channel. Keep up the good work.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Thank you!

[@wyattbella6459]

Do manufacturers not give yall a SOO with your equipment?

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Soo what?

[@wyattbella6459]

@@ryantheridemechanic sorry, Sequence of Operations manual. Manufacturers typically provide a sequence of operations with their equipment that outlines how the equipment is supposed to operate and particular set points they operate at.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@wyattbella6459 oh! Yea. Big ones. Hundreds of pages long. Yet every time something happens. Useless. Part of the problem with 4 systems all talking with alternate safety systems interlinked between themselves. I know a guy that fixes factory manufacturing equipment, tells me some of their troubleshooting manuals. So nice when it’s all manufactured by one company with proprietary info. All seems to work together nicely. This stuff is nuts. Drive one enabled, safe torque off, forwarded enabled, speed reference 0 safety is 1 and the drive still sits there! FU drive!!! haha!!! And that’s a simple flat ride

[@illeyejahmalone]

Nighttime troubleshooting sounds perfect for me because I'm just absolutely determined to solve any problem I'm assigned unless directed otherwise lol

[@skydivedoug]

While leaning on an air gate, I was wondering how the pneumatic system on an S&S awing ride works?

[@dwhitman12341]

This may be a dumb question as I have no experience in ride repair, just networking. Why would the newer rides not have data logs for all the encoders, sensors, etc? Seems like that could save a lot of time troubleshooting as you could just look at the graphs of each sensor and see which one is giving less than optimal data.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

The PLc is not meant to record data. It’s one of the reasons they work so fast. So you need an alternate system to watch the ride. So most parks don’t see the value, even with a week of downtime, to record everything all the time. Plus I’ve seen things like this, you still don’t know what you’re looking for even with it all in front of you.

[@eDoc2020]

@@ryantheridemechanic I also don't know anything about ride PLCs but I'd figure the PLCs could have something like an RS485 serial output that outputs a copy of all the sensor (and output) data in real time. Then you could use a cheap off the shelf PC to do the data recording. The data alone would be hard to work with but if you have time-synced security cameras I'd imagine it would be helpful.

[@frenchy1224]

Loved this video! Had fun comparing these stories to stories that happen at my Six Flags park hahaha.

[@sumguy8]

I race historics in a 66 shelby gt 250! So much in common lol

[@robertstephens5185]

That video probably the one that got a crew replaced. Great racing Ryan.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Ha! Thanks! It was one of my high points for sure

[@robertstephens5185]

Love to see a video on a certain schwarzkopf traveling coaster and why it didn't want to operate properly in 2 totally different locations, but seemed to work fine after it went south of the border. Why was it modified, and did it kill the ride experience?

[@samich57]

This is super advanced high level coaster sh*t. I love it!

[@LTCoasters]

The ghost in the machines cauae so many issies. Enjoyed the stories!

[@michaezell4607]

I suppose you've heard about the recent tragedy at kings island regarding a guest who was struck and later died of his injuries after entering a restricted area under the banshee coaster a few days ago?

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Yep.

[@RMsteelerfan7]

Love your videos man… you know the situation with the Steel Curtain at Kennywood? Well I just went today, and certain supports are being marked up… for example “C41”, what could this mean? Would you know?

[@ryantheridemechanic]

I’m not sure what’s going on with that. The marking would make sense as an erection tag, it’s column 41 in segment c. Maybe yet are planning on taking some out? They are very quiet with that ride.

[@RMsteelerfan7]

@@ryantheridemechanic That’s what I was thinking, maybe they’re replacing it. They’re extremely sneaky, so we don’t know what’s going on… we’ll just have to wait and see.

[@ericcross4180]

Motors dont stall as a result of electrical issues, heh, ya'll were on the right track with the chain binding, def a mechanical issue.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

We were grasping at straws because the gearbox was 26 weeks out.

[@MichaelNolhan]

43:28 I can only imagine the reactions, and also laughs once it got fixed.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Clarity is always refreshing when you finally see the whole problem not just the symptoms.

[@josephploettner7327]

Super interesting! Ty :)

[@Amerigo3356]

Hahaha F1. Love it.

[@dnickleski9874]

How did you go from nascar racer to ride mechanic????

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Start with a base of love for rides. Then nascar, then regress!

[@christiwright3604]

I laughed really hard when you mentioned about the impulse coaster. I was like how did the other mechanics not understand 28-1 lol 😂 I thought is this basic information or an experience thing? lol

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Most don’t understand the minor things that aren’t really spelled out on paper.

[@christiwright3604]

@@ryantheridemechanic Sad when you work with GP!

[@malichim5560]

As a fellow ride mechanic i can confirm frustration is real. Especially when it’s the most simple thing that you can’t get to work or go in place. Also, very awesome you used to race oval

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Like pushing in a pivot pin or something like that. I feel like happy Gilmore talking to the golf ball. “That’s your home why don’t want to go in to your home!!!”

[@Jenlovescoasters]

I have also pulled a Happy Gilmore.😂

[@malichim5560]

@@ryantheridemechanic Haha you are right on the money, same thing happened to us and couldn’t get a pivot in out of a wheel carrier for like 3-4 hours.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@malichim5560 ever blow a spherical bearing apart in place. I did that once or twice a year. Pin moved about 3mm then you can watch the hydraulic force start to load. And if you don’t catch it or are distracted BOOM!!!

[@malichim5560]

@@ryantheridemechanic haha yes it’s a big boom

[@4everpee]

Why you dont check the tachometers at first.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Seemed more like a position was off. Tacho I thinks motor speed but this seemed like a reversing problem.

[@drdremd]

You win.

[@dindog22]

NASCAR is one of my favorite things in the world. Kyle Larson is my favorite driver currently. I also like Ryan Blakey because he's from Ohio and Corey LaJoie because.... well because he's a hottie

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Nice! The sport has definitely had a bit of a falling out sense the early 2000s

[@dindog22]

@@ryantheridemechanic Dale Jr was my favorite for years but he retired. he's got a great podcast every week

[@dindog22]

oops. meant to type Blaney. must have gotten spell checked

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@dindog22 I was a dale senior fan. My first cup race was at sears point and that was also Dales first road course win! So cool. But awe and power is still amazing to see top fuel drag race in person. That’s incredible!

[@dindog22]

@@ryantheridemechanic my first race was Michigan. I remember walking into the grandstand between practice and qualifying and thinking "this smells like freedom". camping at NASCAR is so much fun. it's like redneck Woodstock

[@catherinebrneyes]

Great stories!

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Thanks