A very useful workshop item, and as old as my P6!

mrtask

mrtask

Well-Known Member
I rent a large workshop space near my appartment here in the Eastern part of Berlin. I share the rent with three friends who are also old car fanatics. We've just clubbed together and bought an old two-poster car lift from another mate of mine who runs a small restoration garage. It is a Romeico 'Atlantik' 'Door-free' dating from 1972. It is free-standing, with a motor atop one tower and a chain in an oil bath driving the spindle in the second tower.
romeicoatlantictuerfrei.jpg

We dismantled it together the other week, which revealed very worn toothed wheels beneath the towers, amazing in fact that the chain hadn't slipped looking at how little the tooth stubs had worn down to! At the start of the week I collected it with a hired truck. Took four guys and lots of heaving and grunting to drag the components out of the tight courtyard to the street on a pallet loader, which kept getting stuck in the ice and snow! Couldn't manouver the lorry into the courtyard, hence all the struggling and cursing. Only two of us (me and the hired truck driver) to unload it at my lock-up, blimey, that was a real struggle.
This afternoon I'm going to start dismantling it further and inspecting it closely to establish what parts need replacing. I've heard lots of horror stories about these things collapsing, dropping cars and flattening mechanics, so I want to be absolutely sure it is all in good working order before I get beneath it. One of my mates in our garage-share is an engineer by trade and ought to be able to get it in good order and installed properly. I really hope we'll be able to get the parts we'll doubtless need, given the age of the thing. If we get it all sorted out it'll mean the end of jacking and hoisting and messing about with ramps etc.
I hope we get it fixed up and working safely, I rather like the idea of lifting up my 1972 Rover 3500 with a lift of the same vintage.
 
That's very cool, and very useful!

Does it run off a domestic electric supply, or do you need 3 phase?
 
I really hope we'll be able to get the parts we'll doubtless need, given the age of the thing.
Click to expand...


Net search pulled up a history of the Romeico manufacturer + who owns them;
part of the German Rohe group, still make car lifts under the "Herkules" brand *but* could be old info., looks like they are most likely now: "Beissbarth FACOM Gmbh "

http://beissbarth.co.uk/history99.php

Also appears Herr Beissbarth(s) were issued the oldest numberplate in the World: ( #1)

[url=http://beissbarth.co.uk/history2.php]http://beissbarth.co.uk/history2.php[/url]

Sprockets and chains shouldn't be an issue; typically engineering supply stores have sprockets as an off-the-shelf part and then it's a matter of having the correct center machined out of the blank to match what you are replacing. Chains can be matched to what you have, bearings matched too. Good score! I'd love a lift like that....

This company is in the USA + from their site: "It does not matter if your auto hoist or auto lift was made 7 weeks ago or 70 years ago SVI makes parts to fix them all"

http://www.sviinternational.com/products/auto_lift_parts/

Your lift was likely sold new in the USA under an importers brand name ( SVI would know ) esp. as Romeico was part of the USA Allen group at the time your lift was made...

A discussion of the Romeico Atlantik on a German site here:

http://www.spin.de/forum/463/-/81e7

Good luck!

GW
 
Hello TomW. It doesn't need 3 phase, it can also run on domestic power supply, which is fortunate because otherwise I'd have to get an electrician in and run 3 phase into my lock-up.
Thanks for the research and links, TokyoP6. As it happens after closer inspection yesterday afternoon it would appear that the bronze threaded 'carrying nuts' (I dunno what they're called in english, they're known as Tragmutter in german!) have less than a milimetre of axial free play (>1.5mm would be out of safe range), and the distance to the unworn 'safety nuts' (Sicherungsmutter?) was the 25mm specified in the installation and safe use manual. Looks as if we have bought a safe and working lift which doesn't need to much to get it installed and working safely. I'm going to ask around and try and find an expert who can give us a second opinion, because I'm a cautious sort of chap and I've heard too many horror stories of these things giving way and collapsing onto the mechanic working underneath!
I will need to shift a whole load of clobber around in my workshop to make useful space for the lift, basically a comprehensive reorganisation of our work and storage space. When we manage to get the lift installed the way I envisage it I should then be able to hoist up the Organ Donor and safely remove the running gear from beneath, before hopefully dropping it onto a trailer for removal and disposal. In fact, having a high lift makes all kinds of jobs easier than without, and ought to mean I can do a few little jobs on friends cars (oil changes, brake pad replacement and so forth) to offset the garage rent. In actual fact it makes other car projects seem much more feasible, and I'm already fantasising about the next project(s) after my P6!
 
I spent a lot of time under a Ravaglioli lift of similar design.
I would agree that the wheels and chain are not a big deal. Find a supplier that has chain of the same size or one size up and wheels to fit. The wheels will need to be the same size and have the centres machined to fit the screwjacks in the towers.

Nice tool to have, for certain. I'm happy for you!!
 
It has taken me a little bit longer to get my 2-poster lift installed than I had hoped when I picked it up back in January. However, it has now been erected, having been outfitted with new sprockets, new chain, new tensioner, new gaskets, new side protection strips, etc.etc. All I need now is for the guy from the sub-unit next door to locate his gone-on-the-missing-list sub-tenant, the only person with a key to the room where the fuse boxes are located. More than a little bit annoying. If I'm lucky I'll simply have to swap a blown fuse, rather more likely I will need to engage an electrical engineer to safely route 3-phase power into my sub-unit. Itching to see if it all works properly and safely, and then get on with the final strip down of the front and rear suspension from my sad old Organ Donor, which I want to get rid of a.s.a.p. All looks rather spick (?) and span in my lock-up now, thanks to the liberal application of lots of white masonry paint a few weeks back. Pics to come when NKT599M is safely elevated to have it's last components removed from underneath.
Only one problem: nowhere on the lift itself or in any of the accompanying literature does it actually state what weight can be safely lifted! I don't actually know if it is a 1.5 ton lift, or 2 tonnes, or something else. Irksome.
 
2post-car-lift-in-action.jpg

It took 6 months to get it sorted out, but I'm delighted that our 2-poster lift is now back in action. Crap blurry photo taken with my primitive mobile phone, never the less, there's the visual proof; my old Organ Donor NKT599M high up in the air awaiting final dismantling of the undercarriage. Couldn't get started today 'cos my tools are all across the other side of town in the boot of my project car. Doh!
 
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