From your description and questions it is appearant you are not in the elevator trade, probably the home owner. Far be it for me to tell a home owner that you can't work on your own equipment, but for safety reasons please don't. Also any person who describes how to do this is opening themselves up for liability. I can tell you by your description, your elevator probably settled down onto the limit. In order to run it up you'll have to get into high voltage, thus the safety concern. Also, valves to tend to leak. Normal yes, proper no.also the settling problem can be caused by other reasons. Please contact a local elevator company and let them do what we are trained to do.