So today we sent the lift to the top floor again, shut the gate valve, turned the power off, marked a line at each stage of the telescopic cylinder for this lift and also disconnected the gate valve inlet side so we completely removed the Blain L10 door valve and bucher valve from the circuit.
All that remains is the gate valve, rupture valve, hose fittings and cylinder stages.
After a period of 4 hours we noticed there was no leakage coming from the gate valve but we will still leave it disconnected overnight. We did notice that each stage of the cylinder had dropped around 12 to 15mm in this period and if step into the lift while in this state, it sinks even more and doesn't hold.
See attached photos of what we did.
https://1drv.ms/i/s!Auww3LXVzmjw91waYAv4fxUOF5dW
https://1drv.ms/i/s!Auww3LXVzmjw91ty8MxjA4nHwlg0
https://1drv.ms/i/s!Auww3LXVzmjw92G4SwRojTd-6ubs
https://1drv.ms/i/s!Auww3LXVzmjw92J6RNrQNyY5ZT3h
https://1drv.ms/i/s!Auww3LXVzmjw90s6Xy-DNyFjt_z5
https://1drv.ms/i/s!Auww3LXVzmjw92N3PVZ4vcogaoFX
https://1drv.ms/i/s!Auww3LXVzmjw90zm9Qoos6Y3zh3q
https://1drv.ms/i/s!Auww3LXVzmjw91maWLyf9RIpWuXB
https://1drv.ms/i/s!Auww3LXVzmjw91Tb81v9QIa7zfFL
There was also evidence of a small amount of oil around the first and second stage of the cylinder which was only cleaned off at the end of the last week. I don't know what anyone else thinks bit I honestly can't think of any other explanation except the rod seals causing all of this.
We even synchronised the cylinders before testing and also bled the entire system including cylinder stage bleed screws, bucher mechanical null point bleed screw and blain L10 bleed screw tube.
I will note that the oil was cool on arrival as the museum is closed today, tomorrow and the next day.