Body-Solid assembly
Nothing gets tightened until the cables are in.
It is printed on every assembly page of the manual, and it inverts the instinct of anyone who has ever built anything. Tighten as you go and the frame will not flex, the pulleys will not align, and the cable will not find its path.
A multi-station gym is not a frame. It is a cable route.
Bolting the steel together is the easy half, and it is the half people think is the job. The real machine is four steel cables, one of them over twelve feet long, threaded through a dozen pulleys, around the top frame, down through the weight stack tower, and terminated on a selector rod. Body-Solid devote whole chapters to it: assembly, then CABLE INSTALLATIONS, then CABLE ADJUSTMENTS, as separate sections.
And the entire frame has to stay loose while that happens. The manual repeats the same note on page after page: do not fully tighten the frame bolts, and do not fully tighten the pulley bolts until after cable routing. Individual pulleys are to be left finger tight until the final adjustments, fifteen steps later.
This is not fussiness. A cable-driven machine has to be able to settle. Torque it down early and you will spend the evening loosening it all again to make a cable reach.
How long, in Body-Solid’s own words
Their manual measures time in PROFESSIONAL INSTALLER units, which is unusually honest.
| Model | Time | People |
|---|---|---|
| GLP2500 leg press attachmentTheir figure. And then: "if this is your first time, plan on SIGNIFICANTLY MORE." | 1/2 hour | A PROFESSIONAL INSTALLER |
| EXM2500 full gymShips in three boxes, weight plates separately. | the better part of a day | 2 |
| Cable routing aloneFour cables. One is 12ft 6in long. | a chapter of the manual | 1 patient one |
| Cable ADJUSTMENTSeparate from installation. It is the tuning. | its own chapter | 1 |
| Retro-fitting an attachment laterThe leg press REPLACES an existing cable on the gym. | partial disassembly | 2 |
Body-Solid changed their hardware from standard to metric, and their manuals carry a cross-reference table. Old YouTube walkthroughs may name the wrong sizes.
The four things that decide how your evening goes
The pulley goes in UNDER the cable, not before it
The single most useful line in the manual, and it is easy to read straight past. Route the cable through the opening FIRST, then insert the pulley beneath it. Fitting the pulley first is the obvious move, because it is a pulley and pulleys go in frames, and it is exactly how you end up unable to thread the cable and taking the top frame apart again. Read each routing step to the end before you pick up a bolt.
Half an inch of thread is what holds the weight stack on
Body-Solid put a WARNING on this and they are right to. The Selector Rod Top Bolt must be threaded a MINIMUM of half an inch into the selector rod, with the jam nut tightened against the lock washer. That fastener is the connection between the cable and a weight stack that may be 210 pounds. It is easy to under-thread, because you are hauling a cable tight with one hand while you start the thread with the other. Check it, and check it again before anyone uses the machine.
Sequence is explicit, and it is not decorative
The manual says it plainly: be careful to assemble all components in the sequence they are presented. On a machine where the cable route passes through parts that get installed at different steps, an out-of-order bolt is not a small thing. It is a section you take back apart.
Measure your ceiling before you buy
The EXM3700GLPS is 6ft 6in by 8ft on the floor, and requires a SEVEN FOOT CEILING. The EXM2500 stands 83 inches, which is 6ft 11in. In a basement with ductwork or a finished ceiling, that is not a comfortable margin, it is a decision. Body-Solid publish a room layout diagram and a usage space figure, and both are worth reading before the machine is on a lorry.
Cables are wear items, and inspection is daily
Body-Solid are unusually direct about this: cables are wear items, cable inspection should be performed daily, and you inspect the whole cable and especially the area near the fitting at each end. This is a machine with a service life and a maintenance schedule, not a piece of furniture. Frayed cable near a fitting, under load, with a stack of iron on the other end, is the failure worth preventing.
Extra holes are normal. Loctite is recommended.
Two small ones that save phone calls. Body-Solid note that some pieces have extra holes you will not use, so use only the ones the instructions indicate rather than assuming you have the wrong part. And they recommend Loctite 242 on fasteners for a long-term cure, along with periodic re-tightening, because a cable machine vibrates for a living.
Before delivery
Measure the ceiling. Then measure the usage space, not the machine footprint, because you need room to sit, reach and pull.
Clear a flat, solid area with space all round, which the manual asks for explicitly, and which you will want during assembly as much as after it.
Have a metric AND a standard set of tools to hand, given the hardware change.
And plan to leave everything finger tight. That is the discipline the whole build depends on.
Why Body-Solid themselves make the argument
Because their own manual benchmarks assembly time against a PROFESSIONAL INSTALLER, and then tells the first-timer to expect significantly longer. That is the manufacturer telling you what this job is.
Because somebody who has routed one of these cable systems before knows to leave the pulleys loose and to thread before fitting, and those two habits are the difference between an afternoon and a weekend.
Because the bolt that holds the weight stack on has a minimum thread depth, and it is worth having someone check it who knows why.
And because the cables are a wear item. That makes a Body-Solid an ongoing relationship, not a one-off. Cable replacement, retensioning and adding attachments later are all real, recurring work.
What an installer does
- Assembles the frame entirely finger tight, as Body-Solid instruct, and resists the urge to torque anything.
- Routes all four cables, threading before fitting the pulleys they run under.
- Verifies the selector rod bolt is threaded at least half an inch, with the jam nut secured.
- Performs the cable ADJUSTMENT pass, which is a separate step from installation and is what makes the stack feel right.
- Wrench-tightens everything only at the end, and applies threadlock where recommended.
- Checks ceiling and usage clearances, and shows you what a worn cable looks like before it becomes one.
Get it built by someone who has built one before.
Tell us your ZIP and what you bought. Installers near you will quote you directly, and you deal with them, not with us.
Questions people ask
Why does the manual say not to tighten the bolts?
Because the frame has to flex slightly for later bolts to line up, and more importantly because the pulleys must be able to move while you route the cables through them. Body-Solid repeat the instruction on every assembly page: do not fully tighten the frame or pulley bolts until after cable routing. Tighten early and you will loosen it all again.
I cannot get the cable past the pulley. What did I do wrong?
You almost certainly fitted the pulley first. The manual routes the cable through the opening and THEN inserts the pulley underneath it. If the pulley is already in, the cable has nowhere to go. Back the pulley out, thread the cable, and refit it.
What ceiling height do I need?
Depends on the model, but plan on seven feet as a minimum for a full multi-station gym. The EXM3700GLPS specifies a seven foot ceiling requirement, and the EXM2500 is 83 inches tall on its own. Check the room layout diagram in the manual before you buy, not after.
How often do the cables need replacing?
Body-Solid treat cables as wear items and ask for DAILY inspection, paying particular attention to the area near the fitting at each end. Replace them when they show wear rather than when they fail, because what is on the other end of the cable is a heavy weight stack.
How long does assembly take?
Body-Solid answer this in their own manual, in an unusually candid way: a leg press ATTACHMENT takes a professional installer about half an hour, and if it is your first time with this type of equipment you should plan on significantly more time. Scale that up for a full multi-station gym with four cables.
Installers.org is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Body-Solid, Inc. Body-Solid is a trademark of its owner, referred to here only to describe the assembly services that independent installers on this directory provide.