Matter distributed evenly across lift beam (4)
I believe the answer is:
item
'matter distributed evenly across lift beam' is the definition.
'item' can be an answer for 'matter' (I've seen this before). I'm not certain of the 'distributed evenly across lift beam' bit.
'matter distributed evenly across lift beam' is the wordplay.
'matter' becomes 'I' (I is an example).
'distributed evenly across lift beam' becomes 'tem' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'i'+'tem'='ITEM'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for item that I've seen before include "'One thing, poor mite (4)'" , "Object; piece" , "Single unit" , "Article (on list or in news)" , "pair?" .)