Garage Door Torsion Spring Fix

[Winger98]

I've been having some issues with my garage door lately with the torsion cables slipping off the pulleys. The pulleys aren't in the best shape and, apparently, neither are the cables. Because one snapped as the door was going up. Then the torsion spring seemed to just spin freely for a bit, wrapping the remains of the cable around the torsion bar.

I've called a garage door company but got a voice mail. Considering the whole virus thing I don't have a lot of faith in them calling back right now.

So, I have a couple of questions in case I'll have to tackle this myself. One, did the spinning damage the torsion spring in some way? It isn't physically broke, but I don't know if this took the tension out of the spring and made it useless.

Two, could the garage door opener safely lower the door on its own without help of the springs/cables?

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[Baby Punisher]

I had a spring break on my garage door a couple of years ago. It sounded like a little bomb going off. I had no idea it happened either. I heard the noise and checked around the house not thinking it was the garage door and found nothing. I forgot about it. The door worked ok, it was just a little slow going up. I finally noticed some bolts on the floor and figured out the spring broke and the spring breaking was the noise I heard.

Since the springs weaken over time, they become stretched out and weakened from going up and down in all sorts of weather. You can open and close the door. If you have a garage door opener and it's not a huge heavy door it will probably go up on its own, or with a little help from you guiding it up by pulling the door up by its handle as it's going up. If no garage door opener, it can be a challenge but possible. It depends on how big and heavy the door is. The bigger and heavy the door is the more help you will need. As long as the door itself is on the tracks it will go up and down just fine.

You will need to replace both springs, cables, and pullies. Don't try to take the spring off yourself. These springs are under tremendous pressure. I saw a guy get whacked in the face by room a few years ago trying to help a guy we know trying to fix his garage door. He was f***ed up for almost a year. Broken jaw, nose, orbital bone and lost a bunch of teeth. The installer uses a special took to take the tension out of the spring before he removes it.

I see you are in Ohio. The opener I have is Craftsman. I bought it from Sears a couple of years ago. They have installers that they use that are pretty reliable. The guy that did my install came back to replace my springs. Give Sears a call they may be able to get someone out to you within 24 hours.

 

[Winger98]

I had a spring break on my garage door a couple of years ago. It sounded like a little bomb going off. I had no idea it happened either. I heard the noise and checked around the house not thinking it was the garage door and found nothing. I forgot about it. The door worked ok, it was just a little slow going up. I finally noticed some bolts on the floor and figured out the spring broke and the spring breaking was the noise I heard.

Since the springs weaken over time, they become stretched out and weakened from going up and down in all sorts of weather. You can open and close the door. If you have a garage door opener and it's not a huge heavy door it will probably go up on its own, or with a little help from you guiding it up by pulling the door up by its handle as it's going up. If no garage door opener, it can be a challenge but possible. It depends on how big and heavy the door is. The bigger and heavy the door is the more help you will need. As long as the door itself is on the tracks it will go up and down just fine.

You will need to replace both springs, cables, and pullies. Don't try to take the spring off yourself. These springs are under tremendous pressure. I saw a guy get whacked in the face by room a few years ago trying to help a guy we know trying to fix his garage door. He was f***ed up for almost a year. Broken jaw, nose, orbital bone and lost a bunch of teeth. The installer uses a special took to take the tension out of the spring before he removes it.

I see you are in Ohio. The opener I have is Craftsman. I bought it from Sears a couple of years ago. They have installers that they use that are pretty reliable. The guy that did my install came back to replace my springs. Give Sears a call they may be able to get someone out to you within 24 hours.

I replaced the actual spring a year or two ago, that wasn't that bad. It had snapped in the middle from age (best I can tell it was 20 years old, at least that's what the stickers on the door said) so I didn't have to worry about it releasing and doing any damage. wasn't real thrilled with setting the new spring in place, but it wasn't bad. This isn't something I have enough experience with to want to muck about with what it currently is, though.

And the doors are heavy, 9x7 wooded things. I think they're kind of ugly but they'll probably last forever.

I got a different garage door company, though. They're coming out later this morning, which means I need to be getting the cars moved around so they can get to it. Relieved I'm not going to have to try to take this on, not looking forward to the bill they are going to give me.