Garage Door Torsion Springs

[MountainDon]

A few weeks ago when I pushed the garage door opener button the door started up as normal. That time, however, when the door was about a foot off the floor there was a horrendous clashing/stripping of gears sound. The door stopped going up and came right back down.

My first thought was that a torsion spring broke. But no that was not it. Pressing the button against produced more of that metal shredding sound. Pulling the drive disconnect and trying again resulted in more very bad noises from the 23 year 8 month old Genie.

BTW, the two torsion springs had been replaced about a year ago.

I picked up a new opener from Lowe's with a discount coupon.

Lifting the door by hand was much more difficult than it should have been, and the door would not stay up at the half way point as it should. It would seem that (a) the springs had lost some of their torsion strength, or (b) the springs were not set right when the serviceman replaced them. I spoke to two door service companies. Both said springs would not / should not lose tension or power; they would usually just break. Both wanted $65-70 for a service call to re-set the springs.

I knew the theory behind winding the springs, but had never done it. The power stored in the tightly wound spring scared me a little if there was a mishap. I found several websites on garage door torsion springs. Many warned that this was not something you should attempt at home. Hire a professional, let him take the risk, they said. However, I did find a few websites with what seemed to be well thought out approaches to working with the springs. They actually are written for replacing broken springs. All I needed to do was wind an extra quarter turn or two.

So I did it myself. I used two 1/2" round steel bars, each 18" long to hold the spring from turning as I loosened the set screws. It's a heavy door and there was certainly a lot of power stored in the srping. Winding another two quarter turns into the left and right springs did the job.

So working with those door springs can be done. BTW, I figure the guy who changed the springs last year probably did not wind them up enough. The load adjust screw on the opener was set to nearly maximum. I believe the door opener failed because it was overworked because of the mal-adjusted torsion springs. Maybe he was sloppy or maybe he hoped I'd call him to have a new opener installed?

The new opener works well and ismuch quieter than the old one. Hope it goes for another 23 years 8 months or better.

The links
http://www.diygaragerepair.com/How-to-Install-Garage-Door-Springs-Door-Opener-s/291.htm
http://ddmgaragedoors.com/residential/torsion-spring-replacement.cgi
http://www.truetex.com/garage.htm

[rwanders]

  Don, Really happy you survived your encounter with torsion springs---several years ago I tried the same task while ignorant of the power of those devices. The spring shot across the garage and almost completely through the back wall----and came very close to taking my head with it. I can now testify to the wisdom of hiring a pro but, all's well that ended well for you. 

[FrankInWI]

I replaced springs once or twice, and found it pretty straight forward, but you arer very right, one has to be very methodical and careful.  I know a smart ass kid who busted up his arm terribly by being careless.  

Two weeks ago my tenants heard a BIG BANG in the middle of the night.  Thougth something huge fell over in the garage, eventually they noted the spring.  Weather then was in the teens.... my portable heaters are up north.  Buddy at work told me about somebody fast and honest and reasonable.  I called him at 1:30, at 2:00 he was at the house replacing the spring (about $50 itself) and left me with a total bill of $120.   I was happy with that.  I was willing to trade $70 for half a very cold saturday working on the garage.  

[MountainDon]

I'm glad you survived that encounter. Over the years of much use I've had two springs fail. Each time I was standing right at the door. Talk about making one jump! So I was quite aware that there was real power wound up. You wouldn't want to use a rod any shorter than 18", nor would any longer a rod be much better as your arm would be stretched further out and I believe your balance on the ladder would be compromised.

All's well that ends well!  


I put off the repair until now, waiting for a weather break. 

[glenn kangiser]

I have installed hundreds of them in rolling curtain doors - same principal - and yes - you need to do it right or it can hurt you or something,

[davidj]

For our garage up at the cabin, I bought a door from Doors Online (who are just an Internet front for Amarr, as far as I can tell).  I really wanted an extension spring as they seemed cheap and simple.  However, after a bunch of screw-ups by our local Amarr dealer (which Doors Online were very helpful in fixing), I ended up with a "Simple set" torsion spring.  This was trivially-easy to install using a drill, thanks to a little worm drive mechanism for tensioning the spring.  (It's also pretty much impossible to install without a drill, as I found when my batteries died and I didn't have a charger - the worm gearing is significant and it would take hours to do it by hand!).  In this case I really needed to sort it out myself, as I'm not sure how much an installer would charge me to cross-country ski in two miles with torsion springs in a backpack!