Wayne Dalton Torquemaster and iDrive self-Install (Long)
I just self installed one of these doors and opener. I did not find a
great deal of information on the net so perhaps some of this info will be helpful. First, gotta say that the door and opener work great. The iDrive is by far the quietest garage opener I have seen and the torquemaster spring system is really the way to go. It was more difficult taking the tension off the old springs for removal than it was to tighten the torquemasters. Getting the door/opener: The left hinge on our old garage door failed causing the solid, one-piece door to wedge about a third of the way open. It is a big door, 17' wide and 7' tall. It broke late on a Saturday night but I had visitors here and left the repair process until Monday. That morning, I called our only garage door dealer out here and asked them to come and give me an estimate on a repair. They told me the soonest them could even do an estimate was 10 days! "So, assuming I like your estimate, how long until someone actually comes and fixes the door?" "Two weeks." No way was I going to wait nearly a month to be able to get into and out of the garage! This was plainly going to have to be a do-it-yourself fix. Some background: I live out in the middle of the desert about 90 miles from the nearest home center. There is a Home Depot going up, but it won't open for another 4-5 months. Nobody in town stocks garage doors of any sort, including the dealer I mentioned. They ship everything in and the wait time is 7-10 days just to get the parts. So I started looking on the web to see what sort of garage doors were available and what the lead time was. Everywhere I looked, stores did not actually stock the doors, but had to order them in and ship them, drop ship, whatever, all leading to what I considered excessive delay. In my searches, I came across the Wayne-Dalton iDrive opener. I have to say, the idea of placing the opener directly above the opening and freeing up all the overhead space in the garage bay was appealing. I decided that since I was going to have to do it myself, I might as well get this cool new door and opener combo. Lowes handles Wayne Dalton doors and openers, but when I called several SoCal stores, they all told me that they do not stock any doors, just the openers. So I called the Wayne Dalton distributor in Chatsworth, CA. The guy there told me that they only sell to dealers/contractors. THEY had the door I wanted, but would not sell it to me. More checking to see if ANY store had them in stock -- no workie! Finally, I called the Wayne-Dalton distributor back and asked him to give me the name of the dealer closest to him who would sell me a door and opener and have it right away. Economy Overhead doors was the dealer. So I called the guy and he agreed to have one waiting for me the next day at his shop in Canoga Park, about 150 miles from where we live. I have a pickup, but there is no way a 17' door was going to fit on that without a ladder rack, which I don't have, so I borrowed a friend's trailer and towed it down to the city. No problems picking up the door, the dealer had everything I needed right there at the agreed upon price. He even threw in a couple of pieces of angle iron for the rear mounting brackets. Frank, you're a good dude! Old door removal: The old door weighed a ton. It was really a well-built old thing and had lasted 18 years, but one-piece doors require quite a bit of clearance in front in order to open. More than once I have hung up the door on a car bumper or truck bed. The decision to replace rather than repair was fairly easy. One piece doors of the sort we had use pairs of coil springs on each side for counterbalance. The left hinge had collapsed and the springs had fallen so there was no tension there to worry about, but with the door about a third of the way open, there was still quite a bit of tension on the right hand springs. In order to get the tension off, I hooked up a come-along (Hand powered cable winch) from the rafters in the garage to the upper spring mount. Once I had them pulled tight, I disassembled the hinge bracket and then slowly let the tension off the springs. Next was removal of the door itself. I unbolted the door from both hinges and then removed them from their mounts. My old Landcruiser was in the garage, so I just leaned the old door back on the bumper of the cruiser. Next I got a sawzall and cut the door into 4 sections that I could load on a trailer for disposal. Total time: 4 hours Opening preparation: Looking through the directions provided with the new door, they said to refer to the "opening preparation sheet" enclosed. The also quite helpfully mentioned that if there wasn't one in the box, to contact Wayne-Dalton and they would happily provide one! You guessed it, no sheet. Great, another weeks delay! So I just decided to prepare it like I thought it needed and press with the install. The old door had the hinges mounted on 2X6s that protruded into the garage about 2". They were pretty gnarly, especially on the left side, so I pulled them both out and replaced them with new 2X6 jambs, but this time I ripped both of them so that the inner surface was cut flush with the inside door facing. This left a flush surface around the entire inside opening. I figured I could work with that. It turned out to be just what was needed for the install. Total time: 2 hours Door Install: I am going to give the Wayne-Dalton folks a C-minus on their directions. They are profusely illustrated, but the illustrations are out of a 3-D rendering package that did not transfer well. Colors and shading are so poor that you will sometimes have difficulty seeing where the bolts go because the contrast is so poor between separate objects. Additionally, the directions were not comprehensive. (I already mentioned the non-existant opening preparation sheet) For example: The jamb brackets that hold the vertical rails against the wall were not anything like the directions indicated. They were bolt-ons while the ones on the instruction sheet were made to twist-lock into the vertical rails. So I just used the ones I had and bolted them to the rails using carriage bolts. (I later checked with WD tech support and they said this was correct -- "you must have gotten the JM-1 brackets" !!!) I didn't mention the obvious "so why didn't you put that in your directions?" The way the system goes together is that the vertical rails are topped with brackets called flagangles. These brackets are crucial to the operation of the door. They hold the torquemaster spring tube and the spring winding gears. You put the vertical rail/flagangle assemblies against the inner door frame after putting down the bottom section of the door and resting it in the opening. You have to level that bottom section. Luckily, my concrete is quite level there so I did not need to shim the bottom section. Next you attach the rails/flagangles with only a couple of lag screws so that they can be moved for adjustment. One step I would add is to take a measurement of the width of the upper door section -- edge to edge -- add 1-11/16" to each side (or 3-3/8" total)and then make sure that your flag angles are at least that far apart from each other. Also, even after you are sure that you have at least that amount of room between them, anchor the flagangles with plenty of room in the slots for adjustment to the outside. The reason for this will become clear in the next section. After attaching the vertical rails/flagangles, it was a simple matter to stack the remaining sections into the rails, inserting the rollers as we went. For a 17' door, this is definitely a two-man job. The sections are not that heavy, but they are plenty ungainly. As you stack the sections, you use the provided hardware to bolt up the hinges. I liked the way this worked. WD already attaches the hinges to the top edges of the sections. All you have to do make sure they are folded down and out of the way, stack the next section on, and then flip them up and screw them into the bottom of the upper section. It goes fast, especially with cordless drivers (how did we ever get along without them?) After slapping in the last section, you then attach the top (or horizontal) rails. These are the parts of the track that have the 90 degree bend. At this stage, getting perfect alignment wasn't critical, but I was not comfortable just having them hanging there in space at the back, so I grabbed a couple of bungie cords and lashed the backs of them to the rafters just to help hold them. This was about all the work I wanted to do for one day, but it was pretty good. Old door out and at least a new door in place (not operable yet, but it still looked better than my old thing hanging there partially open and wedged. Total time: 6 hours Torquemaster and iDrive installation: I had gotten the old door out and the new one in place in one long day, but Monday was a work day so I had to do the stuff sort of piecemeal in the evening, but I just got done and have a good idea of the time I spent. After getting the door in and semi-held in place, it was time to put up the torquemaster spring tube. Before putting it up, you have to take the iDrive and slide it over the right hand side of the tube. You definitely have to play with it to get it on. The fit is quite tight. I found that a little jiggling back and forth got it almost all the way through the opener, but there is a nylon bearing at the right side of the opening that just did not seem big enough to allow the tube to pass through. What I did was to center the tube up perfectly in the opening and then rap it sharply with the palm of my hand. That did it. All Wayne-Dalton would have to do to make this easier is to simply put a minor bevel on the right side of the tube and it would slide right on without difficulty. Even a bit more careful deburring of the edge would probably work as it was just the uneven nature of the finish cut that was hanging up in that last bearing. Anyway, I got it on and it was time to hang the tube up in the top of the flagangles. You have to have the drive shafts/torsion springs protruding from the ends of the tube on both sides in order to properly hang the tube. They just float around inside the tube freely once you have the protective rubber end caps off the tube. This is a problem! You tip the tube one way to get it up above the rails and into position and then the shaft on the upper side slides back into the tube! A real pain. I solved it by tipping the tube so that a spring/shaft came out of one end, then I used a tie wrap to secure it so that it could not slide back in, then I tipped it the other way and did the same to the other side of the tube. (keep in mind, some of the smaller doors only use a spring on one side, so you may only have half of my problem, but I still recommend using a tie wrap to keep the shaft from sliding into the tube.) Okay, now we have a torque tube with shafts secured on both sides and it is time to set it into the cutouts on the tops of the flagangles. Up she went without too much difficulty. Next, you slide on the cable roller end caps at both ends. Again, I had trouble. The cap on the right would not go on without the help of a hammer. I gently tapped it on, but since I had to take the tie wrap off on that side I succeeded in knocking the shaft back into the tube! Blast! So finally, I decided to lower the right side down with the cap in place and try to use gravity to get the shaft out though the cap and bearing. It worked! Shoot, that wasn't so bad. I tie wrapped the shaft again so it would not slide back in and just left the right of the tube hanging there in the cable while I went to get a tie wrap to repeat the process on the left when, horror of horrors, the cable slipped completely out of the right side end cap! There is a little warning sheet inside the torquemaster hardware warning the user not to let the cable come out of the end cap as it is very difficult to replace! Oh brother, what had I done! Time to start over. So I gently tapped the end cap off the tube and took a look at it. The thrust bearing is pressed into place and the cable has to wind through the inside in a fashion that makes it impossible to get the cable back in without removing the bearing. So I took the end cap over to my vise and using a drift punch, gently tapped the bearing all around the edges until I got it out. Threading the cable back in was not difficult once the bearing came out. Once I had the cable in, I used a wooden block and a hammer to replace the bearing. All was back together. This time I tightened the setscrew just enough so that the cable could not come out again, but not too tight. Putting the endcap back on was easier this time, and the shaft came though the bearing okay. One tiewrap and it was secure in place. Putting the endcap on the left side was easier, and I was sure to have that setscrew secured just in case. Alright, both caps were on and it was time to set the whole assembly into position. It didn't fit. I had carefully measured the 1-11/16 clearance at each side of the door, but it still wasn't quite enough room for the flagangle notches to rest perfectly in the grooves in the shafts at each end. That is why I mentioned earlier to make sure that you have 3-3/8" + door width + a little fudge room. The slots through which the flagangles are bolted to the door frame have some adjustment room in them, but mine were right out at the edges and the flagangles would not go further out. So I had to put in a lag bolt on a lower hole on the flagangles, go down the vertical rails on both sides and loosen the attachments to the doors, and slide the complete assembies over about a quarter inch. If you have to do this, be careful that you do not knock a roller out of the track. I did. Luckily, it was faily easy to get back in place by loosening the jamb brackets on that side and gently twisting the rails slightly. Total time: About 6 hours, most of it having to do with the endcap/cable issue and the repositioning of the rails. Rear brackets and miscellaneous: The horizontal or overhead rails have to be perpendicular and level. They also must meet smoothly at the tops of the vertical rails or the door will have trouble "making the corner" on its way up and down. Fortunately for me, I have this great tool called a robolaser. It is a self-leveling gizmo that shoots out laser beams top and bottom and at both sides. This made it really easy to get the rails set perfectly. I put the robolaser on a ladder at a height that allowed one of the beams to hit the top rail right where it emerged from the turn and the other beam at where the back end of the rail needed to be. From there it was a simple matter of lifting the rear of the rail to the proper height and attaching it to my homemade rear brackets. (These were fairly easy to make, I just followed the drawings in the instructions.) Once the brackets were tight I went around the doors making fine adjustments here and there to get everything square and tidy. Total time: 2-3 hours about. Spring gear drives: These were easy. The instructions were good and it all went together well. You just turn the shaft until the setscrews in the end caps face you. Pull the excess cable out and tighten the setscrews. You cut the excess cable off, and believe me, it was tough. I have a large set of dykes and they could barely get through the stuff. I almost used my big set of tinsnips, but I didn't want to wreck them. That's some pretty stout cable you guys have there, WD. After the cable is pulled through and cut off, you have to assemble the gear drives and brackets. As I said, it was cake. Lube the gears, slide them on, pop on the brackets and lag screw them into the wall, slide on the counter gear and dial indicator on both sides and you're ready to tension the thing up. You tension the springs, believe it or not, by using your cordless drill. A 7/16" socket and drive are all it takes. You put the socket on the adjuster and start cranking. A little dial moves telling you how many turns you have put in the sping. My door was happy at 16 turns (the instructions said 16.5, but that was a little too hot for my door.) Finally, a garage door that opened and closed easily! Total time: 1 hour The rest of the story: About all that was left to do was firmly mount the iDrive opener. All this time it was just loosely resting on the center mounting bracket with the flange nuts finger tight. I did some last minute adjustments to get the shaft perfectly straight (so it would not wobble as it turned) and firmly bolted it into position. There was no outlet over the top of my door frame. (my old conventional opener's outlet was back toward the rear of the garage bay) So I bought a heavy duty extension cord and weaved it through the rafters to the front of the door. The hardware kit with the opener includes a couple of wire hold-downs if needed. Next it was time to figure out how to use the remotes. All of the controls for this drive are wireless and battery powered. You have to install the battery for the main wall control and attach it where you want it. The back plate gets firmly attached to the wall using anchors if needed (I did) and then you slide the circuit board into the back plate and then affix the cover. Pretty easy. The next thing was getting it to work. Why do they make the simplest things hard in instructions? Here is how you get the remote to work, in plain english: 1. Press and hold the light button for 10 seconds until the light blinks fast. 2. Press and hold it again for 5 seconds until it blinks fast. 3. Go over to the iDrive and press the program button. 4. Within 30 seconds, press the door opener button on the control. 5. There isn't a 5th step, you are done. Getting the in-car remotes and the optional outside access combo dial controller installed was a snap after wading though needlessly verbose instructions. All the remotes pretty much work the same way. Activate them, then program them. It's a piece of cake. Finally it was time to test the door. I bought the next-to-the-top of the line residential model door, the 9600 to be precise. These doors have pinch resistant joints at the sections and when combined with the iDrive opener, do not require optical safety sensors across the door opening. The door automatically reverses itself if it hits an obstruction and it would be pretty hard to get a finger caught in the joints due to their design. But the key to the process of testing is to be sure the door does sense when it hits an obstruction. To do this you put a 2X4 wide side down on the floor under the door and try to close it on the obstruction. The door should stop and reverse. It did, no problem. Next, I decided to try the Scott test, which was to put me under the door and let it hit me to see what happened. Sure enough, it hit me and then reversed. Not even a bruise! I am not sure I would let your chihuahua stand under the thing, but the pressure I encountered was not excessive, nor the delay in reversal of direction. Total time: 3 hours, mostly messing with the directions. And that about corks it. The operation of this door is supremely quiet and smooth. It looks great, and I have another foot of clearance above my head in the garage bay. Perfect for hoisting, what have you. Aside from the incomplete instructions, Wayne-Dalton has engineered a slick door/opener system with a counterbalance spring setup that has to be safest and easiest on the market, particularly for do-it-yourselfers. I could have this door up in a day easily now that I know the peculiarities and imagine that any competent homeowner could install one with the proper tools and a little patience. One thing to remember, most of this can be done with one person, but you really will need two people for the door sections. Sorry for the length of this, but I hope the information helps any prospective buyer of this door. Door model: Thermogard 9600 Opener: Wayne-Dalton iDrive Dealer: Economy Overhead Doors -- Canoga Park, CA |
Wayne Dalton Torquemaster and iDrive self-Install (Long)
Thanks for the info!
I wont be going thru quite what you are but I will be getting 2 WD doors to install soon..I looked at Overhead doors products and they had miscolored trim pieces, doors would shake in the wind, really bad..Friend just had 5 WD doors installed on his garages and boat house, look and work great too. Thanks. |
Caution for Wayne Dalton garage door buyers. I also self installed a Wayne Dalton roll up door and was pleased with the product. That is until the TorqueMaster torsion shaft broke. I contacted Lowe's, who referred me to Wayne Dalton, who referred me to a local distributor, who referred me to a local door installer. The door installer happily informed me that I could purchase a new TorqueMaster shaft assembly for a mere $325.00. That seems a little steep considering the entire door runs for $597.00 and an entire set of conventional springs (4) can be had for about $80.00. Can the original TorquMaster shaft assembly be repaired? Or is there distributor for this kind of product? -- DH@OMAN ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DH@OMAN's Profile: http://homerepairforums.org/forums/member.php?userid=73 View this thread: http://homerepairforums.org/forums/s...ad.php?t=13528 This post was submitted via http://www.HomeRepairForums.org |
Have you emailed Wayne Dalton site to verify? If that price is accurate and
the only alternative, that sucks. But here is a link to one of their warranties: http://www.wayne-dalton.com/files/Ma...00Warranty.pdf Seems to me it depends on the definition of the word "springs". Just about everything else is a very long warranty so I presume the spring is replaceable without replacing the shaft and if the shaft has to be replaced it should be free. "DH@OMAN" wrote in message ... Caution for Wayne Dalton garage door buyers. I also self installed a Wayne Dalton roll up door and was pleased with the product. That is until the TorqueMaster torsion shaft broke. I contacted Lowe's, who referred me to Wayne Dalton, who referred me to a local distributor, who referred me to a local door installer. The door installer happily informed me that I could purchase a new TorqueMaster shaft assembly for a mere $325.00. That seems a little steep considering the entire door runs for $597.00 and an entire set of conventional springs (4) can be had for about $80.00. Can the original TorquMaster shaft assembly be repaired? Or is there distributor for this kind of product? -- DH@OMAN ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DH@OMAN's Profile: http://homerepairforums.org/forums/member.php?userid=73 View this thread: http://homerepairforums.org/forums/s...ad.php?t=13528 This post was submitted via http://www.HomeRepairForums.org |
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