Bugs wrote:
There's got to be something wrong with the way the original springs
were installed. My (5) garage doors are over 40 years old and the
springs have never been replaced or repaired. They work fine. As stated
before, heating the ends or shortening them up will really screw things
up.
Bugs


Wouldn't suprise me if they took more care making those springs 40 years
ago in the USA then they have in recent years where G-d knows where they
come from.

I have trouble thinking there could be anything wrong with the
installation. The springs are the proper rated strength for the measured
weight of the door and they just get stretched and released between a
stationary support and the cable pulley yoke. What could be simpler than
that other than never closing the garage door?

And, if spring breakage on those kind of door springs wasn't a fairly
regular happening, they wouldn't bother selling safety cable sets (even
at Sears) and the building codes in many areas wouldn't require them.

As far as screwing up the springs go, I don't think the door will really
notice that one spring is a turn and a half shorter than the other, and
I only apply the torch to the place where I make the end loop bend,
while the two adjacent coil is sprung away from it by a wedge.

Admittedly it's a small sample of four or five spring breaks in the last
dozen years, but every one which broke did so right at the end loop
bend, and the new loops I bent never broke, perhaps because my radiuses
were somewhat more generous than the original ones which were close to
right angle bends.

According to the scribbled note I left on the inside of the door on
which I had to fix a spring last night, I replaced both the springs on
it with brand new ones in December 2000, so it took 5 years for the next
break to happen.

Jeff (Not *really* taking himself too seriously about this 'yknow.)

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."