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Twayne[_3_]

In ,
zzzzzzzzzz typed:
On Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:30:10 -0400, "Twayne"
wrote:

In ,
typed:
On Sun, 18 Apr 2010 10:16:49 -0400, "Twayne"
wrote:

In ,
mm typed:
On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 23:17:22 -0500, "bob callaway"
wrote:

Garage door is off track will not open or close
Is this a do it yourself job or should I call a
repairman?

What they are saying is don't mess with the springs.
They can kill you, it seems. Post with more details
if you are still thinking of doing this yourself.

It "seems"? There isn't even an indication whether it's
a single or double door. Have you ever tried to lift a
garage door without the springs attached? A wooden or
steel door could kill you if it crashed down on you, or
take a foot or toes off real easy. Do you even know why
a door has to be open to install springs?

It does???
Many doors would be IMPOSSIBLE to replace the springs on
with the door open.

Educate me please: I'm reasonable.

Any installation I'm aware of, the door needs to be UP to
relieve the pressure on the springs. Disconnect the
push/pull connecton and slide the door the rest of the way
back and the cabling will hang loose for you to work on.
When a door is closed, the springs are under maximum
tension. Otherwise they wouldn't lift the door. And you'll
never find an easy way to work with tensioned springs -
talk about cocking a door in the frame!

What am I missing?

Torsion springs are mounted above the door. With the door
open you can't get to them, so they have to be worked on
with the door open and full tension on them. That's why
they're so dangerous. Better springs, but more dangerous
to work on.

Actually, after consideration, I'm going to say you're mostly
right about this. It's not unusual for the track system to not
allow sufficient movement of the door to the point where you
will have room to use the winding/unwinding rods to
wind/unwind the springs; it takes about 3' of space. The door
will often cock and jam istelf all the way up with a spring
gone on one side, especially if it's a wooden, heavy door,
should you try to manually lift it. IF it's light enough to
manually lift.
It's been years since I've touched one and that was back in
Chgo and a 2-stall wide door of my neighbor's. What we did was
unwind the spring on the good side far enough to let one man
be able to lift on the side with the broken spring and get it
to go smoothly. It took a man on the good spring side too,
since we relieved the pressure. And of course disconnecting
the opener from the door.
Another retired neighbor helped us and used to work for a
garage door installation company. He had us raise the now
basically unsprung door to its max travel and prop it safely
so it couldn't return. Then in about 5 minutes we dropped the
topmost casters out of the top door section and let the top
section hang down on its hinges, which let us move the door
far enough to be able to use the bars to finish putting the
new springs on. Normally both springs should be replaced at
the same time. We put the new springs on, approximately
equalized the torsion between the sides, and manually let the
door down slowly a step at a time using a come-along as a
safety wire. When it was down all the way we finished the
torsion settings, reconnected the opener and were done. Took
about an hour IIRC, with lots of talk & jokes as we went
along. Of course, we spent the previous evening for about 3
six packs planning it out.
Doing those adjustements when the door is down is scary
business; if you slip and lose a hold on one of those adjuster
bars it's going to become a missile if it comes out of the
holes made for it.
I have noticed recently that torsion sprung doors have
longer tracks on them; that's interesting.

For whatever reason it's not near as difficult to lift a door
with tension springs. It's easy to thread the wire so you can
pull on it to lift the door on the side where the spring broke
and just let the other side follow. You don't have to go too
far before the weight of the door gets really heavy though.
Come-alongs to the rescue again works well.
Personally I wouldn't touch a torsion sprung door at all
anymore but hey, I'm an old man now! They're just too danged
dangerous, door up OR down! I have replaced my own tension
springs twice over the years though without any problems. I
got the idea to use come-alongs from watching a garage door
repairman in Chgo changing some tension springs at a friend's
house.
Someone said torsion springs were "better" but I don't
really see it. They're more expensive, use practically the
same springs as on tension openers and are a lot harder to
work with. You don't get back any ceiling space because there
still has to be clearances for the tracks and the door to move
into when it's up. They also require a much stronger header
over the garage door since all of the torsion has to be worked
against in that one small area.

HTH,

Twayne`