On Sat, 08 Dec 2012 09:26:49 -0800, Oren wrote:
You could have saved a lot of time and aggravation
by removing all the drywall

I agree that I had two choices, namely:
a) Follow Dan's advice to shore up the end bearing flags externally, or,
b) Follow your advice to restructure the garage (i.e., add cripple studs).

For better or worse, I had opted to follow Dan Musick's advice to simply
shore up the bearing end plates with the steel angles he sent plus about
$15 in additional steel sheeting and Simpson "L" shaped support.

I'm sorry if that decision to follow DDM's approach caused controversy.

I had two perfectly viable options (but only needed to pick one):
a) Shore it up externally
b) Shore it up internally

Since they were mutually exclusive, I couldn't really do right by all.
Most of you say I did the wrong thing (and you may very well be right).
But, I told you why. I told you what. And I showed pictures of it all.

When I informed the group of that decision, I was shocked at the
seemingly unwarranted and totally OT vitriol from some, so I simply
let it drop as I had explained myself quite a few times already.

I did try to answer when the vitriol started flying (not from you),
for exampnle, about the plywood & my apparently erroneous use of the
descriptive term: "steel angle iron". But then wholly OT vitriol
resulted, and at that point I had realized it wasn't about the
plywood or steel sheets. It was about something else, and, it wasn't
even about me. It was a problem that they seem to have had with some
woman they've met in the past.

Come to think of it, I guess, that just might explain the vitriol!

You said you found wood in some places and later stated it was not there.
It's hard to help you when we don't know what was behind it.

This is very true. You'll even notice that I've marked the wall where I
thought wood was, only to find that it was insubstantial.

You'll also notice that I moved the spring end plate to the left (as
you and I had agreed) 18 inches only to find that what I thought was
solid wood was only a thin piece of wood on a solid steel beam!

You'll then notice that I moved the spring end plate the 12 inches to
the right (as we had discussed), only to find that the 'wood' there
was again, insubstantial (the lag bolts went right through it).

I might not have mentioned it, but even the lower 3-inch lag bolts for
the tracks barely went into substantial wood.

Only after all that did I realize what the original garage installers
knew all along. There was no substantial wood anywhere above that
garage door, and along its sides. Only after all that (and dozens of
nail holes) did I realize that the garage is solely supported by the
concrete block and then steel beams.

Of course, had I ripped out all the sheetrock, I could have come to
the same conclusion (perhaps in less time). But, you must remember,
the goal was to (properly) replace the broken torsion spring.

As Dan Musick said, it was a difficult repair for anyone.

When that suggestion came up you went silent. It would have been easy
to plainly say; "I'm not going to do that". Without removing the
drywall, it complicated the matter in my opinion.

I'm sorry about that. I thought I had made it clear I was following
the advice of Dan Musick to shore up the bearing end plate flags.

IIRC, at the same time as your helpful suggestion, DD_BobK kept throwing
in OT vitriol that had absolutely nothing to do with this repair - and -
since I had already stated I had no plans to remove the sheetrock, there
was nothing more to say (other than to respond politely to DD_BobK and
then being shocked by more totally OT vitriol being heaped back).

I just backed off as I had no desire to argue. I apologize.

Following the threads here, I learned some things.

Thank you for saying that. I learned a lot too.

First, and foremost:
I learned that the dangerous springs are easy to remove & install.
I also learned that buying springs nowadays is trivially easy.
I also learned that up-sizing & doubling springs is trivially easy,
with the calculators on Dan Musick's web site.
Yet, I learned the actual math is imposing (as per Richard Kinch).
I learned that Dan Musick is the guy to go to for the springs and for
the winding bars and ancillary parts (hinges, rollers, plates, etc.).

It was especially interesting to learn that the tracks pitch backward
while the hinges graduate forward, such that the door is straight in
the final position. Also it was nice to check the overhead tracks to
see that they were absolutely level (to a tenth of a degree on my
digital level).

It was super surprising how easily the tracks went back up (admittedly,
I was just putting them back into the same holes) - but I was surprised
how easy it was to level them given how much I had feared taking them
apart in the first place.

It was great to learn what to lubricate and what not to lube.
(My mistake was to lube the tracks, which I rectified later on.)

Even putting the cables onto the drums, for the first time, was a learning
experience, as I had prior worried that it might be difficult to string
them both at the same time. But Dan Musick's suggested vise grip worked
wonders for tensioning the torsion rod.

It was interesting to note that I was easily able to adjust the
tension by backing off on the number of quarter turns (my door needs
only 29 quarter turns, whereas a typical 7' tall door needs 30).

And, it was rewarding to adjust the initial tilt of the garage door
by slipping the cable drum.

It was a learning experience when I tried to lift the door without the
spring and then subsequently erroneously arrived at the wrong weight
(because I used a digital scale).

In summary, having never understood garage door geometry and operation,
and, having feared torsion spring replacements in the past, I'm very
glad I did upgrade and replace my broken torsion spring. It's unfortunate
that the bearing end plate flags where unsupported - and that the
spring anchor plate was unsupported - and that there was no bearing.

Had those three issues not arisen, this would have been a very simple
and straightforward torsion spring repair.

If you are happy with your final results then nothing else matters.

Thank you.

It made me feel good that Dan Musick said that the repair will outlast
me, when I mailed him the same pictures that I had provided on a.h.r.

Since I could have left the spring anchor plate without a bearing and
bending as it was, it makes me feel especially good that the spring
anchor plate and torsion rod are now well supported - and that the
bearing end plate flags no longer allow the drums substantial movement.

I have learned; others have learned - and we leave that to posterity.