Hi,

I have a 16'x8' two car garage door with an opener. There was some damage to
the rail and so it was repaired by a professional in April. The very next
day one of the two tension spings on the door (See ASCII figure below)
sliped from it grip a the center. We had to call the same guy to retension
it. He said that this was unusual and was not supposed to happen. Today I
find that the other spring has slipped and needs to be retentioned.

Is this common? I have never seen this happen in the last 16 years of home
ownership. Anything I can do to stop this from happening? Of course, the
bolts on the sleeves that connect to the spring can be tightened well.

TIA for any help

---------------[.]/////////////[ ]\\\\\\\\\\\[.]------------------

Sleeve Spring Center Hold Spring Sleeve

Is the torsion shaft hollow or solid?

On a hollow shaft it is very rare for them to slipped & the bolts don't
need to tightened all that much. The set screws will make an
indentation in the shaft so it's not likely they will slip unless
someone loosened them.

If it is a solid shaft it is possible for them to slip if there isn't a
keyway in the cone or if one of the set screws aren't set into the slot
in the shaft.

Doordoc
www.DoorsAndOpeners.com

wrote:

Is the torsion shaft hollow or solid?

On a hollow shaft it is very rare for them to slipped & the bolts don't
need to tightened all that much. The set screws will make an
indentation in the shaft so it's not likely they will slip unless
someone loosened them.

If it is a solid shaft it is possible for them to slip if there isn't a
keyway in the cone or if one of the set screws aren't set into the slot
in the shaft.

Doordoc
www.DoorsAndOpeners.com

The torsion shaft is hollow. The slippage is not on the side sleeve where
there are bolts to be tightened but on the center sleeve where the torsion
spring grips to.

This brings me to my next question. Why is the torsion spring not bolted to
the center sleeve (which is mounted on the wall) instead of having it grip
the threaded sleeve? If it is bolted then there is no chance it will slip.

TIA for any help.

There really isn't any need to bolt the spring to the threaded cones.
The cones are tapered & it takes a pipe wrench or large channel locks
to get the spring all the way onto the cone. Plus as tension is applied
to the spring the spring collapses slightly to grip the cone even
further.

The first possiblity is that the springs weren't put on the cones far
enough in the first place, but you would think that the repairman would
have noticed that & fixed both springs the first time.

It could be possible that the springs aren't the right size for the
cones or vice-versa. Many residential doors have 1-3/4" or 2" I.D.
springs, but Raynor uses 2-1/4" I.D. So for example if someone put a 2"
spring on a 1-3/4" cone it would be possible for the spring to come off
the cone.

It would also be possible (but I haven't seen where it would be likely)
that the springs I.D. sizes were not manufactured to the proper size as
in poor quality control.

Unfortunately you can't measure the spring I.D. unless the spring is
unwound & off the cone, but the size of the cone is usually casted on
the edge of it.

Doordoc