Broken garage door cable-need to close door

Posted by on September 13, 2006, 10:33 pm

My daughter tried to shut the garage door (automatic door opener) with
an upright metal bar in the way. The door must have hit the bar pretty
hard before retracting. The cable on one side ended up looping around
the tension rod and the garage door was (and is still) stuck crooked
and lopsided in the open position. In a novice effort to rewind the
cable, I detached it from the door. Once I did that the entire cable
fell off. This all happened after business hours and I would really
like to figure out a way to get my garage door shut tonight and hope I
can get a repairman to fix it tomorrow. The house is less than 2 years
old. The spring is not visibly broken. The door does not appear to
detach from the electric opener, even after pulling the emergency
disconnect cord several times. Any suggestions for getting the door
down? Is there a way to reattach the cable to the drum? Any help will
be greatly appreciated!

Posted by Jeff Wisnia on September 13, 2006, 10:44 pm

kcmhansen@yahoo.com wrote:

> My daughter tried to shut the garage door (automatic door opener) with
> an upright metal bar in the way. The door must have hit the bar pretty
> hard before retracting. The cable on one side ended up looping around
> the tension rod and the garage door was (and is still) stuck crooked
> and lopsided in the open position. In a novice effort to rewind the
> cable, I detached it from the door. Once I did that the entire cable
> fell off. This all happened after business hours and I would really
> like to figure out a way to get my garage door shut tonight and hope I
> can get a repairman to fix it tomorrow. The house is less than 2 years
> old. The spring is not visibly broken. The door does not appear to
> detach from the electric opener, even after pulling the emergency
> disconnect cord several times. Any suggestions for getting the door
> down? Is there a way to reattach the cable to the drum? Any help will
> be greatly appreciated!
>

Back off, leave it alone and call a professional in.

Your post makes it evident that you don't know what you are doing and
you probably also aren't aware that you could suffer a very serious
injury from those torsion springs.

Sorry for your problem, but if you are concerned about the door being
open, you'd be safer sitting up in a chair in the garage all night than
messing with it any more.

Oh, and one more thing, charge your daughter for the repairs, it'll be a

lesson well learned. <G>

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
"What do you expect from a pig but a grunt?"

Posted by Eric in North TX on September 14, 2006, 2:39 am

> Sorry for your problem, but if you are concerned about the door being
> open, you'd be safer sitting up in a chair in the garage all night than
> messing with it any more.

I'll second that, I learned rewinding torsion rods installing 2 of my
own, & I managed to do it twice without injury. However, it is hard and
dangerous.

Posted by Bankerjohn on September 13, 2006, 10:49 pm

I'm trying to picture your situation! Where is the bottom of the door?
Up near the ceiling?, halfway down the door opening?, nearly down to
the floor? ... where did it stop when it retracted?

The "emergency" release which you say will not release is likely jambed
... is the metal bar (attached to the door at one end, and the chain
drive at the other) still close to vertical ... or is it cocked at an
angle?

kcmhansen@yahoo.com wrote:

> The door must have hit the bar pretty hard before retracting. The cable
> on one side ended up looping around the tension rod and the garage
> door was (and is still) stuck crooked and lopsided in the open position.

Posted by on September 13, 2006, 11:06 pm

The bottom of the door it up near the ceiling. It stopped retracting
at the top of the last section of the door (the section that would be
touching the ground if the door was shut). The door can be pushed
completely up or pull down only to the top of the bottom door section.
The metal bar is at an angle, not severe, but definitely not vertical.

>From inside the garage looking out, the metal bar was on the left side

and the cable that is off is on the left side. The wheel nearest the
top of the door on the right side came off but I was able to reattach
it and it's back in it's track. The left side of the door droops lower
than the right side.

Thank you for your considerate response. I truly appreciate any
advice. I do understand the dangers of tension springs and have no
intention of messing with the spring at all. My hope was that I could
perhaps rewind the cable around the drum and reattach to the drum &
door and get the door down tonight.

Bankerjohn wrote:

> I'm trying to picture your situation! Where is the bottom of the door?
> Up near the ceiling?, halfway down the door opening?, nearly down to
> the floor? ... where did it stop when it retracted?
> The "emergency" release which you say will not release is likely jambed
> ... is the metal bar (attached to the door at one end, and the chain
> drive at the other) still close to vertical ... or is it cocked at an
> angle?
> kcmhansen@yahoo.com wrote:

> > The door must have hit the bar pretty hard before retracting. The cable
> > on one side ended up looping around the tension rod and the garage
> > door was (and is still) stuck crooked and lopsided in the open position.

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