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Re: Broken garage door spring Big John 07-02-2006
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Posted by Big John on July 2, 2006, 9:34 am
Just had a torsion spring go on a double car garage door. I did all
the reasearch and knew how to measure and get all the info, but when I
priced the springs and would be at $100, just for springs I called and
got several quotes and they went from $190 to $400. I called the $190
guy and he was here in 30 minutes, took 2 hours, and away he went.

A couple interesting things were:
a) He replaced the springs with the door in the up position, which
meant no pressure on the springs. He said he always did it this way
becasue it was much, much safer. I watched and it was.

b) He carried springs in 10' lengths in his truck and then just cut
them to the exact length. Put new end caps and hardware on and
reassembled everything.

I do alot of things myself, but this was not one I really wanted to
tackle from what I had read, but watching him do this with the door in
the up position sure made a lot of sense.

I commend him on how he disconnected all power sources, clamped the
door to make sure it did move, and wore glasses. Very professional
and nice guy.












On Thu, 26 Jun 2003 03:16:02 GMT, Paul Franklin

>Dave,
>
>Most big box stores don't carry them because they can be quite
>dangerous to install. I suggest you do a google search on torsion
>spring installation and you will get lots of warnings not to do this
>yourself.
>
>That said, I replaced two of them myself with little difficulty.
>Bought them at sears hardware, but that was a few years back; don't
>know if they still stock them. If you are at all unsure of your
>ability to do this, call a pro...it's not that expensive.
>
>Measure the diameter of the spring, its length, and the diameter of
>the spring wire to get the proper size replacement.
>
>HTH,
>
>Paul
>
>
>>The lift spring on my older automatic garage door broke today. This is a
>>single coil spring (torsion) type system with a rod running horizontally in
>>the header above the door. As the door opens and closes, the rod and spring
>>turn as one. This "loads" the spring (when closing) to counter the weight of
>>the door.
>>
>>I ran to Home Depot to see if I can buy a new torsion spring but all they
>>have are the extension springs that mount parallel to the top track on each
>>side. Can I still buy torsion type springs? Do I have to convert to the
>>extension type system?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Dave
>>

Posted by Beachcomber on July 2, 2006, 12:21 pm
wrote:

>Just had a torsion spring go on a double car garage door. I did all
>the reasearch and knew how to measure and get all the info, but when I
>priced the springs and would be at $100, just for springs I called and
>got several quotes and they went from $190 to $400. I called the $190
>guy and he was here in 30 minutes, took 2 hours, and away he went.
>
>A couple interesting things were:
>a) He replaced the springs with the door in the up position, which
>meant no pressure on the springs. He said he always did it this way
>becasue it was much, much safer. I watched and it was.
>
>b) He carried springs in 10' lengths in his truck and then just cut
>them to the exact length. Put new end caps and hardware on and
>reassembled everything.
>
>I do alot of things myself, but this was not one I really wanted to
>tackle from what I had read, but watching him do this with the door in
>the up position sure made a lot of sense.
>
>I commend him on how he disconnected all power sources, clamped the
>door to make sure it did move, and wore glasses. Very professional
>and nice guy.
>

Replacing garage door springs is one of the few tasks where you might
NOT want to make it a do-it-yourself project.

Unless you have the specialized knowlege and experience, you can
either kill or severely injure yourself if you mess up.

As the poster indicates, most urban areas have competent professionals
who can do the job for a fair price.

Beachcomber



Posted by Jimmie D on July 6, 2006, 8:55 pm

> wrote:
>
>>Just had a torsion spring go on a double car garage door. I did all
>>the reasearch and knew how to measure and get all the info, but when I
>>priced the springs and would be at $100, just for springs I called and
>>got several quotes and they went from $190 to $400. I called the $190
>>guy and he was here in 30 minutes, took 2 hours, and away he went.
>>
>>A couple interesting things were:
>>a) He replaced the springs with the door in the up position, which
>>meant no pressure on the springs. He said he always did it this way
>>becasue it was much, much safer. I watched and it was.
>>
>>b) He carried springs in 10' lengths in his truck and then just cut
>>them to the exact length. Put new end caps and hardware on and
>>reassembled everything.
>>
>>I do alot of things myself, but this was not one I really wanted to
>>tackle from what I had read, but watching him do this with the door in
>>the up position sure made a lot of sense.
>>
>>I commend him on how he disconnected all power sources, clamped the
>>door to make sure it did move, and wore glasses. Very professional
>>and nice guy.
>>
>
> Replacing garage door springs is one of the few tasks where you might
> NOT want to make it a do-it-yourself project.
>
> Unless you have the specialized knowlege and experience, you can
> either kill or severely injure yourself if you mess up.
>
> As the poster indicates, most urban areas have competent professionals
> who can do the job for a fair price.
>
> Beachcomber
>
>

Replacing a spring isnt rocket science . It is something most anyone could
learn with say an hour of instruction and supervised experience. It is
something that you dont want to screw up. I did and put a steel bar you use
to adjust it with through the ceciling. I knew what I was doing I just let
it slip out of my hand. I must admit I didnt know you could cut them to
length, that news to me.

Jimmie



Posted by George on July 7, 2006, 7:06 am
> Replacing a spring isnt rocket science . It is something most anyone could
> learn with say an hour of instruction and supervised experience. It is
> something that you dont want to screw up. I did and put a steel bar you
> use to adjust it with through the ceciling. I knew what I was doing I just
> let it slip out of my hand. I must admit I didnt know you could cut them
> to length, that news to me.
>
> Jimmie

Hey Jimmie,

You sound knowledgeable, my question isn't rocket science either.
Can you help me convert my springs. I want to change one 140 pound 8x7
garage door with 400-8 drums from 10,000 to at least 25,000 cycles?
Door currently uses two springs measuring .187 wire x 18.5 length x 1-3/4
inside diameter.
What would the dimensions for 25,000 cycle springs be?

Thanks,

George



Posted by Jimmie D on July 26, 2006, 12:14 pm

>> Replacing a spring isnt rocket science . It is something most anyone
>> could learn with say an hour of instruction and supervised experience. It
>> is something that you dont want to screw up. I did and put a steel bar
>> you use to adjust it with through the ceciling. I knew what I was doing I
>> just let it slip out of my hand. I must admit I didnt know you could cut
>> them to length, that news to me.
>>
>> Jimmie
>
> Hey Jimmie,
>
> You sound knowledgeable, my question isn't rocket science either.
> Can you help me convert my springs. I want to change one 140 pound 8x7
> garage door with 400-8 drums from 10,000 to at least 25,000 cycles?
> Door currently uses two springs measuring .187 wire x 18.5 length x 1-3/4
> inside diameter.
> What would the dimensions for 25,000 cycle springs be?
>
> Thanks,
>
> George
>

Hi George, I never worked on them long enough to get that envolved with
them, Worked about six months and never saw anything that had to be figured
out like this. The boss probably knew how but after 20 years he had it all
in his head, I doubt if there was anything he hadnt seen before. I imagine
he is retired now with his sons doing the work, Im sure they have a copmuter
program to work something like this out if there is actually any call to do
this. Like I said an hrs instruction for replacement and repair not design.
Well after 6 months there I got a job with Raytheon doing missile
maintenance. After 19 years I still dont have to know how to design a
missile either.

My question is why would you want to replace them before they needed it. I
would get the life out of what I had already paid for before I replaced
them. I think the ones you have would probabaly last about 15 years.




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