Garage Door barely opening


  #1  
Old 10-17-06, 11:09 AM
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Garage Door barely opening

A few weeks ago I found that one of the two tension springs for our garage doors was broke. So I called a professional and had them come and replace it. Everything was fine until about a week ago. I noticed that the garage door was not closing 100%. It stopped with about 1/4-1/2 inch of space. It didn't bother me at the time as I was busy with work. Well, a couple days ago I hit the button for the garage door and it only opened about 4-5 inches and then stopped. Hitting the button again just had the door close back down to within 1/4-1/2 inch of the ground. So I unhooked the door from the automatic garage door opener and pulled up the door myself. It was tough to open the first foot or so but I managed to lift the door with just one arm.

So I spoke to my dad who told me that maybe the door needed to be greased...and it certainly did. There was barely any lubrication at all on it. However, applying grease and spray-whatever (something I got at a hardward store for lubricating garage doors) didn't change the fact that the opener still couldn't get the door up more than a foot or so. And the door was still difficult to lift open the first foot or so.

So I lifted up the garage door a dozen or so times and noticed a grinding-like noise coming from the upper right-hand side of the door. I am not sure but it sounds as though the noise is coming from the large pully wheel that is attached to the pipe that has the tension springs (this wheel also has the cable on it that connects to the bottom of the door). Now I can see that the wheel turns but I am guessing that it is just very tight or something like that.

Has anyone ever seen this problem before? Any idea what to do to fix it? Should that wheel be greased or lubricated somehow?
 
  #2  
Old 10-17-06, 11:30 AM
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Hi - I don't know your specific setup, but the following explanation is for a typical torsion spring install.
The wheel that you are describing is a lifting cable drum. The pipe holding the drum is the spring tube. Each end of the spring tube is supported by a bearing plate or end bracket. There may also be a center support bracket.
Each support bracket or bearing plate will have a bushing installed. This bushing allows the spring tube to rotate smoothly in the end plate. You can try a spray lube on the bushings to see if that helps, but it's possible that the bushing has failed or the track/bracket has become misaligned and that's why it's noisy. It's also possible that a bad bushing caused the spring failure (or vice versa).
I don't recommend messing with the springs or lift cables. If a little lube doesn't fix the problem, or if the noise clears and then returns, you might want to call the pros again.
 
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Old 10-17-06, 04:40 PM
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Something in your original question bothers me. You said you broke a torsion spring, and that you had a pro come and replace it. Torsion springs come in pairs. Are you sure they did not replace both of them. If they did not, they should have. Now you have one old spring and one new one. The springs have to work equally, and with one old one and one new one they will not. Now for your opening problem. I think it is a mixture of several things. The springs are not at the same tension. The lifting cable drums are not set the same, thus unequal tension on the lifting cables. The cables are not wound the same. Or like Wayne said, the bearing is out. I have had to readjust alot of those types of problems. Sqirt on some oil, but my best advice is to call the pro back. Good Luck
 
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Old 10-17-06, 04:43 PM
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There was one thing I forgot. There is one type of torsion spring set up, that only has one spring. I have assumed you had the two spring type. If its the one spring type, then you only replace one spring.
 
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Old 10-17-06, 08:04 PM
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You beat me to it Jack. It depends on the door weight.
 
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Old 10-18-06, 05:26 AM
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There are two springs and I did see the pro replace both of them when he was out a few weeks ago. I tried lubricating the drum but nothing seemed to change. So I've placed a call with the pros again. They will be out today so I will respond back to what the actual problem was when I find out myself.
 
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Old 10-20-06, 04:52 AM
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Seems there were two problems with the door.

1. The cable wrapped around the lifting drum was improperly wrapped around the drum.

2. One of the wheels in the track was broke but only caused a problem when initially lifting up the door.

The guy I had out didn't charge me for the service call and fixed the cable around the drum as he admitted that it probably got messed up when they installed the springs a few weeks ago. He did charge me $10 for the new wheels (replaced the same one on the other side).

Thanks for suggesting the problem might be with the lifting drum. The guy figured out the problem almost immediately when I mentioned the possiblity of that being the problem.
 
 

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