Wonky garage door


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Old 01-19-21, 12:06 PM
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Wonky garage door

Norm's thread got me to thinking about a door I've got to repair.

I bought a house that needs a lot of work, and the garage door is one of them. It's a double door that doesnt have a torsion spring... just the springs that dangle from the cable and pulley on each side.

It's got a fairly industrial looking Overhead Door Co chain drive opener on it, (the one with a belt and pulley If I recall) and I think may need a little adjustment. It seems to want to drive the door into the ground a little too much, and the bracket seems far too vertical to me once it is closed. The double door also needs some reinforcing ribs installed on it, I can tell its a little too flimsy without them. It bends a little bit too much for my liking.

The main problem it has is that as it opens and especially as it closes, it shimmies on the way down... left right left right left right... it doesn't stay nice and level or roll smoothly at ALL.

I don't have a key to the place yet, probably won't until February. But my brain is thinking about it, wondering what I'm in for. My plan is to disconnect it from the opener and operate it by hand and see what's up. But I wonder if its just that one spring has more tension on it than the other. I usually replace garage doors, not repair them!

I may eventually replace it with a torsion spring, not sure yet. If you have any thoughts feel free to chime in.
 
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Old 01-19-21, 12:15 PM
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I'm sure it's the springs. And your assessment about them not being equal is good. Mabey not even the same spring. But, yea if the door is in good shape replace with a torsion spring. You need to reinforce it anyway. I'm surprised they didn't use a torsion spring on a double door.
 
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Old 01-19-21, 02:44 PM
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It's formerly an old man's house. So anything that went wrong with it in the last 30 yrs or so hasn't really been fixed "right".

My grandpa had that same philosophy at his house from about age 65 on. The "its only got to last a few more years" mentality. He lived to be 99 2/3 so all those temporary fixes got done 10x over. I'm thinking this place is kind of the same thing.
 
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Old 01-19-21, 02:47 PM
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Ha, I beginning to get to that point. LOL
 
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Old 01-19-21, 03:07 PM
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The worst one was when I was tinning one of his shed roofs. He had a bunch of 2' x 10' corrugated tin sheets that he had bought at a farm sale from who knows when. Probably paid a quarter a piece for them... Well we were one sheet short.

He wanted me to use some pieces of 6" round ductwork... flatten them out, and nail them on shingle style. (On a roof that is already so rotten that there is hardly any good wood to screw to.)

Well I had to draw the line somewhere, thinking that if my time is worth $50/hr, buying one sheet is not a big deal, especially since I'm working for him for FREE. So I told him no, I'm not doing that and sent him to the store to get one. He comes back pi$$ing and moaning about how much that piece of tin cost. The way he was carrying on i thought it was $100 or something! Turns out it was $15. But I imagine he was thinking back to when he was young and picked corn for $1 a day and that the tin represented half a months' wage.

He was a great grandpa though, I miss him.
 
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Old 01-19-21, 03:08 PM
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Yup. That's my philosophy. We had a scheduled driveway paving that fell through at the last minute leaving us with a really messed up drive and too late to get anyone else. So I had a guy come in to spread and roll some gravel as a stop gap until next spring. After he finished my wife and I looked at the gravel and said screw it. It will last as long as we do. We'll use the paving money for another Hawaii trip.

If you decide to install torsion springs consider EZ set springs. I installed them on two of my own doors. Really easy install. Spring tension is set with a drill instead of the knuckle busters.
 
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Old 01-19-21, 03:13 PM
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Yep, those are the ones I use all the time.
 
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Old 01-19-21, 03:34 PM
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EZ set springs.
Not familiar with those. I'll need to keep these in mind. I suspect my daughter's garage door may need new springs soon.
Where do you get them? At any big box store?
 
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Old 01-19-21, 04:34 PM
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Menards around here carries them. Don't think they are in your area.
 
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Old 01-19-21, 06:45 PM
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No they are not. _________________________________________
 
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Old 01-20-21, 05:27 AM
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Clopay makes them. I ordered them through HD. You can see them on their web page.
 
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Old 01-21-21, 06:07 PM
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... it doesn't stay nice and level or roll smoothly at ALL.
First thing I'd check is the pulleys and spray them good with some JB-80.

 
 

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