the wind up torsion springs on my garage door are broken -both of them so I cannot open my garage door! I can get it up about 12-14 inches (insert joke here) but that's as much ass as I've got -who knew a bunch of thin sheet metal and brackets could weigh so much?! I know I could get a neighbor or four to help lift it but then I'd have a 300? lb hunk of potential energy eight feet above my head doing the gravity vs friction dance and my money's on gravity

I've done a bit of internet research and replacing the springs seems pretty straightforward but judging by the numerous disclaimers and warnings, also pretty dangerous. So anyone here tackle this job and live to tell the tale? Any tips tricks or sage advice you want to offer? (including call a pro, which is still high on the options list)

TIA


cjl

My dad fuched with the springs once.
Three operations later he regained partial use of his right hand.

Really, by the sounds of it you need a new door.
A new door properly DYI installed I'd fuch with the spring, but an old door? No fuching way.
Here a door from home debit is only about $500 and I think that one has 1/2" insulation, installed they start around $1000.

Get a roll up door and junk that old trash.

The springs are designed on the weight of the door. You need to be careful when selecting the springs. Door panels often get water logged making them much heaver than they should be. The springs can be replaced but it is best to have a professional door company handle this. I have done it. It was a job as I was not experienced in this job. It is dangerous! This cannot be over stated.

When I used to build houses, I had a couple different garage door guys who would do a pretty high quality insulated door, tracks, springs, and opener for $850ish. Not worth the risk of fooling with garage door springs unless you are very experienced with them, they are no joke.

Call the garage door guy and let him do it. I'm pretty sure you can do it yourself but probably not worth the risk. If you get messed up while doing it, you'll wish you made the call. Garage door springs are no joke!

BTDT. If you have the skill set to drop a motor or change the rear wheel bearings. you have the ability. I did this operation 10 years ago, and it was hard to find a local garage guy to sell me the springs, which costed about $100 the pair. I did it a second time and got the springs from eBay. Heavy emphasis on use of safety gear (hard hat, thick leather gloves, stand to the side when winding up the springs, safety glasses.) It was a small investment on tools (simply a 3/8" bar stock I got from Home Depot, cut it in half, and you will have the winding rods." I did the R&R solo, so when its a 16 foot garage door, the rod unwieldly, but if you are methodical and watch the videos, it is a straightforward operation. I only wanted to do it because I wanted the sense of accomplishment of doing a "pro" job. I'm sure garage guys do it in a few hours, but at what cost? You do it for yourself in an afternoon for under $300 or pay the garage guys $500-600? What does the cost of an emergency room visit cost, plus rehab, or worse? Weigh the cost benefit and you will have your decision.

There is a ratio of turns related to the door weight when winding up the springs. The guy that tells you a screwdriver and a ladder is all you need is prob not the person that will drive you to the ER to try to repair your hand if it goes south. As noted, apply the repair bill towards a new door. I think you can do better than 8 bills on the replacement. HD or Lowes are NOT who you want to buy from. Buy the best door you can afford. Clopay makes good doors. I paid $1200ish for 2 insulated doors, installation and 1 wall mounted opener that freed up the space a ceiling mounted opener consumes. The 'guy' comment was not directed to the previous poster. I was typing when he posted.

wth all the above comments and I do everything myself. But I ain't touching those. I seen too many bad results of DIY spring replacement.

I worked for a Co that sold and installed doors and gas fireplaces. One service call was to finish a home spring repair that went sideways. Blood was everywhere in the work area. How much is your ins deductible? Er rates?

I did both of my own doors with the help a neighbor a few years ago, I also made my own tools to go securely into the collar. There is a lot of energy stored in those springs!

One of those jobs that if I had to do it again I'd get a professional more than likely.

so what y'all are saying is I should use two folding chairs and the BIG screwdriver AND set my beer down? roger that.

seriously, I will call a door pro -it's the whole lifetime of regret for what, in that light amounts to small $$$ thing

the doors in good shape, uninsulated no glass just plain stamped metal panels which is why it surprised me that it was as heavy as it was. I did measure and inspect the springs and works the bearings and wheels/cables look to be in pretty good shape hopefully it'll just need the springs

thanks for the advice,

cjl

yes, all I did was replace the springs themselves, nothing else. I re-used everything else. but the garage guy may try to sell you more, the cables perhaps, but the rest of the system is not perishable like bearing seals. I think you made the correct call.

A friend of mine broke his arm messing with the spring in his race car trailer. I say call an expert. Doing it your self may end up being very costly.

A friend of mine broke his arm messing with the spring in his race car trailer. I say call an expert. Doing it your self may end up being very costly.

Sitting in my home one evening, heard a LOAD bang. Thought some one outside hit something with a car, or ??
Nothing outside, went to the garage, observed nothing out of place. Next morning pushed door button, no go.
Started looking and could see that one of the springs was broken.
Called the garage door company, they said they would send someone out.
The repair guy who is on his way over to make repairs, calls and try's to sell me a complete new opener and track and etc.
So I called the dispatcher back at the garage door company, and I asked her if it was company policy to try to sell me a bunch of stuff that I may not need, the repair person wasn't even there yet. She said no that is not the policy, and she would have a talk with them.
Repair person got there, swapped out the one broken spring, which is all that was needed. I called the dispatcher again, and she gave me the total amount, which was actually less than what the repair person had on there invoice.
I paid her over the phone with a credit card and , she apologized for the repair person
and said it would be looked at by the owner.
One week later I received a check in the mail for the total of the repairs and another apology from the owner.
Be careful in more ways than one on the door repair.
Craig at CAMP

Nah, you shouldn't have to set the beer down.

Be sure to send pictures.

Do not. DO NOT mess with those springs.

Yep these springs are very dangerous,hell I have vertical mounted springs on my tilt doors and one end is mounted off a screw in eyelet,it pulled out of the timber on one door and off it went @ great tension....found it finally under the work bench @ the other end ,hate to think if it hit someone.
I have since mounted them off welded steel brackets.

You guys all climb under your cars, weld, use grinders etc etc, and yet nobody wants to install a garage door?

I got a used, solid wood garage door from a local seller, and installed everything myself. Total cost $60. I got a quote for a new one, and I think it was something like $1200 installed. About the same price as my 914.

Yes, the springs can be extremely dangerous, so don't take any chances. Make sure you un-tension it safely before doing any work, and make sure you tension it safely when you do the reinstall.

I do have the roll-up kind, the other kind might be more difficult, I can't say.

I used to install these for a summer job during highschool. It's not that bad, the torsion bar springs for heavy commercial doors scare me. They typically had multiple torsion bars tied together via chain drive, and the springs were massive!

You need the right tools for this job and a bit of common sense. They have 2' harden steel rods that fit perfectly into the knuckle of each end of the spring. You need this tool, no and ifs or buts about it. If you attempt to clock/windup the spring with a phillips head screw driver, you will most likely break your hand when the screwdriver or any other improper tool slips out.

The outer drums needs to have the same tension too before tightening the set screws on the torsion springs. And you can't over tighten the set screws, the actual torsion bar is a soft hollow pipe, the set screws may pierce the pipe if you go too deep.

You will also need to draw a straight line with a wax pencil on each spring, this helps tell you how many rotations are on each spring. Both sides needs to have the same amount of turns.

Thinking about it now, it may be better to call the pro's. IF this was some small 8' door, I'd say it's a possibility. You are probably dealing with a 16' wide door, with multiple coats of paint on the door, which will effect the number of turns.

and if you do it yourself, pay attention to the Right side and left side springs! We installed ours on the wrong side the 1st time Door wouldn't open since it was being forced down!

Yes it is dangerous and that is why you use the correct tools and follow the instructions. It was not a big deal

David

interesting thought I read if you installed backwards they'd generally spin off the cones after 6 or 7 quarter turns

I agree with those that say this can be done if done carefully and correctly but the risk/reward just doesn't balance for me.
I'll probably grit my teeth a bit when I get the bill and be thinking 'I could totally do this' during the install but then again I won't have to make a specially designed harness so I can still shift with my nub.
and I probably won't even have to set my beer down.


cjl

IF you decide to do it yourself a couple of suggestions.

1) secure the door in the up position. DON'T think it will stay, SECURE it.
2) have someone right there in case some goes wrong.

I failed to do that and ended up hanging by my hand until the neighbor across the street came over to lift the door. I was lucky mainly my pride hurt and some serious marks on my hand.

So with the door fully raised there is supposed to be tension on the springs?

The neighbor had foam insulation applied to her door and now she can't lift it. Asked me to install a motor but I wanted to make sure it's setup right first.

I did my own repair. I replaced both torsion springs for about$75.00. It's really a common sense job. Educate yourself. There are excellent tutorials on YouTube that give step by step guidance. Follow the process and stay safety conscious. There is really no spring load to be concerned with until the end of the installation. If you have any mechanical prowess, I think you'll do fine.

not really, kinda depends on the style of spring, fully raised neither is under tension or rather they are under the least tension
some springs run parallel to the track and work by stretching/compressing along their length like a slinky
my springs are parallel to the opening and right above it and work by torsion winding/unwinding like a clothespin spring I don't think I could work on mine with the door raised
extra weight will require greater strength springs the motors aren't designed to overcome the weight of the door (that's the springs job) just to move it along its track


cjl

The torsion springs relax as the door is raised. That's not to say they are totally relaxed once the door is up. There will undoubtedly be residual tension left in the system as the correct tension is established with the door closed.

The springs are somewhat relaxed when the door is open. You must start with the door down and then tension the springs which then are pulling up on the door making it easier to open. The tension must be balanced between the 2 springs.

I just had my shop door done. 14X17'. Expensive. Cost me 4500.00 but it was worth it. A home door I can do but not this one. Even these experts messed it up. Door got stuck open and they had to come back and fix it. So the "experts" sent in their expert LOL.

Bathroom scale reads 45-50 lbs with the door down. Was going to use it as a base line for adjustments. A tad of slack in the cables. One side worse so I tightened it about a half rotation.

What should it weigh at the bottom?

Used a 7' ladder and some wood scrapes to hold the door up.

PS. I still have the original one piece, so no easy reference.

Please please please first check to make sure all your rollers are in the tracks. People confuse this with the springs all the time. You should still be able to open the door with broken springs. Follow the guide tracks on both sides and make sure nothing is blocking or hopped off the track...

roger that beetle but I can see my springs in two pieces they are definitely broke
not saying the wheels might not have been off track or gotten off track but I couldn't lift it past a foot or so they're in the tracks now haven't tried to lift again I was suitably humbled the first time


cjl

I just had a company via Lowes install a new metal door for $700 and they did a great job on the install. (and 12 months interest free right now)

It's light metal and I can lift it and it stays up without the opener..and it has really big springs. My opener doesn't strain anymore.

A few years back I had springs replaced on the old doors at about $75 each.

If you need a referral let me know. The company for my new door treated me good.

Chiming in. Replaced my own residential 7x16 garage door a couple years ago. Had to be careful loosening the old springs so I could take the old door out (I think I used a couple long 1/2 drive extensions), but the new torsion set came with something called E-Z-set adjusters. The springs had a dotted paint line on them 'at rest' and the adjusters were enclosed units with a drill socket on it. You installed the springs with no tension, locked down one end at the center mount and put a drill on it to rotate the spring. There was a chart with it specifying how many turns the spring needed to balance the size door you installed . The paint lines helped you count. Then you balanced the lift cable and spool between the sides and done.
Definitely safer.

Follow up. This do it for you. I even found a video on line showing the installation.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Clopay-EZ-Set-T...-A-16/207135205

I've replaced garage door springs many times and haven't had any issues. Respect the spring and use the right tools. That said, the last time I did it I bought the EZ wind adjuster. They are damn nice and take all the risk out of it.

UPDATE:
garage guy came today he replaced both springs and the electric eye safety thing (at my request) and was done in about 2 hours -woulda been less time but I had to put the wheels back on my car and get it out of the way as it was right up close to the door-
$189 per spring and about $100 for the sensor so all in for about $500 -more than I wanted but less than I expected.

the good news is it gave me an excuse to take my car off jackstands! bad news was when I got it on the ground it started leaking gas looked like it was from the fuel filter? on the pass side kinda above the trailing arm it was a slow but steady drip then slowed to an ocassional drip and it appears to have stopped now -will check it further this weekend.

& as I figured, watching him do it, I'm sure I coulda done it myself it didn't look especially dangerous and the tech was pretty casual about it but I guess that's why he's the pro, seemed like the tricky part is getting the drums and cables aligned right and equally tensioned so the door stays even -but at least I kept all my digits & nobody got hurt

thanks for all the advice gentlemen it is appreciated


cjl

If anyone needs springs or parts go here:
ddmgaragedoors.com

the also have very good instructional videos.

Don't be afraid. Working on a 914 is many time more dangerous then replacing your springs. They do not sell them in big box stores. But available on-line. Watch a few "how to" You-tube videos. Mobymutt makes a good point by warning for the in-winding of the spring that might not have been broken.

I have a few rental homes, and have done it a couple of times. It is important to have two long (2 feet) bars to wind-up the springs. I use 3/8" ratchet extenders from Harbor Freight for this.

It needs approximately 30 quarter turns per spring to lift a 7 foot door. Make sure both springs are tensioned equally (replace both springs, even if only on is broken).


btw: is your automatic opener disengaged? it shouldn't be that heavy to open.