My 914 won't start, my neighbor is giving me issues, and my garage door is broken ... all happened in a span of 10 minutes when I came home today.

Anyways, the torsion spring on my garage door broke. The part itself is about $50, and it's $185 to have someone come and fix it. Anyone know if this is something I can fix without hours of hard work?

Go to Lowes, they have all the hardware and instructions.This u-bolt makes it easy to adjust the tention.
Joe

Different kind of spring ... I've changed that kind before. Ever change one of these?

pics would help ...

another

I scheduled to have the repair person come out on Monday. They aren't available this weekend.

Meanwhile, the family mini van is stuck in the garage. Think i can mount 3 baby seats to the targa top?

I wish I saw this sooner. I just went through the same thing last week. I found a guy who came out to Corona for $159 and replaced both springs (even though only one was shot). If you want his number, I'll get it for you. Either way, whoever you have do it, check and see if they can put two springs on (on our's we were still able to open the door).
Bill

PS, I found this on the web http://truetex.com/garage.htm

QUOTE (Grimstead @ Jun 3 2005, 05:16 PM)

I wish I saw this sooner. I just went through the same thing last week. I found a guy who came out to Corona for $159 and replaced both springs (even though only one was shot). If you want his number, I'll get it for you. Either way, whoever you have do it, check and see if they can put two springs on (on our's we were still able to open the door). Bill PS, I found this on the web http://truetex.com/garage.htm

Great link!

I think this is one of those cases where I wouldn't mind paying someone else to do it. It's probably easier to change than it seems, but it will take me an extra day or so to figure it out and get it done than to have a professional come out and do it.

We only had the one spring on our door, so right now I can't budge it open. If I order the spring online, I won't get it until middle to late next week. I'm not averse to paying a bit more for the local guy to do it, but at least we'll be able to open the door by Monday afternoon.

Yeah, at 159 I didn't want to do it myself either. Check with your guy to see if he can put two springs on your door (don't see why not). Should be the same price as I'm sure they get the springs much cheaper than we can.

Ive done many over the years, made my own rods to tension it. I now have the kind you hook your drill up to and crank away at it.

After seeing how it was done, I would try it myself next time. The springs with the drill attachment look way easy, how much are they?

You can get the van out of the garage by lifting the door up (yes I know it's heavy)

The spring is easy to replace and like was mentioned you need two rods to pretension the new one. 1/2 hr job once you have the parts.

Its not hard to fix those, but if you F* up in the middle of tensioning that spring, you're gonna wish you paid someone $100 to do it. That thing will snap your bones like toothpicks.

Recently I had a garage door SNAFU; apparently one spring was crusty and rusty and was binding on the shaft. One of the tension cables snapped, the door went off-kilter, and then at least one hinge snapped and a couple others bent. Fortunately my car was in the driveway outside.

Definitely a job I farmed out to the pros; it was several hundred bucks but I had both new springs, both cables, all the outer (load bearing) hinges, and all the rollers replaced with higher grade parts. He also checked the opener and lubed up everything. He was finished in like an hour -- woulda probably taken me all weekend. I figure we will be in this house at least a few more years and the door goes up and down a bunch of times each day...

be very careful when dealing with the torsion spring on your door!! you need to put the correct # of turns on it that approximate the weight of your door for things to work smoothly. screw up, and let the spring get away from you when winding it, you'll have a dangerous, hard spinning, device. sometimes, certain repairs are better left to the pros. the thing could kill you, severly maim at best. pulling the manual release tab (rope) should let you raise the door. it'll be a somewhat heavy lift. goes to show you how much work the spring does.

k

k

You can open the door by pulling on the red rope to release the latch on the opener glide. Open the door by lifting it, yep its gonna be heavy! Drive the car out and then lower the door.

Let a pro install the spring as it has to be set right and let them do a service on the opener too. All the parts need a good greasing with some special grease.

I forgot to mention -- our door is WAAAAAAAAAAAAY quieter and smoother after the overhaul -- which is nice since it's a built-in garage not a standalone. Apparently the better-quality rollers with bearings make a big difference.