Overhead Garage Door

[Oldpath05]

You should take care of the basics first. If you've never dealt with torsion springs then you really should hire it out. They can be very dangerous. The torsion spring and the hub the cable winds up on play a very crucial role. When set up properly (without a door opener) the door should feel almost weightless no matter if open, closed, or in between. My smaller door only has one spring while my larger door has two. Hopefully you only have one spring, having two adds an extra level of complexity. Chances are one of the hubs slipped. If you would like to repair it yourself I've done both of mine several times.

According to your post date, you stayed up late or got up early.> Yup two springs, 9 full turns ea. Last week the door started binding when it got almost down then reversed because one cable spool slipped a little, I pulled the door down, unwound BOTH springs, got the door nice and level, put tension back on BOTH cable spools and really tighten down the bolts on the spools, re-wound both springs, tighten those bolts down good. Door goes up&down good, stays halfway.

Sounds like the consensus here is, raise the track and unwind the spring a little. I assumed the people who installed the door wound the springs up in the right direction because I wound them back up the same way, as I wound the springs, they kept pushing out on the shaft, don't know if it's possible to wind them up in the other direction or not. Right now I need a couple more cups of ambition.

 

[Oldpath05]

Re-check my over head door today and not sure if I should adjust the track incline or not. I measured from both ends of the tracks out 9 ft., then up to the ceiling, both tracks inclines 1 inch in 9 feet, sounds like enough incline to me, total horizontal track is about 10 ft. then starts a downward curve.

So is not enough track incline the cause of the slight slackness on one cable when the door is up, I don't know ask someone else, and that's the same side as the cable monitor is and that's what sets of the monitor, not all the time but most of the time, and it's on the same side as the door opener is to. The odd thing is the cable on the other side of the door is still tight, think what I'll try next is get some longer wire and see about putting the monitor on that side.
I'll thank myself tomorrow for solving this crisis situation.

 

[2458n]

your drums mount on the same shaft. Nothing odd about one cable being tight and one being loose if they do not start at the same place. The drums are set on the shaft with the locking set screws. Springs need to be unwound to do this. Garage doors are nothing new. Start out right- with both drums mounted properly. Cables are going to be the right length as supplied from the factory. If you do not understand get professional help! Then get someone to fix the door.

 

[flusher]

I'd go with a pair of sliding doors (barn style). Easier to DIY.

Good luck

 

[Oldpath05]

I'd go with a pair of sliding doors (barn style). Easier to DIY.

Good luck

I have barn doors on the back of my garage, two 5' x 10's, I can drive my tractor straight through. But they are a nightmare to put weather stripping around. I used 4 different types of weather stripping to seal around the doors, got it fairly good but not sure if the seal will last long. If I knew barn doors was that hard to seal, I would of bought another overhead door.

Then the track/roller hardware for the doors was $2-300.00, and then what to do about the latching hardware, don't know if there's any to buy. So I did a lot of Klingon engineering, 1st.> make something to suck in the sides,> suck the doors together,> now the middle bows out,> now I have to make something to suck in the middle at the floor. And with all that Klingon sucking hardware when unhooked, has to clear the sides of the door frame, so's to open the door with out spending more than half a day opening and shutting, and with out using power tools.

The moral of this story is, if you don't need/want to seal sliding barn doors, then those style doors are for you.

 

[D2Cat]

Oldpath05, you said, "Problem> With the door up, opener engaged, then push the opener button, the door starts to come down about 6", then the cable slacken's taken tension off the >Cable Tension Monitor< then the door reverses back up."


When your door comes down a few inches and gets in a bind it's usually caused by the top hinge out of adjustment. There is a bolt that allows that hinge to slide in or out to allow clearance as the door round the curve of the track. You can loosen the nut a half turn and let the hinge select where it need to be, then tighten it back up.

Only other thing I think of is the track is too close to the frame somewhere else and puts the door in a bind at that position.

You can release the door opener and manually pull the door down slowly to check out these two idea.

 

[Oldpath05]

Oldpath05, you said, "Problem> With the door up, opener engaged, then push the opener button, the door starts to come down about 6", then the cable slacken's taken tension off the >Cable Tension Monitor< then the door reverses back up."


When your door comes down a few inches and gets in a bind it's usually caused by the top hinge out of adjustment. There is a bolt that allows that hinge to slide in or out to allow clearance as the door round the curve of the track. You can loosen the nut a half turn and let the hinge select where it need to be, then tighten it back up.

Only other thing I think of is the track is too close to the frame somewhere else and puts the door in a bind at that position.

You can release the door opener and manually pull the door down slowly to check out these two idea.

Two weeks ago I put the Cable Tension Monitor on the other side of the door, (R. side looking out) because that cable doesn't seem to slacken anywhere, had to add on another ten ft. or so of wire, reverse the roller pin, SO FAR it's working.

This past weekend I added 1/2 turn to both springs, = 9 1/2 ea. The door at half way up would not quite stay, now it stays and goes up a little easier on just a half turn.
While doing that I rested my hand against the top of the door, L. side looking out, where the CTM was, the door move 3/8" out, move it back and forth against the the seal, then went to where the CTM is now, pushed on the top of door and it barely moved, Sooooo went back over to the L.S., adjusted the hinge, move the door against the seal and no daylight showing. Over the next several weeks I'll be keeping an eye on the up and down movement of the door.
Lessons learned, find and have door installed by a good door company, I could of done a lot better job myself with a good YouTube video.