Garage door installation SNAFU

[crazyal]

I see you figured it out, yes you wound it up the wrong way. If you had two springs and you wound them up wrong (got shorter as you wound them up) they would bind up as you tried to lift the door.

If you have the right spring(s) and it's set up correctly when the door is half way open it should stay there. If it goes down with any force you will put a lot of extra wear on your opener.

 

[tlbuser]

They won't turn, when you wind the spring the right way, that was my point.

The OP was asking a question about which way to wind a spring(s), and I was trying to tell him how you tell.

Sorry, if I was not articulate enough for you.

Sure, get mad at me for something you wrote.

the cable on the side of the door should get tight as you wind the spring

 

[tlbuser]

The door is up, works satisfactorily, and the heavy lifting has been done for the opener.

Rod

That sounds like good and bad news. Is there something not working the way you want it to?

 

[ray66v]

Sure, get mad at me for something you wrote.

You could have realized that what you were thinking I was trying to say, was not remotely possible to begin with.

 

[jayste]

NIce write up Rod!:thumbsup: BTW, do yourself a favor and insure the spring tension is correct so you don't cause any damage to your opener. Remember one thing that when it comes to a garage door the springs do the work not the opener (or operator). The opener just moves it up and down. Be sure and test it with the bottom of the door about waist high to see if it rises or falls. Adjust the spring (s) accordingly. When the opener has to work too hard to move the door plastic parts with in the opener will strip and fail. Adjusting the forces on the opener only creates problems if the tension on the door is not right. I'm not trying to sound pushy or like a "know-it-all" just that I've seen these issues before and can be avoided.:thumbsup: Oh! and anytime I wind any spring I'm wearing safety glasses!

 

[Rod in Forfar]

When adjusting the spring I wore my glasses, but had my chain-sawing helmet with its mesh mask on, as well.

The door balances perfectly at mid height, and the opener operates smoothly after I figured out how to adjust it. The Lexus quickly learned how to communicate with the opener, but my son's Audi is a slow learner. That's o.k. He doesn't live here, anyway.

I plan to put one remote in the Tacoma and mount the other on the Bolens G174. It's likely to become a garage pet.

Good news/bad news? No, but a feature of the burnt-fingers methodology is that a handyman never really believes that anything is fixed; one is always waiting for it to malfunction or need adjustment. So about the best I can manage is guarded optimism.

If it quits I'll have to take out a window to get access as I haven't installed the passage door yet, but every time the opener cycles successfully I have more confidence in the unit.

 

[jayste]

When adjusting the spring I wore my glasses, but had my chain-sawing helmet with its mesh mask on, as well.

The door balances perfectly at mid height, and the opener operates smoothly after I figured out how to adjust it. The Lexus quickly learned how to communicate with the opener, but my son's Audi is a slow learner. That's o.k. He doesn't live here, anyway.

I plan to put one remote in the Tacoma and mount the other on the Bolens G174. It's likely to become a garage pet.

Good news/bad news? No, but a feature of the burnt-fingers methodology is that a handyman never really believes that anything is fixed; one is always waiting for it to malfunction or need adjustment. So about the best I can manage is guarded optimism.

If it quits I'll have to take out a window to get access as I haven't installed the passage door yet, but every time the opener cycles successfully I have more confidence in the unit.

As well as your abilities! BTW, something I've thought of along the lines of getting into a locked building- If it's like mine a screw gun and a 1/4" bit will do it as well!

Good to hear it went well! Sounds like it's operating smoothly!:thumbsup:

 

[Danno1]

They were all different in # of wraps. Anywhere from 12-14 to get them set right.

That's because with most any spring (not just garage door torsion springs) the load tolerance is +/- 10%


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