What kind of maintenance can prolong the life of the heavy spring above the garage door?
The spring has to break sometime, but I was wondering if rust is a problem. Even if I spray it with something, it could only be applied to the outside of the coil. I don’t want to get my fingers anywhere near the spring itself.
Replies
Exactly how old is that spring? If you get a new garage door...ever... you will also get a new spring. They are a matched set.
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
Thanks for the suggestions. The spring is at most 16 years old. Two of my neighbors had their springs break, so I figured it's time to pay attention. The door has been tempermental lately; it will start to close, then reverse as though it hit an obstruction. So we close it manually, and then it start working again--briefly. We don't see anything wrong (e.g. no missing bolts and nothing has been hit or moved), so I'm wondering if the spring is flexing unevenly.Janet
It's possible that one spring is broken, or "sprung" to a degree. Release the door from the opener mechanism (there's generally a handle to do this on the "trolley" that connects the door to the track) and make sure that the door moves smoothly up and down and is reasonably well-balanced.If the spring appears to be broken or badly misadjusted, don't try to fix it yourself unless you REALLY know what you're doing. Garage door springs can be quite dangerous to mess with.
People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt. --Otto von Bismarck
Garage door springs can be quite dangerous to mess with.
Those are relatively benign, never got hurt by one. Last 35 years on 4 garages with tension springs have had 3 original springs break, 4 other doors with torsion springs only one broke. Due to overall fatigue, never had a repaired* one last more than 3 years though, but did break in a different place.
Had a baby swing with internal torsion spring that had great big letters on it to not dissassemble, had one way screws even. First time the spring broke got the one way screws out and brazed the broken spring back together and 'sorta' tempered it.
2nd time it broke, it unwound on me and drove a 1/8" dia piece of coil thru my left hand, had to call for DW to help me carry the whole swing to the grinder to cut the spring so I could pull it thru my hand - DIY stitches on that one.
Think the company that made (probably imported) those went out of business.
* repair - yeah, I know, dont bother trying, etc, but eede to try a few times just for experience, here is proceedure used: braze or weld and double the broken coil for 3/4 inch and quench in water, then put the whole thing in oven at 450 F for ten hours to relieve some of the work hardening stress. Shot peen or sandblast entire spring with beads afterwards to releive surface stress. When buying new springs, I've shot peened the new ones myself to assure long life, none of those have ever broken.
Yeah, torsion springs are more dangerous, in part because they seem so innocuous, but either is dangerous to the uninitiated (or foolish).
People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt. --Otto von Bismarck
We used to have a problem with out garage door not closing properly. The door faced west, and the heat waves rising off the concrete at the threshold would trick the electric eye into thinking there was something in the way.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
If you live in a spec house subdivision, every door may have come from the same place and may have the same weaknesses.Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
Janet,
I had the same issue. It ended up that one of the
wheels in the track was loose and sloppy and binding.
Burned up the opener. Disconnect the opener via
the safety release and open and close the door
manually to see if you can feel any binding. that may
save you an opener!
This is one of those cookie-cutter developments where almost everything is identical (except when the original purchaser ordered upgrades before construction was completed).One neighbor came to me looking for tools to fix his spring. I said he couldn't fix it; he'd have to pay somebody to replace the spring and install it. He was delighted, actually; didn't want to tackle it, and this gave him an excuse.Should I need to replace it after all: I once saw a garage door opener that was much quieter. It operated differently, but I don't recall what it was. Are these types *much* more expensive?Janet
Edited 11/14/2006 10:44 am ET by jyang949
The symptom of the door stopping and reversing is caused by the overload sensor in the opener.You really need to try the door by hand and see if it is balanced and if there are any "rough spots".If so those need to be fixed.Then try the opener without the door connected watch the trolly and listen. Seee if there is any place in the operation where it binds or graps.After cehcking and fixing both of those then if you have a problem with the door reversing ONLY WHEN CLOSING check the safety eyes and make sure that they are secure and aimed. And that there is nothing that is moving around them. I had a rope on my door for hand closing and it would flop in front of the sensor.Then if you still have a probem with stopping/reversing them up the force adjustments on the door.On the springs I don't know if it was every decided if this are torsion (around the shaft above the door) or on the side of the track.If they are on the side then check to see if there is a safety cable that run through the middle of the spring. That keeps the spring from "flying" when it breaks and damaging nearby cars or people.
I would expect almost all the tension springs now to have safety cables. They've been available that way for what, maybe 40 years or more? I remember in the olden days that one could let go at the bottom, unhook at the top, and punch straight thru the garage roof.
Remember Jackie Gleason? "To the moon, Alice!" Same direction, same time frame.... ;-)
-- J.S.
you're right.
mine was binding and going back up when trying to close.
I didn't write that part....
"I had the same issue. It ended up that one of the
wheels in the track was loose and sloppy and binding. Burned up the opener."No, it just finished off the opener.The opener was already defective or miss adjusted.They have an overload sensor that is suppose to stop or reverse if the load is too heavy. That is for both OPENING and CLOSING.
I would just keep an eye on it over the years and at the first sign of weakness with the spring or any connections I would replace. I inspect my garage doors and all their hardware every 6 months, when I’m doing my fall and spring clean up of the garage.
When the springs is relaxed, spray it liberally with a silicone lubricant. It won't strengthen the metal, but it will allow the coils to slip past each other more easily when the springs is wound and unwound.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Spraying it with very thin coat of light oil occasionally will help prevent rust and corrosion. Springs break due to creeping stress fractures that generally start at small points of corrosion.
But decent quality springs should last 10-20 years with no special maintenance, so long as they're not in a corrosive environment.