Garage Door Spring & Its Types
Your garage door may be closing unevenly by leaving a space between the door and the opening, opening or closing too quickly, or slamming shut at the incorrect speed. These are all signs that the springs aren't working properly. You can handle this issue on your own if you know how to adjust garage door springs. But, depending on the type of door you have, your situation may be straightforward or complicated. Because the door you're using can have one of two kinds of springs, depending on the door. You need to be aware of the kind of springs you will be working with. Torsion springs and side-mounted springs are the two types of springs used on garage doors. Here is a method for figuring out which of the two is in charge of balancing the weight of your door.
Side-Mounted Springs
They are installed on both sides of the door and are also referred to as extension springs. They are visible over the horizontal tracks. These springs stretch whenever you open the door, whether manually or with a motor, to create a counterbalancing force. The spring will expand in direct proportion to the amount of force exerted. Most manufacturers connect safety cables with side-mounted springs. In the event of a cable, spring, or bottom bracket failure, these cables prevent the spring from becoming a dangerous projectile. Every extension spring doors must have safety cables attached on them as these catastrophes might happen at any time. Moreover, based on your door, one of these three extension springs may be used:
- Open Looped: Open-looped extension springs are the simplest to replace even though they aren't as powerful as the future varieties. That's partly because you don't have to take its pulley apart to change the springs.
- Double Looped: Springs with two loops have two coils. The pulley is attached to one of them, while the eye bolt is attached to the other. Although they are less changeable than their open looped cousins, they are more resilient.
- Clip Ends: Clip ends have the longest shelf life of any extension spring, making them by far the most resilient. The fact that the clips don't actually exert a lot of strain on the spring is what gives them their long-lasting utility. This enables the spring to continue functioning with little damage.
Torsion Springs
Torsion springs employ torque to lift garage doors as opposed to side-mounting springs, which use 'extension'. The linear counterpart of this force is rotating force. Similar to how linear force can be divided into push and pull categories, torque rotates an item along its axis. The springs that open and close your garage door with torque are positioned above and parallel to the door frame. One end of the springs is attached to a stationary metal plate that is directly on top of the door frame, and they are installed on a stationary metal shaft.
- Standard Torsion Spring: The most popular kind of torque springs are, as their name suggests, conventional torsion springs. They are installed over garage doors in private residences. The springs are supported by the metal shaft that is included in their packaging.
- Torque Master Torsion Spring: Torsion springs from torque master should only be used if you have extra money to spend. The torsion shaft keeps the springs enclosed at all times, minimizing the possibility that the spring will break off and become a projectile, making them by far the safest choice.
Adjusting Side-Mounted Springs & Torsion Springs
You can easily open and shut your garage door thanks to the garage door springs. They come in two fundamental varieties: torsion and side-mounted, and they can be found on both manual and automatic garage doors.
Side-Mounted Springs
- Gather The Supplies
You'll need some simple tools and personal protective equipment (PPE) to complete this task. A hard helmet, safety glasses, and gloves are among the safety accessories you'll require. The remaining tools are a sturdy scaffold, a C-clamp, an adjustable spanner, and masking tape or a marker. - Open Your Garage Door Fully
Before attempting to change the springs' tension, you must release all existing tension. If your door is manual, keep opening it until it reaches the stop lock and can no longer move any further. If your door is automatic, you should use the remote control to access it. Pull the emergency cable beneath and backwards once the door is completely open until the spring is stuck in the open position. This will release any tension that the springs were previously carrying and cut off any link between the door and the opener. After that, you can physically open the door if you want to. - Secure Your Garage Door In Place
As you work on the door's hinges, make sure it won't collapse. Placing a C-clamp below the bottom roller is the best method to make sure of that. The roller will be secured in position by the C-clamp. - Detach The Spring Hook
You will observe that a sizable hook is fastening the spring hook to the track fastener as you attempt to remove it. This larger hook is then fastened with a nut to keep it in position. The spring hook and the screw can both be removed using an adjustable spanner. Since the spring attachment is in charge of preserving the spring's tension, we are requesting that you take it out. The tension can be increased or decreased by moving it to a higher or lower hole after it has been withdrawn. - Adjust The Tension Of The Spring
If your door isn't completely closing, you'd need to lessen the tension on its spring to fix the issue. You can accomplish this by fastening the spring hook to an opening on the track hanger that is lower. On the other hand, you would need to tighten the spring if your door opened or closed too readily. Attach the spring to the track hangar's upper hole. If the door was shutting unevenly, the issue might be resolved by reducing tension on the side where the gap was (by fastening the spring hook to a lower hole on the track hanger). - Adjust The Cable’s Tension
Extension springs come with safety wires, as was previously mentioned. To fix the issue, you might need to alter the tension of the wire and spring simultaneously. If the cable's tension needs to be raised, you can reduce it by tightening the knot holding it to the spring. Lengthen it by loosening the knot if you need to reduce the strain. - Test The Door And Lubricate The Springs
Test the garage door after taking out the tools you inserted into the track. Ensure the springs are lubricated if it is operating as designed.
Torsion Springs
- Gather The Supplies
To adjust torsion springs, in addition to the personal protective tools we've already mentioned, you'll also need the following: Two 12- to 18-inch solid steel rods, an adjustable spanner, and solid steel. - Open The Garage Door
Torsion springs should never be adjusted while the door is closed because the spring is under strain. Those steel adjusting bars will fly once the set nuts are loosened. Those have resulted in deaths of people. Make sure the door is completely open and the spring is not under any strain. The coils are painted by the maker with a horizontal strip that will appear as a straight line when the coil is relaxed. The fact that line is fully wrapped up in the photos demonstrates that the coil is under tension. - Find The Winding Cone
Find the precise location where the spring stops by placing one eye over the stationary center plate. The winding cone, which holds the spring in position, will be in that location. The cone will also have four holes around it that are equally spaced apart. - Loosen The Screws On The Cone
To secure the spring in position, the cone will have two set screws on the center shaft. By inserting the steel shaft or winding cone into the cone's bottom hole, you can loosen them. With an adjustable spanner, unfasten the screws after inserting the rod and stabilizing the cone. Insert the bars into the cone in two consecutive rows after that. - Adjust The Tension
You must wind the cone up to increase the tension if your door was closing too rapidly. If the door wasn't completely shutting, you might need to release the tension by winding the cone down. - Stretch The Spring
Keep the bar in the bottom hole in position while stretching the spring, and take out the other one. Make a note with a marker 14 inch away from the winding cone's end (away from the center). Next, exert an upward push on the bar from the bottom up. Continue doing this while tapping the second bar on the first bar until the spring has been stretched to reach the mark you made at the end of the winding cone, which should be 14" away. - Tighten The Set Screws
To tighten the set screws that you loosened in the fourth stage, use the adjustable spanner. The spring will then be secured in its new location. If your torsion spring mechanism has springs on both sides of the central plate, repeat steps 4 through 6 for that side.