replacing springs on garage door

Jim H. said:

I had one break on me last night. The end that is curled and holding the pulley snapped off. How hard are they to actually change out? I have one on each side of the track, not the one that is usually above the door (that I would let a pro do). It is just a one car garage, will probably replace each side. I have a steel hook holding it together temporarily to get the wife's car out tomorrow morning. Thanks.....Jim

Click to expand...

Hello Jim

Very easy to replace yourself. They come in different weights depending on how heavy your door is. If you bring the old spring down to Sears they can size it correctly.

Just open the door and remove the old one. You have to buy 2 new ones and both of them should be replaced so they are equal.

Also for safety there should be some kind of wire going thru the middle. The first time I fixed mine there was no safety cable and I heard the horror stories of someone losing their eye because they were in the wrong place when it snapped.

I like the spring with the doubled ring on the end it seems much stronger. The single ring is where it usually snaps!
See pic of blue ring below. (Blue ring is the weight color coding nowadays)

The springs are color coded, but the paint tends to wear off. Eyeball it closely, and see if the old one has flecks of blue, green, yellow, etc. (Mine and Don's are 'blue') Buy the same color.

Def rethread the safety cable. It is an easy DIY job. I did both sides the same time when one side broke. Springs were cheap.

springs on the side of the door are known as extension springs. If you are familiar with a dial caliper or micrometer, you could measure the thickness of the spring, along with the working length of the spring. The color coding will fit many styles, while having measurements will be an exact replacement. Example - dial caliper reads .250- you have 250 wire, .150= 150 wire. You could go to any overhead door company with your measurements and they will have one in stock for ya. +1 for the safety cable! Its a must have! I've seen many a door mechanic with fingers missing. Most times it was from torsion springs- They are a whole other beast.

Man this is one diy project I would fire out.....

I had one break. It was not at all difficult to replace. I believe when the door is all the way up - the tension is off and it's easy to replace. As others have said, might have to do both. It's an easy do it yourself.

This is one of the reasons when I bought a new door a few years back I went with a Wayne Dalton door. While the reviews showed that the springs on the Dalton Door tended to have a slightly shorter life I can install new ones as a cartridge and use my drill to wind them up. I like how much safer the Wayne Dalton design is.

Post some pictures of your install, always interested in knowing how to help friends repair their stuff.

For torsion springs, the best maintenance you could do for them is to apply a light coating of 3n1 oil or some type of penetrating oil on the springs, cables, and rollers every couple months. i've seen alot of people put grease on rollers....don't do that. they are called rollers, not sliders. Winter time kills garage door springs. Back when i was working on them, I would go from 30hrs wk in the summertime, to 70-80 hrs wk in the winter.

Glad to see you got the project done safely. Our company removes anywhere from 25-100 per year. After 2 good, long term, employees broke their arms on the spring I only hire door companies to do the work. This is not a DIY project.

Hello Jim

Good pics, you did a great job and saved some $$$ doing it yourself!!

Yeah, sounds like you did a good job on this. I am a full-time garage door repair tech and I've started just always weighing the door with a scales as was mentioned earlier. Some of the oldest color coding doesn't line up with the current system. Also, you never know who salvaged some springs off another door that doesnt match the weight of your door. You might also want to check the 4 sheaves or pulleys to see if there's too much wobble in them. It's not uncommon to have the bearings go out on those too. Oiling the sheaves will also make the door run much smoother/straighter. Happy fixing to all.
Brian

mbcijim said:

Glad to see you got the project done safely. Our company removes anywhere from 25-100 per year. After 2 good, long term, employees broke their arms on the spring I only hire door companies to do the work. This is not a DIY project.

Click to expand...

How'd it happen? Torsion springs I wouldn't touch, but extension springs seem pretty safe....

I'm embarrassed to say I don't know the details. We work on industrial loading docks a lot. So I imagine they were 9' x 10' and go straight up in the air. Not sure what kind of springs they used. I do know that something on the springs let go both times and hit each guy in the arm. I was on the safety committee and when we saw it happen twice in 2-3 years we recommended to management that we ban the practice in our company. They accepted it. It really doesn't cost us anything, the door company might charge us $10/hour more than we would bill our customer for our own employees, so from our perspective it doesn't matter who does the work, just that it gets done safely.