Broken garage door cable-need to close door

[kcmhansen]

My daughter tried to shut the garage door (automatic door opener) with an upright metal bar in the way. The door must have hit the bar pretty hard before retracting. The cable on one side ended up looping around the tension rod and the garage door was (and is still) stuck crooked and lopsided in the open position. In a novice effort to rewind the cable, I detached it from the door. Once I did that the entire cable fell off. This all happened after business hours and I would really like to figure out a way to get my garage door shut tonight and hope I can get a repairman to fix it tomorrow. The house is less than 2 years old. The spring is not visibly broken. The door does not appear to detach from the electric opener, even after pulling the emergency disconnect cord several times. Any suggestions for getting the door down? Is there a way to reattach the cable to the drum? Any help will be greatly appreciated!

[Jeff Wisnia]

Back off, leave it alone and call a professional in.

Your post makes it evident that you don't know what you are doing and you probably also aren't aware that you could suffer a very serious injury from those torsion springs.

Sorry for your problem, but if you are concerned about the door being open, you'd be safer sitting up in a chair in the garage all night than messing with it any more.

Oh, and one more thing, charge your daughter for the repairs, it'll be a lesson well learned.

Jeff

[Bankerjohn]

I'm trying to picture your situation! Where is the bottom of the door? Up near the ceiling?, halfway down the door opening?, nearly down to the floor? ... where did it stop when it retracted?

The "emergency" release which you say will not release is likely jambed ... is the metal bar (attached to the door at one end, and the chain drive at the other) still close to vertical ... or is it cocked at an angle?

[e-mail] wrote:

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Unless you are on the west coast, it is probably too late tonight anyway. The release may not visibly disconnect, but will allow the door to move freely. Since yours is stuck in the track, it will not move. You have to lift the lowest end to get it straight since it is stuck cocked. It is also possible you will end up getting the weight of the door in your hands and injure yourself.

Probably much safer and less risky to just leave it alone for the night.

[kcmhansen]

The bottom of the door it up near the ceiling. It stopped retracting at the top of the last section of the door (the section that would be touching the ground if the door was shut). The door can be pushed completely up or pull down only to the top of the bottom door section. The metal bar is at an angle, not severe, but definitely not vertical.

and the cable that is off is on the left side. The wheel nearest the top of the door on the right side came off but I was able to reattach it and it's back in it's track. The left side of the door droops lower than the right side.

Thank you for your c> I'm trying to picture your situation! Where is the bottom of the door?

[PK]

kc, I went out to have a look at mine to see what you're talking about. I think I understand that looking out of the garage, the cable is off on the left so that cable is longer and hence the door droops on that side. Like others have said, I wouldn't touch it tonight - the drums will have to be held while the door is lifted to get the cable wound back on the drum correctly.

For someone that works on installing garage doors (not me) it may not be too difficult to hold the axle that the spring is on while it is all adjusted but it would seem that either the torque from the spring or the weight of the door would be too much for a novice. If it were me I certainly wouldn't be tackling it on my own last thing at night.

As for leaving the garage door open all night I'll have to say I see folks doing this a lot and by their luck nothing happens ... short of blocking your garage very tightly with your car(s) and other garage items I don't have much advice to offer there.

Good luck, PK

[Eric in North TX]

I'll second that, I learned rewinding torsion rods installing 2 of my own, & I managed to do it twice without injury. However, it is hard and dangerous.