GARAGE DOOR NOT CENTERED BETWEEN THE TRACKS

[Ron in NY]

Hi all,

One of my garage doors has moved off center. It has an electric operator, that has always worked flawlessly, but recently, because the door is off center, the door hits one of the tracks, then pops, and then centers itself and goes up. Going down is no problem--it doesn't hit the track going down. All of the rollers are free--both the wheels and the shafts--everything slides properly. Over the last 2 years, I have replaced the springs, as they broke one by one. They are extension springs--not torsion springs. With the operator disconnected, the door operates fine by hand, but still hits one of the tracks. The door is light and moves easily by hand.

What actually centers the door between the tracks ???

RON ======================================================== Remove the ZZZ from my E-mail address to send me E-mail.

[Jeff Wisnia]

Sound like maybe one of the cables has stretched or slipped at an attachment point. Or, one of the springs may have "stretched" and isn't "pulling it's weight" as much as the other spring does.

I'm assuming you changed the springs as a pair. If you did them one at a time when they broke, the older one may have taken a little more of a set than the newest one.

If you changed the springs yourself, you should know how to shorten the cable a little on the side which lags a bit when the door starts to open, and see if that helps.

HTH,

Jeff

[Joseph Meehan]

Take a good look at those springs. I suspect one is tighter than the other.

[jimmiedee]

Could be the springs dont have equal tension, Jimmie

[PipeDown]

The door is centered by virtue of being 1/2 way between the wheels. My door has no global alignment.

Wheels popping out of the track is often caused by the track being bent. This often happens when I try to exit the garage with the SUV's lift gate open (Duh!). The track bends when a wheel pops out and the wheel will want to keep popping out until I bend the lower lip of the track back into shape. The track should keep the wheel captive throughout the entire length of travel.

[tom]

Listen to Joseph and Jimmie. Tom

[GoHabsGo]

"PipeDown" wrote in news:0xoRf.1346$ [e-mail]:

My problem was the bearings on the wheels were mushy and loose causing the wheel not to stay perpendicular to the shaft. This made the wheel fall out of the track. Replacing the wheels fixed the problem for me.