Garage door is off track

Nuh, uh; both are full extended when the door is down. Also, with a sectional door, the door is going to bow and flop down like shutters if the springs are removed with the door down, and worse if one end of a section is out of the track, it'll completely fall to the floor. Now that I understand you're only imagining things, I see where you're coming from. I would suggest you go look at a few different garage doors and watch how they operate. The purpose of the springs is to LIFT the door, so what positions could they be in other than extended? Same only more dangerous for torsion springs over the doors. Don't do it; it's very dangerous and the springs can be lethal.

That's one way some do it; and many that do it also deform their track from the grips, or if/when the door should slide forward and hit the vise grips, which are awfully easy to dislodge when hit from the sides of the jaws. That's a poor way to do it, and can cause damage to the tracks by bending them out of shape; try it and see how poorly vice grips can get hold of anything without crushing the edges of the track or pulling the bottom into the raceway. Oh, you could leave them looser, but then they can be more easily dislodged by the inertia of a moving door.

Unless you have something meaningfuil and logical to discuss/debate, I think I'm through with resonding to you in particular.

HTH,

Twayne`

No, he's right in what he said. In many cases too, you cannot open the door and get sufficient room to use the winding tools because the tracks are too short to allow it. And it's a bear of a job to get the door raised with one spring broken.

HTH,

Twayne`

In news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz typed:

Actually, after consideration, I'm going to say you're mostly right about this. It's not unusual for the track system to not allow sufficient movement of the door to the point where you will have room to use the winding/unwinding rods to wind/unwind the springs; it takes about 3' of space. The door will often c*ck and jam istelf all the way up with a spring gone on one side, especially if it's a wooden, heavy door, should you try to manually lift it. IF it's light enough to manually lift. It's been years since I've touched one and that was back in Chgo and a 2-stall wide door of my neighbor's. What we did was unwind the spring on the good side far enough to let one man be able to lift on the side with the broken spring and get it to go smoothly. It took a man on the good spring side too, since we relieved the pressure. And of course disconnecting the opener from the door. Another retired neighbor helped us and used to work for a garage door installation company. He had us raise the now basically unsprung door to its max travel and prop it safely so it couldn't return. Then in about 5 minutes we dropped the topmost casters out of the top door section and let the top section hang down on its hinges, which let us move the door far enough to be able to use the bars to finish putting the new springs on. Normally both springs should be replaced at the same time. We put the new springs on, approximately equalized the torsion between the sides, and manually let the door down slowly a step at a time using a come-along as a safety wire. When it was down all the way we finished the torsion settings, reconnected the opener and were done. Took about an hour IIRC, with lots of talk & jokes as we went along. Of course, we spent the previous evening for about 3 six packs planning it out. Doing those adjustements when the door is down is scary business; if you slip and lose a hold on one of those adjuster bars it's going to become a missile if it comes out of the holes made for it. I have noticed recently that torsion sprung doors have longer tracks on them; that's interesting.

For whatever reason it's not near as difficult to lift a door with tension springs. It's easy to thread the wire so you can pull on it to lift the door on the side where the spring broke and just let the other side follow. You don't have to go too far before the weight of the door gets really heavy though. Come-alongs to the rescue again works well. Personally I wouldn't touch a torsion sprung door at all anymore but hey, I'm an old man now! They're just too danged dangerous, door up OR down! I have replaced my own tension springs twice over the years though without any problems. I got the idea to use come-alongs from watching a garage door repairman in Chgo changing some tension springs at a friend's house. Someone said torsion springs were "better" but I don't really see it. They're more expensive, use practically the same springs as on tension openers and are a lot harder to work with. You don't get back any ceiling space because there still has to be clearances for the tracks and the door to move into when it's up. They also require a much stronger header over the garage door since all of the torsion has to be worked against in that one small area.

HTH,

Twayne`

Obviously (what a maroon).

Huh? The door is connected together at the rollers. If they're out of the track you're not likely replacing the spring. Maybe you would.

I suggest you do the same. To replace extension springs (always in pairs), one leaves the door in the *up* position, so that there is little or no tension on them. They're a snap to replace since they're not storing any (much) energy. This would be a good idea for a torsion spring too, if not for the fact that the spring is not accessible with the door up.

Someone has to do it. It's easy to replace extension springs. The OP didn't specify.

If you're a moron, perhaps you'll squish the track. Sensible people would grip the flats and not mess with the *ROUNDED* roller race.

I did. You just cannot understand.

Good. I don't need an idiot. Bye.

re: "every pro ive had out wanted to sell me a cheap door, and my door is probably the most expensive and well made and perfectly maintained door ive seen"

OK, I'm totally confused. I'm not doubting what you're saying, I just don't understand it.

If the door is "perfectly maintained" why are you having pros out? The words"every pro" (at least to me) indicates at least 3 pros have been out.

Why have you had so many visits from the pros for "the most expensive and well made and perfectly maintained door" you've ever seen?

TENSION springs need the door to be open, which means the springs are retracted - torsion springs need the door closed, which means the springs are "loaded" - because they are above the door and impossible to reach with the door open. They also wind OVER the "axle", They ARE dangerous to work with if you don't know what you are doing.

I've likely replacesd a dozen of them, and adjusted several dozen over the years.

Twayne wrote the following:

The purpose of the springs is to COUNTERBALANCE the weight of the door, whether opening or closing.