Garage Door Sprng Snapped....How to repair?

My dad once tried to replace one. It somehow let go from whatever he was holding the end with. It almost took off the side of his face. I don't recall whether he made a mistake in his approach, or what, but you might want to think about paying a pro to do it.

Let me second that. That's a big DDD! (Don't Do Dat!) The spring has lot of tension and you'll wind up with whatever you're using to tighten it firmly imbedded in your head.

When the guy that comes says, "as long as I'm here, should I replace both of them?", say yes. They're like glassware, when one breaks, the other one will soon.

Remember, DDD!

Raise the door to its full height and wedge it open. A screwdriver wedged behind one of the wheels or a pair of vise-grips on the track should do it. That will relieve most of the pressure on the remaining spring. There should not be much tension with the door raised.

Pull off the remaining spring and take it with you to buy two new springs (they need to match). When you replace them make sure you feed a safety cable through the springs in case they ever fail.

If it seems unsafe to remove the spring with the door raised then call somebody.

Replacement springs are available at home centers, like Home Depot. They are sold by the weight of the door they are suited for. Newer ones are supposed to be color coded, with paint marking near the end that indicates the weight. If it's an old one and unmarked, you will need to weigh the door. You can do that with a bathroom scale.

With the door fully raised, use C clamps in the tracks to keep it there. Remove the remaining spring, then have someone help you lower the door onto the scale. Be careful, as a big door can weigh 150lbs or more. You install the new springs with the door again fully in the up postion and kept there with C clamps. Replace the other spring too. The springs should have just a bit of tension on them with the door fully open. Remove the clamps and carefully lower the door. It should be balanced so that it takes little force up or down to move it. When closed, it should just stay there, not pull back up. You may need to adjust the tension again to get it right, or switch to a different weight spring to get it right.

When you're done, install safety cables, that should come with the new springs. These go throught the center of the spring and are secured to the track at either end. That way if the spring breaks again, it can't fly off and do damage.

I'm a little confused here. I read many posts where people ask about installing sub-panels or installing DWV pipe or moving a giant shed and all sorts of advice is offered. But someone asks about replacing a garage door spring and the OP gets responses like "call a professional, it is too dangerous"

You are more likely to get hurt messing around in an electrical box than installing a garage door spring, and an improperly installed plumbing system can cause serious illness or property damage. I would also think it is more dangerous to move a shed than install a spring that will lift 150 pounds.

What gives? Is it the immediacy of a pinched finger that has people leery of this repair as opposed to the long term damage from poorly installed DWV system?

I'll answer this in an obtuse way. Is it possible that person A has seen things happen which person B has not?

Are these expansion springs or torsion?

If expansion on a single bay it shouldn't be too hard. Just as others have said the door must be safely blocked open. A neighbor damn near killed himself loosening a spring with the door closed.

When replacing a very large expansion spring on a very heavy double door I was having trouble trying to get it stretched adequately. Then I just hooked it up as best I could. Closed the door which expanded the spring several inches. I then put nails between the wrungs. Opened and braced the door again. It is now a few inches longer. Hooked it where I wanted. Closed the door and pulled out the nails.

If you mean torsion springs, see:

More likely that some of us know what where talking about because we've done it, and others don't. I agree with Ray, that changing extension springs on a garage door is far less dangerous than screwing around with electricity, or climbing on a roof to fix a leak. Yet, people tell folks on here how to do the latter two all the time, without feeling the need to tell them they shouldn't even think about doing it. I've read of plenty of people being electrocuted or falling off roofs and getting injured. And I've yet to read a news report of anyone getting injured changing a spring. I'm sure it's happened, but it's less dangerous than many other home repairs that people do all the time.

I've made a hobby of collecting such tales, and in almost (almost) every case that is not just a friend-of-a-friend myth, it is due to utter ignorance of the most basic technique. Typically, somebody just stupidly loosens the setscrew on a winding cone, without engaging winding bars. (This is like jumping off a roof, thinking it will get you down on the ground.) This results in a maiming injury, after which all who hear of it conclude that the activity is death-defying, when in fact it is the ignorance of technique that is the chief component of the hazard.

Yet even the guys in the biz tell me that they get hurt now and then, despite knowing everything there is to know about what they do. So it is not without its inherent hazards that are to some degree unavoidable.

I used his instructions [the web page above]with good results and saved money, have all of my fingers and toes and now have the tools to do it again should the need arise. Well written, thought out and made a job that heretofore was taboo a simple DIY task.

Somebody had to teach the "professionals" didn't they??

No, not the torsion spring type, where the spring runs parallel to the doo, but the other type, where the springs are perpindicular to the door and parallel to the "rails" taht the little wheels ride upon.

Reminds me of guy I used to work with many years ago. He was a nice guy, but always had a cloud of doom following him around. Most of it was his own doing. He had an old Dodge Diplomat and it was always in need of repair. One day he starts telling me how he's gonna replace the front suspension torsion bar. Sounds like it could be one of those jobs that is a lot easier if you have the right eqpt, a shop, and have done it before or at least have a service manual. This guy was living in an apartment at the time, so he was gonna do it out in the parking lot, with no other car available, minimal tools, etc.

He comes in Monday morning with his arm in a sling. Seems the torsion bar wrenched it and nearly broke it. So, then he starts telling me how he's gonna do the alignment next. Now, I do a lot of work on my own cars, but how the hell can you do this? I mean you need to be able to accurately measure toe in/out, caster, camber, etc. I try to tell him to take it to a shop and get it done for $75, but to no avail. Two months later, he's bitching that he needs new tires cause they're all bald on one side!

Actually, you can do a pretty precise alignment if you know how to measure and have time on your hands, rather than cash to pay someone else. String and paint cans are a help. Now days it's even easier, because you can buy little laser pointers very cheaply. Once you have done it once, it becomes pretty easy.

Terry & Skipper, Clearlake Texas

You may not need to purchase a new spring if just the very end where the loop is broke off, I have repaired many garage doors by heating and turning one turn of the spring into a new loop for the end. Even a propane torch or gas range is sufficient as a heat source. These springs can kick you into next Tuesday so use some care in tensioning it.

Jim wrote: "Standard single bay ovehead garage door. =A0 One spring snapped. Spring's body is 26" long x 1 1/2 inch diameter. How does one goi about replacing these things?" ___________________________________ Re: I just replaced the extension springs on both of my garage doors about two months ago after one broke; they were 11 years old. It was easy and not dangerous; if done right. First you need to know what size spring you need. There will, most likely, be what looks like an errant spray of paint on one end of the spring or the other. This is the spring's color code that tells you what the full extension tension of the spring is. It is critical that you install the correct springs for your door. It is also critical that you replace both at the same time for balanced tension. Presumably, the original was correct if the door operated correctly. If you can't find the color code on the old spring, then you can take the unbroken one to a home center or hardware store and do a comparison. Find one of equivalent relaxed length and diameter. To compare tension constants (known as Hook's Constant) attach the old spring in series with a new spring and pull from one end of the combo with the other anchored or held by another person; thus the same tension is in both springs. If the new spring is a match, it will extend (increase in length), the same (or very nearly) as the old spring. Of course, if you know the weight of your door (it may be on the door manufacturer's label), you can simply buy that size of spring. Before replacing/installing the spring, the door needs to be fully up, with vice grips or C-clamps on both rails to prevent the door from falling. It is then just a simple matter of manipulating the hardware to install the spring. As other posters have said, the spring safety cable is critical. This is a cable that runs through the annulus of the spring and is securely anchored on both ends. This cable prevents the spring from causing damage and/or injury should it break in the future.

I got my parts and info from

Good luck, Dan Akers

Had that same problem just last week when I replaced (for the second time in 20 years) both expansion springs on the garage door we open and close prolly five time a day. (The other one of our two garage doors gets opened maybe once a week and its original springs are still in place.)

I'd already torched and bent two new end loops on the last set of springs within the last year, so when one more end loop broke off I figgered it was time to spring for a new set again. (pun intentional.)

Say, has anyone evr seen a garage door expansion spring break anyplace other than at the bend for the end loop? I haven't. The working stresses are sure to be higher there than elsewhere along the spring, so I guess that's why. The new pair of springs I bought at home cheepo last week have their end loops bent out only about 45 degrees from the spring body, maybe that'll help them stay on longer.

With the door up as far as it could go, I couldn't quite stretch the 150 lb springs enough with one hand while standing on a step ladder to get the door cables over and into the pulley's groove with my other hand.

Then this idea hit me. I tied a piece of 3/16" plastic rope to the spring end loop and let 19 year old son stand about 10 feet outside the garage and pull on it. Worked slicker than snot on a brass doorknob, he could easily have stretched it another foot if needed.

Final blather for those who never stopped to think about this; A coil spring is just a torsion bar wound into a coil. The "springiness" comes from the spring wire twisting as the coil is stretched or compressed.

HTH,

Jeff

"You may not need to purchase a new spring if just the very end where the loop is broke off, I have repaired many garage doors by heating and turning one turn of the spring into a new loop for the end. Even a propane torch or gas range is sufficient as a heat source. These springs can kick you into next Tuesday so use some care in tensioning it." ____________________________________ Re; I wouldn't do that. On a 7 foot door, the typical extension spring is very near it's maximum design extension when the door is in the closed position. When you remove 3 or 4 inches of extendable spiral via the break and the formation of the new loop, you effectively require the spring to elongate past it's safe operating tension. If you try to remedy this by cable adjustment, then you will "run out of" tension before the door is fully up. This says nothing of the tension mismatch that would result between the two halves of the door. They're not that expensive; only $12 each or so.

Dan Akers