If torsion spring breaks on metal garage door

[DerbyDad03]

OK, linear spring. My error. His pain. ;-)

[Terry Coombs]

Bullshit . With reasonable caution and the PROPER tools most handy men can replace tham . One caveat - tension both sprinngs at the same time , alternating between them to avoid problems caused by the tension rod being twisted by spring torque .

[gfretwell]

How did he get hit with a torsion spring, They are captive on the pipe. That used to happen with the old style tension springs until people started threading a steel cable through them to hold the end when they broke. I know I did that when I put in my door in the 70s in Md and I retro fitted the one here. Now I have torsion springs on the replacement door. .

[gfretwell]

Agreed. I did mine when I installed this door but you do have to be careful and have the right rods to crank them up (typically 1/2" cold rolled steel). You can make up a nice set out of a 30-36" stick of steel rod, cut in half. As you say, it is handy to have 2 sets, so you can bring the springs up evenly. Do one turn on one, then go do a turn on the other. Once I got a few turns on each I raised the door enough to put an old bathroom scale under it and used that as a guide to how close I was. It did take a little fine tuning to find the sweet spot, where up force on the closed door was about as much as residual force against trying to close the open door.

[Don Y]

With reasonable caution and the PROPER tools most handy men can fix their own computers, rebuild their own automobile engines, blow their own glassware, rewire a home, dig out their own crawlspace, fell their own trees, etc.

Yet, amazingly, few people do these things -- and few do so without also injuring themselves (or damaging some collateral property)

You get slightly *less* than ONE mistake when tensioning a torsion spring. Belatedly discover that you need to take a breather or that one of the "sockets" for the tightening bars is a bit buggered and you can't "press pause".

far less risk in changing your own motor oil -- yet amazing how few folks will go to that "extreme"!

[DerbyDad03]

Read my previous post.

[Terry Coombs]

Doing it myself instead of paying someone with probably less knowledge and damn sure cares less about my ass has enabled us to live a lifestyle otherwise out of our reach . I figure if I can do it I should . About the only thing I won't tackle is automatic transmissions . Today a neighbor and I laid the Advantech flooring on our new 24 x 24 foot kitchen ... by the end of the week I expect to be standing up some walls , next will be building the 6/12-3/12 scissor trusses , then on to decking the roof . And on and on , until ...

[Vic Smith]

I was working in my garage one day when I heard some yelling I couldn't make out. It continued, so I investigated. A neighbor two doors down had tried adjusting his torsion spring and dropped the door. His index finger got squashed between the top 2 panels and was still stuck there. I lifted the door with a wrecking bar and freed him, then took him to the hospital - he was a nurse there. The broken finger had to have the meat stitched back on. OTOH, I've adjusted them using screwdrivers to crank them. Of course, that's with the damn door closed.

[Don Y]

Isn't that the motivation behind *most* DIY'ers? My car hasn't seen a shop in more than 10 years. SWMBO's last vehicle only saw a shop when the timing belt had to be replaced.

One of the five 40+ ft trees on the property was felled commercially (because a large bough passed *through* a neighbor's tree meaning that tree, at the very least, would likely see damage if I tried to fell it from below). None of the stumps for the four felled trees were ground -- I dug them each out!

No one has ever touched any of my PC's in the 35 years I've been running them. No one has fixed a piece of electronic kit that I owned *ever*.

The roof here has ~25 years on it. The neighbors' have all been replaced in that time period.

We don't "buy on time", carry balances or pay late fees. We can live without cellphones (though SWMBO has an "emergency phone" for those times when she is out and runs into difficulties). We don't need to "pay for TV" -- or other "entertainment services" (library can supply us with more media than we've time to watch).

Etc.

BUT, we *can* do these things. I'd be very reluctant of recommending to (no "history" on which to base my assessment of his/her capabilities) that they even APPROACH the "both springs broke", let alone try to dick with them!

[Don Y]

I tend to operate on the premise that I can always get more

*money* (or, can choose to live without something for some period of time to "make up for" money spent) -- but can't always get another hand, foot, eye, etc. This is particularly true for things that can go "very wrong" in an instant!

[Stormin Mormon]

That fellow is quite fortunate to have you for a caring neighbor. I'm not sure he said thank you, but I am, and will: Thank you.

[Vic Smith]

I think he did say thanks, but it's something any normal person would do. But I didn't like that he insisted he be taken to the hospital where he worked, which was at least a half hour farther than a number of local hospitals. Understandable, I suppose, for insurance reasons. Nor did I enjoy waiting at least 3 hours while he was treated. It was a terrible day for him, just a bad day for me.

[TimR]

Robert Heinlein:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, bu ild a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooper ate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, progr am a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Special ization is for insects.

[Stormin Mormon]

That's my general experience with such things. The folks who need help often put a lot of conditions. And it's seldom fun or convenient for the helper.

Still, it shows and speaks well of you as a person.

[Doug Miller]

"Terry Coombs" wrote in news:ndv2f2$u81$ [e-mail]:

Ditto here.

Agreed.

I've done two. And I'd do a third one before I'd replace a torsion spring on a garage door. I'm not as young as I used to be, and the healing process takes a lot longer than it used to. It's just more risk than I want, and the amount of money I'd save by doing it myself does not IMO justify the risk.

[Tekkie®]

[e-mail] posted for all of us...

You could have used a pair of vice grips to hold the door open.

[Don Y]

Three hours seems blazingly fast! I've had two ER visits in the past 20+ years, was "#1" coming out of triage -- yet spent 5 hours there, in each case.

We've stopped acting as ambulance for folks. They can call 911 (or, I can call FOR them). The ambulance is parked less than 2 miles up the road and there are at least two hospitals within 3 miles of here.

OTOH, if I put someone in my (or their) vehicle, then I assume liability, have to address traffic, lights/etc. ("officer, we're on our way to the hospital -- which is why I ran the light -- and would have been there by now had you not stopped us"), can not monitor the "patient" to see if their condition is deteriorating, can not render aid (and still operate the vehicle) if the "patient" takes a turn for the worse, etc.

The EMT's can be here in 5 or 6 minutes. My time is better served observing the patient and taking direction from the 911 operator (who is, undoubtedly, relaying my observations to the ambulance crew).

Some things really aren't worth "saving pennies". A friend was found dead in her car on the side of the road cuz she opted to drive herself to the hospital. A lot of good those savings did *her*, eh?