Here is a panorama picture of the garage door with red showing wood below the gypsum; blue shows steel; and white shows air:
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There 'is' a two-inch thick piece of wood directly over the door as shown in this picture. The red-painted nail heads sticking out hit wood while the white painted nailheads went into air.
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Actually we originally thought the spring anchor plate near the center was badly mounted above air - and it is! But, the real problem appears to be both side bearing plates are also mounted above air!
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In the picture above, red is wood, yellow is air, & blue is steel.
Dan Musick of DDM Garage Doors is kindly sending me a bearing.
The construction appears to be: a) There is air under the entire spring anchor plate. b) The spring anchor plate is bolted by 1 bolt to the angle iron. c) There is air below the angle iron except at the very top & bottom. d) There is air under both end bearing plates.
Given that, what appears to be happening (0.250" steel): A) As the door rolls up, the spring compresses 7.5 turns (~2") B) This (invisibly) pulls in both end bearing plates (hard to see) C) Which also visibly pulls in the spring anchor plate (~1")
You don't seem to hear the answer--open up enough of the cavity to put in sufficient blocking where it needs to be and then go on.
You _could_ use like 3/16 steel plates mounted on the surface at the top and bottom and mount the hardware on them but overall it's likely simpler to just add the blocking.
You are correct. I just checked by driving some nails. There 'is' wood under the steel beam as shown in this picture.
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Apparently the garage door opener trolley is attached to this wood as is the top of the angle iron that the spring anchor plate is bolted to (by a single bolt).
There is absolutely nothing below the entire length of the spring end plate.
(where the header should be)
There 'is' a cripple stud of wood along the top (header?) of the garage door, which is diagrammed in this photo:
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I have a vertical cripple stud about a foot and a half to the right of the drum mounts where I will try to shore up the lack of anything below the drum mounts themselves.
With the new longer spring, there is only about 8 inches of clearance to the cable drum if I move the spring mount bracket to the LEFT by
18 inches to be on a cripple stud - but that should be enough clearance.
That's a good idea. I'll wait for Dan Musick's part to arrive from DDM Garage Doors before taking the next step - but I have to remove everything anyway to put the new spring bearing in so that's when I'll do it.
I agree. I wish I had looked at the bending of the spring end bracket BEFORE it broke ... to see if the thicker longer spring made any difference.
You are astute in that you noticed that moving the spring bracket
18" to the left actually puts it CLOSER to the center of the door than it currently is. I agree. The original installer should have done that - and I will do that (and post pictures).
I'll wait for Dan Musick's parts to arrive though, as Dan said the spring bracket and any stud below it will get ripped out of the wall if I don't also secure the two bearing end plates.
I'll snap a picture of what Dan sent when it arrives. My understanding of what he suggested was to brace the end bearing plates against 'something'.
It's a right-turn spring - but the one bolt is just crazy. That one bolt is ONLY holding the bracket to the angle iron. I guess it lasted 25 years - so - the installer got away with it - but all of us agree it's a pretty lame setup that I must fix, especially with my longer heavier spring.
I only wish I had looked prior to the spring breaking to see if the spring bracket was flexing that much with the original spring (which was 9.5 inches shorter than the new one).
I also wish I had opted for a two-spring system, which would have made a difference - but Dan Musick told me that it still would have had a problem if the end bearing plates are flexing.
The funny thing is that I don't see any flex in the end bearing plates. But Dan said it must be there because the spring end plate can't flex unless the end bearing plates allow it to flex.
There's 14 mud splotches in the wallboard just above the garage door. I seriously doubt that there are 14 studs across the top of a single garage door.
I'd have ripped that wallboard off a long time ago if I couldn't figure out what was going on behind it. Worst case the OP could add some insulation and feel better about ripping the wallboard off.
I think we figured out that there is a steel beam at the ceiling level which also runs down (at least one) side of the garage.
Here is a detailed (large) picture of all I know at the moment:
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There is a 2" thick piece of wood above the door itself (that's where the 14 mud splotches lie) and along the side of the door.
The ceiling beam apparently has a piece of wood bolted to it which is what the garage door opener trolley is attached to, and which the top bolt of the spring end plate angle iron is bolted to.
(Note: The spring end plate is merely bolted to this angle iron.)
The bottom portion of the spring end plate angle iron is screwed into the wood at the top of the door, and the bottom portion of the cable drum support is screwed into the wood at the side of the door.
None of this wood appears to be supporting members though.
This DASMA spring reference says there is a new solution to the bending forces on single torsion spring brackets:
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It says (verbatim): "For a garage door using a single torsion spring, the spring bearing bracket ... is subjected to bending back and forth each time the spring winds and unwinds. This action not only stresses the bracket and ultimately its fasteners beyond capacity, but eventually can cause the bearing itself to fall apart."
One solution to explore might be a different kind of bracket: "Ken Martin...suggests that a double-flange, side-bearing bracket be used on single spring doors. He notes that this [double-flange side-bearing] bracket is normally fastened to both the top of the horizontal track angle and into the wall"
Googling for "double-flange side-bearing bracket", I don't find a definitive article - but I'll keep looking as that might be a solution in and of itself in my special circumstances.
You might be dealing with cheap original hardware. Or poorly fastened. Never saw a pic that showed if the entire bracket was moving. or it was just flexing. One other thing that I noticed taking a look at an older post to look at the bracket. DOOR CLOSED:
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OPEN:
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The spring is wound in the DOOR OPEN pic. Isn't that backwards? Anyway, I think others have posted pics of their single spring doors that show the spring bracket stiff. Seem the torsional forces on that bracket are always going to be no more than the weight of the door can apply, no matter what spring was used. Might be wrong on that, I'm not an engineer. That would point to a too-weak bracket/fastening. Might be age/fatigue, or poor initial quality. Personally, I would try a new or fabricated bracket of more strength. I tend toward fabricated, because it would give me an excuse to buy a drill press and a band saw. Others might go for welding gear. But you have to remove that drywall to get at good fastening points. Others may say fuggetaaboutit, and What, me worry? Happy Thanksgiving!
I think I'm definitely dealing with cheap original hardware! :)
I did snap a video - but it's hard to tell, in the video, exactly what is flexing. END PLATE:
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SPRING PLATE:
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This is a difficult thing to get my mind wrapped around. Pardon me if the explanation below is difficult to decipher.
You are correct that the spring should be close to RELAXED when the door is open. Well, the spring should be only a 1/4 or 1/2 turn tensioned at the door open position - but that's close to being relaxed.
However, we have the enigma that force bending the spring end plate happens ONLY in the door open position. Why?
This caused me a lot of confusion - but I think we have to consider the situation at the exact point when the spring was initially BOLTED to the hollow rod. The spring was bolted to the hollow rod AFTER it grew 7 coils.
So, the paradox is that the FORCE on the end plate now occurs NOT when the spring is tensioned - but when it is RELAXED.
This is a counter intuitive conclusion - but it's the only explanation that makes sense when trying to explain WHY the force is greatest when the spring is in the relaxed position.
If I'm wrong - please correct me as I'm also trying to figure out why the forces appear greatest when the spring is most relaxed!
Actually, according to Dan at DDM Garage Doors, no spring anchor bracket is strong enough to withstand the forces from the relaxed spring.
In fact, Dan told me by phone that he has seen entire cripple studs ripped out of walls by these forces on the spring anchor bracket.
If I understood Dan correctly, what prevents the spring anchor bracket from moving is NOT the mounting of the spring anchor bracket. What prevents the spring anchor bracket from moving is the lack of movement in the two bearing end plates.
I don't quite UNDERSTAND that - but - Dan told me there is no way my spring anchor bracket would be moving unless the bearing end plates were also moving. He did not know about the air under my bearing end plates - so he surmised the fact that the bearing end plates were moving solely from the fact the spring anchor bracket was moving.
The interesting thing is that, while I can see the spring anchor bracket movement ... I can not see the bearing end plate movement: END PLATE:
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SPRING PLATE:
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But, Dan knew that the bearing end plate was moving.
I don't quite understand this ... but Dan's experience must be respected so I assume he's 100% correct. Especially since we all realize there is air underneath both of the bearing end plates.
According to Dan, even a stronger spring anchor bracket would eventually fail unless I also fixed the flexing of the bearing end plates.
Of course, the spring anchor bracket is installed badly - so that's not helping things.
When the parts arrive from DDM Garage Doors, I plan on moving the spring anchor bracket angle iron 18" to the left so that it is mounted directly onto the cripple stud.
At the same time, I will (somehow) shore up the bearing end plates by either tying them to the studs a foot and a half distant ... or I will tie them to the steel horizontal track.
I'm waiting for the parts from Dan at DDM Garage Doors, who has already figured out what I need to do (even though I haven't figured it out yet).
The kids wouldn't touch it ... even though it used their carved pumpkins for the guts ... and they loved the seeds ... but they just wouldn't touch my 'experimental' pumpkin pie!
Dan Musick of DDM Garage Doors kindly sent me the following repair kit, based on my photos and discussions with him.
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Two 12" angle iron, 1 1/4" Two 3" long lag bolts Two Teks bolts One freeway bearing (for 2" spring ID with 1" hollow rod) One 5/16" carriage bolt with nut
The part of Dan's ad-hoc kit that I understand is the "Freeway, Cleveland Ohio, ABF" bearing for the spring end plate and a short carriage bolt to better attach the existing spring end plate to the existing angle iron.
However, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to use the remaining two angle irons and two 3-inch-long lag bolts and two "teks" self-drilling screws though... but Dan did kindly send the following two pictures along with the email earlier in the week that said the repair kit was on the way:
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Do you have a better idea of what Dan's trying to tell me to do? (I called but they're away for the weekend, understandably.)
I'll relocate the torsion spring end plate 18" to the left onto an existing cripple stud.
For that, I'll use two 3" lag screws to hold the angle iron onto the stud and I'll use two more 3" lag screws to hold the spring end plate onto the stud.
I'll also add the Freeway Cleveland Ohio A8F bearing to the spring end plate.
Separately, I'll see if I can either bolt the angle iron Dan kindly sent me to the wall and to the track, holding the end bearing plate more securely ... or ... I'll see if I can bolt the end bearing plate to the nearest stud which is about a foot and a half outside the door opening. Or both.
Hopefully, that will prevent movement of the spring end plate.
I just tried it and I really don't see how Dan's angle iron will help me shore up the end bearing plates.
I think I'll head off to a big-box store to get a flat 3" wide metal plate, 18" long. I can Teks screw one end of that plate to the uppermost few inches of the vertical track; the other end can be lag screwed into the stud 18" toward the corner.
Note: I just tested the corner and it does NOT have any wood underneath it; the corner is a steel beam (so there's no value in going the additional foot to the corner).
I can do the same for the other side, only with a shorter
11 1/4" long 3" wide steel plate, where I can Teks screw the two garage door upper tracks together and to a stud beneath them in the center post between the two garage doors.
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