Results when you examine your garage door for broken things!

[Ashton Crusher]

I agree with Oren, it's needs more then glue to be fixed properly.. the carriage bolts should do it. You might want to put a plate on the outside to help spread the load.

[Danny D.]

I'm heading back home from work (although it will be dark before I arrive) so I won't likely put the hinges on tonight.

The best price, if someone else has Taylor Encore doors, which Taylor apparently no longer manufacturers, I've found for the lousy plastic hinges is $3 each (any hinge #) from this outfit in Denver Colorado (add a $7.50 shipping charge on the batch).

The advantage of the Taylor nylon replacement hinge is that no holes need be drilled in the garage door.

The disadvantage, of course, is that they're still crummy plastic.

I've already opted for 14-gauge steel universal hinges, from Home Depot, so this is simply a datapoint for others to follow.

[Danny D.]

Drat!

The bad news is that some of the existing replacement hinges have the hinge number (i.e., #1, #2, #3) on the top of the bracket - while others have the number stamped on the bottom.

Does it matter which way I install the new hinges? I would think it does - because the hinge has two holes offset at an angle.

Sigh.

That DIY above doesn't say. Neither do the instructions that came with the hinge!

Here is a picture of the replacement hinges being greased before I put them on the door:

I was actually shocked that there were unused drill holes in EVERY SINGLE spot I could put a replacement hinge! I didn't need to drill anything even though the replacement hinges are three times the size of the original plastic Taylor Encoredoor hinges:

[Danny D.]

It is shocking that the instructions don't say, and, that my door had both the wrong steel replacement hinges installed, and one of the hinges was on upside down!

So, I was confused about the direction to mount the #2 and #3 hinges.

This garage door hinge DIY doesn't say anything about the direction to install the asymmetric hinges:

Neither does this garage door hinge DIY: Yet, this garaqe door hinge DIY is explicit on the direction: It says: "The end with a slot in the hinge must be on top, while the end with just a hole must be on the bottom."

So I had to re-mount one of the hinges.

[Danny D.]

Here's a better picture of the split down the center of the wood at the bottom of the steel-clad garage door:

The carriage bolts that I had were too short - so I put a few more sheet-metal screws into the bottom fixture, hoping that the split down the center of the inside wood won't get worse: One thing I was surprised about was that there are NO BOLTS or screws on the SIDE of that all-important bottom fixture:

[Danny D.]

Oh oh.

This DIY says to "Insert the roller into the sleeve that extends farthest from the hinge."

I just noticed I put the hinge following instructions from the package which directly contradicts those instructions to use the furthest sleeve. I put the roller in the closest sleeve: Does anyone know if the sleeve selected actually makes a difference?

[Danny D.]

I didn't get an answer from you guys so I wrote to Dan Musick at DDM Garage Doors to ask what to do about the fact that the (apparently taller than Taylor) universal #2 and #3 replacement hinges were causing the rollers to press too tightly against the vertical track.

They were so tightly pressed, that the door couldn't make it to the bottom by about 1/4 inch of daylight - and - worse yet - it takes more than a set of button presses to jerk the door upward, due to the initial friction from the rollers being pressed too tightly to the backside of the track.

As a solution, I toyed with the idea of moving the track back - but that has its own drawbacks because the upper section would have to be similarly matched.

Dan kindly wrote back: "Install the #2 hinge where the #3 hinge is, and lower the #3 hinge to the #2 position and use the other hole for the roller carrier."

So, indirectly, we now find out the answer to the question of this post: Q: Does anyone know if the sleeve selected actually makes a difference? A: Apparently, the spare sleeve turns a #3 hinge into a #2 hinge! :)

[Danny D.]

UPDATE: It worked!

Switching the #2 hinge with the #3 hinge and moving the roller to the other slot on the upper hinge actually worked. The garage door slides smoothly against the track.

So, now I'm back to the original broken spring problem, which I hope to be resolved today with this gift from Dan Musick at DDM Doors:

[Vic Smith]

Your enthusiasm is contagious. That's one damn fine looking spring! Be careful.

[Danny D.]

I've always wanted to learn how to do this job! Here is where I am at this very moment:

I'm ready to wind!

I must say, at least up to this point, everything is easy.

1. Mark the drum locations (so as to re-use indents)
2. Loosen old spring winding cone 3/8" lock bolts
3. Remove old spring stationary cone 9/16" bolts
4. Loosen the 3/8" lock bolt on both drums
5. Slide the 1" bar to the right about a foot
6. Slide off the left drum
7. Slide off the broken winding cone & 0.234" spring
8. Slide on the new 0.250" spring with winding cones
9. Tighten everything up except the winding cone bolts

The only gotcha, so far, was that I had expected a center bearing - but - there is no center bearing!

Since I'm at a critical point, I opened a separate thread on just whether or not there should have been a center bearing. Meanwhile, I'll proceed without the center bearing! Now it's time to make sure I have all my ducks lined up so I'm re-reading Dan Musick's DIY as we type as I'm not sure where to put the vise grips:

[Danny D.]

To report back, I installed the new upgraded torsion spring without drama following this single-spring tutorial by Dan Musick:

Here is the door after the spring was installed, and then I had to adjust it by a quarter turn to loosen it a bit - and then I had to lower one side by about 1/4 inch.

Now it sits perfectly flat - and lifts weightlessly.

The only problem is the mounting bracket is bad - but that's the topic of a different thread.

[Danny D.]

I'm reading up to learn more about how garage doors work because IPPT hand calculations & spring flex forces still elude me.

In my searches, I found this excellent tutorial series: Garage Door Fundamentals: Torsion Spring Counterbalance

Garage Door Fundamentals Episode II: Torsion Spring Dyno Garage Door Fundamentals III: High lift Garage Door Fundamentals Episode IV: High Lift Counterbalance

[Vic Smith]

Yup, me too. Makes you appreciate "spring engineers."

The high lift spiral drums are neat. Never heard of them before. Here's what I haven't figured out. You always hear spring length decreases as it is wound. I can see that happening on a single spring door because the torsion shaft, drums and all, can move laterally. But on my 2-spring doors the springs are locked down on both ends. One end on the center bracket, and the other end on the torsion shaft. I don't think the torsion shaft length changes. So how can spring length change? I don't expect an answer.

[Danny D.]

I don't get it either, especially since, even on a single torsion spring system, the spring is LOCKED in place at the stretched position (i.e., with the door down).

So, all it really 'can' do is compress coils closer together when the door goes up.

I used to think the 1" hollow bar moved (and mine does) but in a properly installed system, I don't think the hollow bar 'can' move - because it is locked in place by the two cable drums.

The left cable drum prevents the 1" hollow rod from moving to the left; and the right cable drum prevents the the hollow rod from moving to the right.

So, I think, the ONLY thing that 'can' move is the distance between each spring coil.

I think it works this way: DOOR UP, spring relaxed, distance between coils at maximum. DOOR DOWN, spring compressed, distance between coils at minimum.

In my case, the total distance between over a hundred coils, is the amount that my spring anchor bracket is flexing.

[Danny D.]

As a followup, here are some pictures of the repair:

Here's the overall picture with the apparatus removed:

Here's is the relocation of the spring anchor plate: Here is a closeup of that spring anchor plate relocation: Here is a picture of my attempt to secure the right end plate: Here I try to shore up the left bearing end plate: