Results when you examine your garage door for broken things!

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:

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:

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

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

Oh oh.

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

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! :)

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:

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

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

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!

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

Now it sits perfectly flat - and lifts weightlessly.

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

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.

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.

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

Here's the overall picture with the apparatus removed: