Henderson garage door spring

[Chris]

Hi,

I'm after a bit of advice on retensioning my Henderson garage door (metal up and over door with a spring running across the door frame above the door and wires on cones running down to the sides of the door).

Just to make sure I've got it right, I have the door down and the cones and shaft locked off with a pin. I slacken the grub screws that attach the spring to the shaft, then use tommy bars to tension the spring before retightening the grub screws.

The big question is, which way do I turn the spring? Do I tighten the spring so that as the door opens it unwinds, or do I unwind the spring so that as the door opens it tightens?

Thanks

Chris

[Roger Mills]

The spring winds up as the door *closes* so that it assists you to open it against gravity. [The other way round, the door would come crashing down - driven by the spring - and would be *very* hard to open because you would be lifting it and winding up the spring at the same time.

If you can get at it, it's usually easiest to adjust the spring tension with the door propped fully open.

[Alex]

If the existing spring tension is too much i.e. the door fly's up then you would release tension by allowing the spring to unwind by one turn this should be down,the reverse for not enough tension i.e. the door drops by say

150mm.

I would advise caution and the wearing of protective eyewear also ensure that you have the correct size bars to prevent slippage and maintain a good grip on these bars at all times.

[Chris]

Thanks for the response Roger. I understand that the spring needs to be at minimum tension when the door is open and maximum tension when the door is down, however with the spring at zero tension (the current state), you can wind it in either direction and it will spring back to the current state. The winding cones should indicate which direction the spring needs to be wound in, but the new cones appear to be colour coded the opposite way around to the old ones. Once I've established which way the spring winds, I'll then fit the cones to suit.

If I wind the spring one way, the coils tighten and the spring gets shorter, if I wind the spring the other way the coils open out. From a quick google it seems that the coils opening out is the correct direction, I'm just looking for confirmation that I have understood this correctly.

Thanks

Chris

[Chris]

The trouble is I'm not 100% sure that the mechanism was installed the right way round, hence up / down may be reversed. The colour coding on the spare parts from Henderson appears to be the opposite of that on the parts I removed. I'm assuming that when the instructions refer to left and right they mean when standing inside the garage looking towards the door.

Absolutely. I've got the proper bars from Henderson, and have a healthy respect for the spring.

Thanks

Chris

[mike]

Chris wrote in news:463392ac$0$8746$ [e-mail]:

Mine has a blue cone on the right (looking from inside) and a whire one on the left.

The wires roll up on to the side of the cone nearest the door - I don't think it could be otherwise, the wire would foul something.

The top of the spring rolls towards me when I open the door.

I don't know if it's correctly installed - it was put in by Norm next door when he bought a caravan, and sized up his car, his garage, and his garage door - but it works.

HTH

mike

[Chris]

That's the same as the new cones I bought, but the opposite to the old ones I removed.

That matches too, so far so good..

Just to double check, is that when you are standing inside the garage, or outside?

One last question - one end of the spring is attached to the shaft by a 'plug' with two allen head grub screws and a series of holes to fit tommy bars to adjust the tension. When you stand inside the garage looking towards the door, is this plug on the left hand end of the spring or the right hand end?

Cheers

Chris

[mike]

The "plug" is on the left end of the spring.

All observations are from inside, facing the door.

I don't think you can see much from the outside, perhaps yours is inside out, instead of upside down :)

mike

[Chris]

Ah, the opposite side to mine then :-(

No, I've just got really good eyesight ;-)

Thanks

Chris