The wooden frame either side of my up and over canopy garage door has rotted and I want to replace it. To do so I will have to remove and then replace the door. I thought this would be a fairly simple job but the door uses a single torsion spring to provide lift, and several web-sites I have visited suggest that releasing the tension is a job for experts and that people have been killed attempting this job DIY. Agree or disagree? Any general advice on actually releasing the tension?
Kev
If you are putting the same door back on you proabably don't want to release the tension as you may not be able to get it back again easily. I have a vague memory from when I took out one of these doors a while ago that there was some sort of locking arrangement that locked the spring in place - I think it was something like sticking a screwdriver through a slot in the shaft to prevent rotation.
I would be highly surprised if there were not some way to safely lock the spring
- if not, how was it installed in the first place...?
If it is a Henderson door you need one of these:
Waggy
If, like my garage door, yours locks into its own frame, then you can remove & refit the whole assembly without disturbing any of the mechanism.
Unfortunately not. The bracket hinges and spring rod are merely screwed into the upper wooden cross-piece of the frame.
Kev
Looking at the torsion spring mechanism on my door, the tension is held by a metal 'doughnut' clamped into the metal rod running through the spring. The clamp is held onto the rod by a counter-sunk-head grub screw. SFAICT The tension is created by twisting the doughnut using open-ended spanners on the 'nut-shaped' end of the dough-nut (hard to describe!). The nut is not that wide and in order to continually raise the tension you would need to use two open-ended spanners for which there hardly seems to be enough space!
Kev
through the spring. The
Does it have holes round the circumference that you can turn with a tommy bar?
Out Garadoor is like that and I have disconnected and reconnected the lifting wires.... with much straining and swearing. I later learnt that the better way to do it is to raise the door and prop it up with timbers (or acrows?). This relieves much of the tension in the lifting wires.
You need to identify the type of door ,it could be either a Henderson ,Cardale or a King door not likely to be garador as they have only just started using torsion spring in the last three years.Look at the door handle name is normally there or on the back of the door on a label,when you know make I will advise you correctly.Or if you want to take a photo of mechanism and send it to me that's ok
Alex
Nope - just the 'nut' built into the dough-nut.
Kev
Alex - it's a Henderson - the original door put in by the house-builder in the mid 1970's.
Kev
Actually, I'm wrong - there *are* tommy bar holes - they'd just been filled up with grease and covered with dirt so that I couldn't see them! That makes the job a lot simpler!
Kev
Uno
If you ring Henderson on 0871 226 8335 they will send you the re-tensioning tool and the instructions for doing the job
waggy
In that case waggy has already covered it ,I would advise that you have two people to lock of the tension one to control the tensioning rod and one to insert the locking pin.after that all you will need is a large screwdriver to remove the four screws holding the spring in place,lift the spring from the centre bracket and lower it down,push the bottom of the door outwards and the guide wheels will come out of the side guide rails.
A word of caution the energy stored in a torsion spring can cause severe damage to limbs and eyes so beware and ensure that the lock of pin is fully locked in use a hammer to tap in
Many thanks!
Kev
Thanks for that Alex.
Kev
You might find that the holes contain machine screw heads (Allen key?) to lock/unlock the nut.
On my Apex door this end of the spring can be ignored for fitting and removal, it's just for tension adjustment.
All I have to do is to take up a bit of tension on the other end nut and insert the locking pin as described by Alex.
The whole door, spring included, can be removed as one unit.
That's very helpful. I was under the impression that I would have to release the spring tension in order to remove the door. That would make the whole job a damn sight easier.
Thank you.
Kev
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