Spring attached to gate

You are absolutely right, the spring attaches in a near vertical position with one end on the post and the other on the gate. The holes you refer to are for tensioning the spring. There should be some steel pins that push through the holes to prevent the spring unwinding again, you also use the holes for the purpose of twisting it to get that tension.. As you apparently have no pins you will find that suitably sized (and depointed) nails are quite effective.

They should be fitted near to vertical - they operate in torsion. The holes are to enable the owner to wind on some tension and then insert a plug to retain the tension.

Try this:

john hamilton was thinking very hard :

That has been fitted completely the wrong way. It should have been fitted in line with the hinges, vertically and wound up to create tension the tension on it to close the gate.

They are, especially when one of the pins flies across the garden :-)

Technically known as a pingfuckit.

instructions - or keeping an eye open on how things are fitted elsewhere.

What puzzles me from the OP's pic is how *compressing* the spring more was going to make the door *close*: unless the jamb was on the wrong side as well...

From the pic, I'd have been looking to lengthen the spring to use it at that angle - and then the old 'washers in the side stand spring' technique would come to mind...

Almost right! It is a *torsion* spring - and you rotate it to wind in torsion - not tension. Tension implies stretching it whereas you are actually *twisting* it.

Your neighbour should employ a smarter spring fitter. Clearly there's no hope for them doing it themselves.

Roger Mills brought next idea :

Its a wind up!