[quote=Hobie]Paramount: Yes, messing with torsion springs will get you if you are not careful. Need correct tools too.
Flu: Not sure what you mean balance. Are they the same diameter? Measure the inside drum dia. where the cable winds. Door level? Door down, carefully back off all spring tension, slack drum bolts, hand turn enough to take slack out, tighter bolts and repeat other side. Equal turns on each side of spring ( if dual springs ). Tension enough to hold door in any position without connection to opener.[/quote]
The door was slightly tilted on one side with one side’s pulley being really slack and the other side being really taunt. I think what happened was the first time, I didn’t wind the spring tight enough, and then when I fully opened the garage door, there wasn’t enough tension in one of the cables on one side, so it unraveled, I wound it back up while the door was open, and then when I closed it, the door ended up closing tilted… I ended up closing the door, getting a vise grip to hold the spring tension in place against the wall, while I loosened both pulleys to straighten both sides of the cable. And then I cranked cranked the spring a few more times so that when it was fully open, it still created some tension on the cables on both sides.
One other thing I noticed. My garage door only has one torsen spring. But a lot of places are recommending converting it into a two torsen spring (left and right side), I guess so it reduces the load on each spring, giving a longer spring life… I didn’t think about that , but too late.
Oh well. My last spring lasted about 10 years.
