I would not succumb to defeat so I spent early morning watching this youtube video.
And I was able to my garage door to align properly. Turns out I didn’t wind the spring enough and the pulleys were coming loose after I fully opened the garage.
Now my garage runs more smooth then before because I took the time to actually balance the door so it doesn’t slam shut on the way down, nor does it spring open on the way up.
This didn’t turn out to be rocket science. Stuffing a supercharger in a miata is more involved. However, you do need to be careful with winding the spring, since if you don’t do it with a secure, thick steel bar or “winding levers”, you can seriously get hurt (like lose a finger or worse). They make these bars to wind springs
But I didn’t have them handy, so I went to the local hardware store and just bought long steel bars that fit in the winding holes. They need to be about 2-3 feet long (3 feet is good for more torque). The idea is use one to crank the spring a quarter turn, and then you you stick the other one underneath and let it rest against the garage door to hold the spring tension in place, while you remove the first bar. And then, you crank another quarter turn, and repeat the process a few times. It took me about 29 quarter turns to get the right tension, and then about 2 quarter turns after to fine tune it. I had to try it a couple of times to get a perfect balance.
I think why a lot of people probably get hurt is they skimp on getting the right steel bars to turn the spring. I read some people try to use screwdrivers and others use hollow aluminum shafts….Uh, probably not the smartest thing for those people to do. Also, as an amateur, I wore a pair of safety glasses, and then on top of that, I worn my helmet for racing. (Motorcycle helment should work too)….Perhaps that was overkill, but I didn’t want the loaded spring to accidentally unravel on me and launch a steel rod into my face.
Would I do this for a rental property? Probably not. I wouldn’t want the liability. But for my own home, I figure I can probably get another 6-7 years before I have to do it again.
Thanks Hobbie for the links and the help.
I guess if I get laidoff as a software enginerd, I can always start my own garage door service company, lol.
