OT: where can I buy garage door springs

[Coronita]

My garage door spring snapped. Does anyone know of a local place to buy them. Home depot doesn’t stock the ones I need. And I don’t need someone to come out and replace it… It’s not rocket science.

Otherwise, I’m thinking of Amazon priming it. lol

[spdrun]

ACE Hardware on University if you don’t want to enrich that piece of filth named Bezos?

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]ACE Hardware on University if you don’t want to enrich that piece of filth named Bezos?[/quote]

wrong kind of spring. I need the torsen ones that go sideways.

Sigh.. I can’t seem to find a spring dealer. Looks like no one wants to sell the spring as a part for fear of llability.

Sheesh…

[spdrun]

So basically like bad-ass clock springs? Buy some next time you’re in Mexico — they have a more reasonable legal system…

[Doofrat]

I used Up and Down Garage Doors to replace mine. They have a great rating in Yelp and I gave them the measurement of the door/springs and they gave me a price on the phone that was really good. Showed up on time and did the fix.

[Hobie]

http://ddmgaragedoors.com/index.php

This guy is great. He will sell you the springs and will even take your call if you have questions.

Changing these springs is not difficult. While you are at it, consider the Liftmaster jackshaft opener. Mounts on the side leaving more room in the center of your garage. Quiet too.

[Coronita]

[quote=Hobie]http://ddmgaragedoors.com/index.php

This guy is great. He will sell you the springs and will even take your call if you have questions.

Changing these springs is not difficult. While you are at it, consider the Liftmaster jackshaft opener. Mounts on the side leaving more room in the center of your garage. Quiet too.[/quote]

Thanks. So I found out that the reason why most places don’t sell springs alone is because some people are have been seriously hurt when they tried to install it, so people don’t want the liability.

I’ll file this place for future reference.

I found these guys in Clairemont…
http://www.allproqgd.com/

I can’t get the pulleys to wind up correctly, so I need to redo things…Monday’s suck.

[paramount]

[quote=flu][quote=Hobie]http://ddmgaragedoors.com/index.php

This guy is great. He will sell you the springs and will even take your call if you have questions.

Changing these springs is not difficult. While you are at it, consider the Liftmaster jackshaft opener. Mounts on the side leaving more room in the center of your garage. Quiet too.[/quote]

Thanks. So I found out that the reason why most places don’t sell springs alone is because some people are have been seriously hurt when they tried to install it, so people don’t want the liability.

I’ll file this place for future reference.

I found these guys in Clairemont…
http://www.allproqgd.com/

I can’t get the pulleys to wind up correctly, so I need to redo things…Monday’s suck.[/quote]

I was going to say, garage spring replacement probably not a good do-it-yourself project.

The guy who replaced mine last fall was missing finger tips.

[Coronita]

Ok. I give up on this one. I got the spring on, I just can’t get the damn pulleys on both sides to balance. And I don’t feel like having one of the bars I use to torque up the spring to go flying into my body (I’m wearing my auto racing helmet to protect my face, lol)….Anyway, time to folk over the $200 or so…Grr…..

[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.

[Coronita]

Success!!!!

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.

[Coronita]

[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.

[bababooey]

Parents neighbor was a commercial airline pilot. He tried to adjust the spring in his door one day. The spring blew up and sent shrapnel into his eye.

He can’t fly anymore.

I fix lots of things around the house myself, I don’t screw with garage doors.

[zk]

Dang, flu, too bad I didn’t see this a couple days earlier; I would’ve recommended that same video. My spring busted a couple weeks ago and I went (superhero voice) TO THE INTERNET!!. Found that very video, ordered the springs and the winding bars online, and did it myself. $43 for the two springs and the winding bars. They bungled the shipping, and I had to wait a week and a half, but other than that it worked out good.

In any case, for anyone else considering the project, I second the recommendation of that video. The guy shows you everything you need to know to do it safely, and he has a nice demeanor. Also, the winding bars are quite inexpensive, and I would highly recommend buying a pair. Winding the springs, especially near the end when they’re really tight, is a tad unnerving, especially having heard the stories, and knowing I had the right tools made me more confident that I wasn’t going to screw it up. I didn’t wear a helmet, but only because I didn’t think of it. That’s a pretty good idea.

[Coronita]

[quote=zk]Dang, flu, too bad I didn’t see this a couple days earlier; I would’ve recommended that same video. My spring busted a couple weeks ago and I went (superhero voice) TO THE INTERNET!!. Found that very video, ordered the springs and the winding bars online, and did it myself. $43 for the two springs and the winding bars. They bungled the shipping, and I had to wait a week and a half, but other than that it worked out good.

In any case, for anyone else considering the project, I second the recommendation of that video. The guy shows you everything you need to know to do it safely, and he has a nice demeanor. Also, the winding bars are quite inexpensive, and I would highly recommend buying a pair. Winding the springs, especially near the end when they’re really tight, is a tad unnerving, especially having heard the stories, and knowing I had the right tools made me more confident that I wasn’t going to screw it up. I didn’t wear a helmet, but only because I didn’t think of it. That’s a pretty good idea.[/quote]

Thanks ZK. I was in such a hurry I didn’t have time to order and wait since both of my cars were in the garage, and I don’t want to put mileage on the other two parked outside… So I tried to buy the springs locally, and boy was it expensive. I paid $86 for 1 spring, while online I could have bought a pair for much less. Oh well…. I just wanted to get it done. I’m thinking of maybe ordering a pair for backup, because while they are suppose to last about 6+ years, when they do break, it stinks, especially if you only have one… Home depot also sells springs via custom order, and it takes about a 1 to 2 weeks.

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