O/T garage door

[Murray2]

Problem with the one garage door not operating properly OR not at all. Have a two door garage , one door never operates properly for more than a couple of day's ,. Cables come off the roller drums at top corner of each side. At one time I was blaming the cause on the automatic opener, disconnected the unit. Also changed the complete 1" pipe with the springs, roller drums and cables. Same problem continues. Hired two different overhead door people, who each charged me $100.00 for a few minutes work to get the door back operating for a couple of day's then back to same problem of cable coming off roller drum. These door's were new when installed, one always work's properly the other doesn't.
I have installed other door's on my own building's with parts and pieces and everything work's good???
Any suggestions from other tractor people.?? Cheers, Murray

 

[GlenIdaho]

Hey Murray, I have worked on a few doors and it seems that if the cable is coming off the drum it is because it is out of alignment or during operation slack is created causing the cable to come off. There must be constant tension of the cable which is supplied by the large springs. Do you have one or two springs? if two are they both operating and adjusted properly? Is it possible one spring provide more tension? Could the cables be too long? I am sure you know this, but the springs can be very dangerous and extreme care must be taken. If all the mechanics and alignment look ok, I would carefully unwind both brings and adjust them equally. There should be a stripe painted on the spring, as you tighten the spring the stripe lines up, you want an equal number of stripes showing on each spring. Hope this helps!

 

[Steve@Advance]

About the only way to diagnose the problem is to operate the door repeatedly and watch when and where the cable comes off. Check the obvious, track condition, roller and hinge condition, track parallelism, especially at the top, where the door goes when open.

Typically what causes the cables to come off are:

The spring runs out of tension when the door is up, and the cables go slack. If that is what is happening, compare the spring with the spring on the door that works properly, (assuming the doors are identical weight and height), count the coils, compare the wire diameter, and spring diameter. If the cables are going slack, a longer spring will help, one with more coils. There is a formula for determining the proper spring. You need the unsprung door weight (bathroom scale under the door) and door height. Another trick is to slightly raise the ends of the tracks so the door is always going up hill as it reaches full open position.

The other problem can be the floor is out of level. If the floor is not level, or the tracks are not level, there will be problems! An unlevel floor can be compensated for by attaching a wedge to the bottom of the door, or if a wood door, cutting the bottom section at a taper to let the door sit level when down. Also the tracks must be level, even if the door opening is not. Otherwise the door will try to shift to the lower side, causing binding and cable misalignment. Sometimes you can use spacers on the roller shafts to limit side drift if that is happening.

 

[Determined]

Only time I have had cables come off of a pulley is when they are not both adjusted to the same length/tension.
When the door is all the way up one side is holding load and the other goes slack allowing the cable to jump off.
With the springs relieved of load wind a turn or two on the springs, then it is easy enough to loosen the set screws on the slack pulley and rotate until tension is perfectly even.
You can measure the deflection at the midpoint of the cable with a ruler or if you are the musical sort you can adjust and strum them until they sound the same.

 

[guido]

Hello Murray2,

Look at the cables from the floor. They should be parallel to the track. Also the cable should wind around the two large grooves from the pulley notch. If one cable comes off, that one is loose. Should go tighter on the take up spool on the pipe. If the spring is in the center around the pipe, it may need to go a couple of turns tighter. You will know if the tension is right, when you can open the door manually with little effort. The motor should also have a torque setting, if it fails 1/2 way up, you need to dial in more torque. Don't overdue the torque, or it may not reverse in case of a jam,

Guido.

 

[gab]

My cables never came off but one time I noticed the door not going all the way up and the cables were loose on the drums with the door up. Adjusted the up limit switch, door raised a couple inches more and the cables were tight again.

 

[SonoraMike]

Lots of good advice here, Murray. I have a few rentals and I get to play with this stuff all the time. A tenant calls, says garage door cables off,bla-bla-bla. I didn't have time to go there so I called the garage door guy. Turned out I was able to get by there when the guy showed up. He did all the stuff I usually do (as mentioned in previous posts) and the cables would still come off! Doing it everyday, he went further and released both springs, and rotated the pipe with no load and discovered that the pipe would drag in one spot. This caused the cables to go slack at the top of the travel and come off. Turns out the center mount was slightly off, along with the pipe slightly out of round. Now, I'm expecting to fork out the bucks for new parts but instead he just moved the center spring down a little past the bad spot,lined it up, reinstalled it. Worked perfect after doing the aforementioned adjustments on the cables and reels. 7 turns and it's all good. It was worth the $95 for that little bit of schooling.

 

[MarkB_MI]

Is the floor level where the door contacts it? If the floor isn't level and the door has been adjusted to meet the floor, you'll have nothing but trouble. The door has to be level and the tracks plumb, even if that means you have a gap under the door when it's closed.

 

[Moonlite37]

Why didn't you call the first one back and not pay until he gets it right?

 

[Geo-TH,In]

murry,
If your door uses a torsion spring, it's possible as the spring tights or loosens, it's moving the bar with the drum on it. Also possible when it closed one cable is loose. Also possible tracks are a little out of position. Some doors are a PIA. Good luck. I have 9 garage door openers. One has a switch issue another makes a noise when opening as the spring moves the bar. The rest work as they should, never an issue. Just be careful the spring doesn't bite you. Good luck. geo

 

[farmboy48]

one other thing I do, after you adjust the torsion spring 31 or 32 1/4 turns to set tension/torsion, and before tightening screws, tap the end of it out about 1/4 inch, lengthening the spring, tighten the screws and then some oil (not w-d40) on the spring. Really seems to help.

 

[Murray2]

Thanks to everyone who assisted with ideas /thoughts/ suggestions. The garage door is not level, so will make the necessary adjustments to eliminate that problem and go from that as a starting point. As a note a few years ago I did take out the front corner (cement floor), because of the ground lowering. Did replace the front corner used iron re enforcing and made an extra large piece of cement on outside of wall to make it extra secure. Obviously this did not do the job I expected. This time will use quick drying cement to build up the area under the door. Again thanks for all your help. Cheers, Murray

 

[MarkB_MI]

Thanks for your follow-up. I find it surprising that neither of your alleged repairmen noticed the door wasn't level. Anyone who has ever installed an overhead door knows that's the first thing you check.

 

[Pops1532]

Good info posted so far.
There are bigger weather strips available for some brands of doors for applications where the floor is uneven or out of level.