Garage door issue

[woody367]

The torion spring on my garage door broke. It is a 8x7 door with 1 spring. I bought the same spring, installed it and restrung the cables. Now the dor opener keeps erroring out the the door tracks to 1 side binding. I readjusted the cables several times. I also took apart, cleaned and lubed all the roller, hinged and made sure roller shafts moved side to side freely. Track is level both sides and door is level when closed, but still same issue. Anyone have any idea what
is wrong? Thank you

 

[jstroede]

Pictures? What all did you remove to replace the spring and lube the other parts? Explain step by step what you did when you installed the spring. If the door has that much room to walk side to side, the tracks are too far apart. Pictures would definitely help though.

John

 

[eegger]

does it operate without the opener? manually?

Check the cable tension on each side, one must be loose? wound the correct way ? is the bar and brackets fully seated, level?

 

[Beerhippie]

If the door runs well manually, you probably need to reset the limit/ safety switches on your controller unit. Different ones work different ways, but it usually isn't a big deal. You almost always need to do this after replacing a spring or rewinding the cables.

 

[dcg9381]

Forget the whole thing until the door opens and closes manually, smoothly, doesn't bind, and operates fine without the opener.

My garage door opener needs three things once you have a working door:
1) You set the limits: Fully down and fully up.
2) You run the garage door opener fully one cycle, it "learns" the amount of force required to open the door and sets the force limits.

There is a "secret" manual force override that can be used, takes some digging in the manual.

I don't know how your typical opener would indicate that one side is binding... It might detect and over-force situation (see above, may need the complete "reset" cycle).

 

[Beerhippie]

We have two remote-opening overhead doors. One you just set the limits using switches and then it figures out the force. The other is totally electro-mechanical and uses micro switches for everything except the radio control. You turn cams to set the limits, then the force switches are simply levers that run on the two cables to measure deflection. You move those in and out until the door opens and closes but will stop if you try to hold it open.

Read the instructions for your unit--they vary widely!

 

[firebirdparts]

Don't do random stuff, do the fundamentals. You open it your human self and you adjust on it until it opens correctly. I would assume you took one of the cable reels off and so you've been uneven there. Those things are not beautifully designed.

 

[woody367]

It is binding when closing with the opener. It is not smooth when opening manually. When I replace the spring I loosened the set screws on both drums and spring. Unbolted spring flange then reassembled one new spring was on, I set and wound the left drum the put vice grips to hold the rod in place with the cable tight. Then I did the same on the right. I then bolted the spring flange and wound it 30, 1/4 turns. I have tried resetting the drums3 more time In the photo of the right drum you can see how shifted the door is and the when it closes the lift cable jump in front of the door because of the door shift. Should I try new lift cables? When the spring broke both cables came off the drum.

 

[nmk_61802]

At least one of your cables isn't routed correctly in the photos. It needs to ride on the outside edge of the drum.

 

[Jacko264]

You have the top right roller jammed to the track and the left top roller with a big gap is the right track fastened in the right place ?
one of the cables are not on the roller correct so is the tension right ?

 

[nmk_61802]

one of the cables are not on the roller correct so is the tension right ?

With the cables routed incorrectly, Tension is irrelevant.... First cable track is slightly tapered. If one is right, and other wrong (even if both properly tensioned), they will be winding/ unwinding at different speeds.

I am surprised it doesn't jamb by hand. I suspect that with a hand guiding it, it provides enough resistance to racking.

 

[Jacko264]

If you tension the right cable it should make the door move to the left at the top

 

[Fav Onefour]

Your lift cables do not look damaged. Replacing them isn't going to fix the issue.

Did you move the right side wall bracket? It doesn't look level and I see marks where the lag screws were at one point. If the bracket has been moved out of vertical that much, it would explain why the drum is in so far.
You are fighting multiple issues. Cables should be straight up and not behind the door panel. Look at your left side cable, it is correct. The right side drum looks like it is too far inward. That issue may be related to the wall bracket.
Cables need to be wound the same on both drums. If not, you are using two different drum ratios to wind the cables.

It might be easiest to loosen the drums, cables and brackets and start over with brackets square to the opening.

Start with the simple basics. Square and even between both sides is a key factor. Set your cable tension and drum square before doing spring. If you want to verify square lift, use a small pipe wrench on the pipe to barely lift the door. If it's not lifting square, readjust.

 

[jstroede]

It is binding when closing with the opener. It is not smooth when opening manually. When I replace the spring I loosened the set screws on both drums and spring. Unbolted spring flange then reassembled one new spring was on, I set and wound the left drum the put vice grips to hold the rod in place with the cable tight. Then I did the same on the right. I then bolted the spring flange and wound it 30, 1/4 turns. I have tried resetting the drums3 more time In the photo of the right drum you can see how shifted the door is and the when it closes the lift cable jump in front of the door because of the door shift. Should I try new lift cables? When the spring broke both cables came off the drum.

Cables look fine. First thing I see it that the tracks are probably set too wide. The tracks should be set so that they are fairly tight at the bottom, and taper out slightly as they go up. This will allow the door to not bind, but also funnel into place.

The next thing I see is that the right hand cable drum is all messed up. You have jumped the wrap at least once and maybe twice. Your cable is a little on the long side, but not horrible. Probably 12" radius track. Ideally you have half a wrap on the drum when the door is closed, but if the cable is wrapped correctly it shouldn't be an issue. Inspect the drum to make sure there is no damage causing the skip.

John

 

[eegger]

Cables looks not wound right , needs to be in the first groove

 

[GreyOwl]

This cable has jumped a groove throwing everything out of whack.