Help me adjust my abnormal 1950s garage door

[asmasm]

I have had several garage door repair people out, all of them have refused to touch it. My garage door doesn't sit level (about a 1/4" gap on the right side when standing inside) and one of the rollers binds almost every time the door is lowered to the floor.

My door layout is abnormal. There is a big piece of structural steel in the ceiling where the spring would normally sit. As a result the spring was moved back. Another issue that makes this more difficult is that when the door is lowered, the set screw on the right side drum is not accessible.

Some photos:
http://i.imgur.com/aftJpWw.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0JChKIg.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/wFXC11R.png


Here is my current plan, someone please tell me if this sounds reasonable:

1: Lower the door onto two floorjacks so the height can be adjusted when the spring is untensioned

2: Adjust door height so that the set screw is accessible. Use jacks to hold in place.

3: Using winding sticks unwind the spring. record how many winds were left in the position it was opened to.

4: Adjust jacks to lower one corner slightly and then re-tighten the set screw

5: Rewind spring to same tension and test function.

 

[matt_i]

Can't access your pics, they appear to be "private". I'd try flickr or photo bucket.

 

[asmasm]

Okay, I attached them

 

[dave89iroc]

your procedure sounds good

 

[asmasm]

Also has anyone seen a garage door like this before? Is there a term for this configuration? Garage door people always tell me to take good care of it because putting in a new door is going to be difficult.

 

[imnutz]

That is low headroom torsion rear

 

[imnutz]

Your cable drums are installed backwards - with the door on the floor, put a winding bar in the spring, loosen the set screws, let the bar rest against the ceiling to hold the tension, retighten the set screws, BUT DON'T REMOVE THE WINDING BAR!! swap the drums from side to side like they are supposed to be so you have full access to the set screws, snug the cables the same on both sides and re-tighten the drum set screws. Now, with the second winding bar, ease the first bar out and you are good to go - adjust tension and level door as necessary. Any door guy who has never seen that type set up is no door guy.

 

[gnpenning]

The first question that needs to be answered is have you put a level on the door??
Is the door it's self out of level or has you concrete settled??

Then is the roller bad or why is it binding???? Did the door guys give you any ideas what was going on there??

Depending on the answers to these questions will determine what needs to be done next.

As mentioned that is a LHR or Low headroom rear and the drums are on backwards.

If you do try and do it yourself with the above directions make sure when you try to brace the winding bar, you have to make sure you rotate the spring far enough to release tension from the drum and it will stay that way before you try to remove the drum.

Not sure if you want to try this yourself put the safe way to do it it to unwind the springs. They have painted your springs so you can count the winds and just put it back the same number of winds when you rewind the springs. Hard to tell for sure but you have around 6 turns??? Might be 6 1/4 or 61/2??? Doesn't matter as long put it back in the same spot. Before locking the spring down give it a slight stretch. This will help reduce the spring coils from rubbing and popping.

 

[jstroede]

Yeah that is a mess. As what was stated, that is low headroom torsion to the rear. Any real door guy should know what it is. I don't like using it, but sometimes it is the only way. It works like a cross between extension and torsion.

Also as was stated, your drums were installed backwards. I have attached a diagram as to how it should be assembled. You will definitely want to count the number of turns because that looks like a pretty big drum.

When you reset everything, make sure that the door is level, and that the cable is wrapped in the same position on the cable drum. This can cause some "binding" if they are not in the same spot on the drum as the spring will pull a different amount on each side of the door.

We still use these setups today, so even though your door is old, it isn't that rare of a setup.

John

 

[asmasm]

Thanks for all the info. Each time I have had a garage door person out to look at it I have been left with the impression they have no idea what they are doing. It's good to hear that what I have is actually not that odd and should be fixable.

As far as levelness goes. The floor is close to level. I'm not sure why the door doesn't close cleanly but it has been this way since I have owned the house and the door/house are from 1957 so who knows where the problem started.

The roller that binds comes halfway out of the track as it hits the 90 degree bend during the last inch or two of closing travel. I can pop it back in place with my hand to get it all working again. My thought was that the out of skew door is resting on the ground on the opposite corner and putting a slide load onto the track which is causing the roller to pop out.


I don't think that drum swapping procedure will work for me since I can't reach the set screws while the door is on the floor.

If I did decide to hire another garage door person, what are the magic words I should use to screen them?Just ask if they are comfortable fixing a rear torsion low headroom system? I'm kind of sick of having my time wasted. Alternatively, anyone know a competent garage door person in raleigh/durham?

 

[jstroede]

I don't think that drum swapping procedure will work for me since I can't reach the set screws while the door is on the floor.

Once all the tension is off of the springs, you can rotate the shaft to whatever point you need to access the screws.

John

 

[asmasm]

Update- I got some winding bars and now I know why the drums were reversed. If you check out the image, they used a 2x4 instead of steel bracket to mount the garage door tracks and it causes clearance issues. I have plenty of steel around I could make a new bracket with but the mounting location is already notched.

Picture: