Installing Strut on Door causes door to jam

[singlegarage]

Hi people, new to the forums as I just moved to a place with an awesome garage, although I do prefer double garages this is still a nice single.

I am in the process of installing a garage door opener. It currently is set up as a nice manual door which works great. I have figured a way to disable the manual lock system as with a door opener no manual lock will be needed.

In order to install the door opener I bought a garage door reinforcement piece from home depot from clopay (Model # 4125479 Store SKU # 1000683184), for the vertical reinforcement where the door connects to the lift arm. However I feel this is not enough reinforcement. I may be able to get away with just that since it's only a single garage however I feel better adding more reinforcement by adding a strut or an angle bar across.

So the door works fine manually without the strut and just the reinforcement piece from homedepot. However as soon as I add a strut across the whole width of the door on the top panel, the door jams a few inches up opening it. Closing is fine. Again I am just testing it out manually and have not even hooked up the door opener. As soon as I take the strut off and the door is back to having no strut, it works fine and does not jam.

Any ideas? Could be the strut is stopping to door from flexing and stiffening it up... which seems strange since the strut should help the door system, not make it worse. I thought maybe it was because the rollers were bent. All the rollers seem straight. Or I thought maybe I had not put the roller mount bolts on perfectly the way they were before and maybe the rollers were jamming because the rollers were not lining up straight. However they look straight and strangely whenever I just take the strut off everything works fine again. However I really want the strut installed for proper reinforcement.

Some history of the door: someone installed an electric opener without a strut before because an opener came with the house which I am not going to use as it is ancient technology hard to get parts for. It's possible the door was operated on for years without proper reinforcement. So reinforcement should help, not make it worse... yet when I take the strut off and tighten the bolts back up, everything works manually.

Again I have not installed any new electric opener yet (I have one ready, not installed.) Just trying it manually first to get it moving smoothly. First things first, get it working manually with the strut before even installing the opener.

Edit: also, it does eventually go up if I wiggle the door with the strut a certain way or fiddle with it. It's not as if it is hitting a bolt in the way or anything, as the same bolts are used as before. It seems to be caught around the bumps on the rails that the rollers pass by. But it could just be around that area, may not be the bumps themselves that are causing it to bind. It appears to have a low headroom kit installed, as it has the two rails on each side, not just one rail each side.

 

[matt_i]

As you tighten the bolts on the reinforcement, see what that's doing to the geometry/outer surface of the door. Therein lies your problem. My guess is you are flexing/bowing the top of the door outward.

 

[boobag]

is this a hollow metal door?

there really isnt a whole lot of pressure on that lift point, since the door is balanced by the spring.

 

[singlegarage]

it's a really light weight door, I have to find out what kind of metal though. It's a clopay door, and really flimsy lightweight with some foam. Sometimes the magnet test isn't valid, as some steels are not magnetic if they are stainless - I have a kettle that does not respond to a magnet even though it's not aluminum. However I doubt clopay doors are stainless. I will run a magnet test to see. Aesthetically pleasing door, but lightweight.

I will check to see if the strut is bowing the door outward or inward, as it must be changing something.

The door specifically says with a sticker on it that it must be reinforced before an automatic opener is installed. I'm just not certain that when they say reinforced, do they mean a strut, or their own clopay product they sell that's called a reinforcement kit which is just some extra beefy piece of metal for the arm to connect to. So I decided to be safe and do both reinforcements. I've heard of people just doing the clopay kit alone and not using a strut on singles, but I've also heard that's just taking a shortcut asking for problems later.

 

[singlegarage]

if it is a bowing issue I might try installing some washers to bow it in the direction I want it to bow. Maybe some washers on the center area below the strut, will bow it inward. Otherwise, washers on the end pieces with non in the center, to bow it the other way. Or that could just end up bowing the strut and not the door. Have to think about the physics for a moment.

If it is bowing I just don't see what the solution would be even if I find the problem. So I'm trying to come up with something.

Since the previous owners did not reinforce it, there is a crack on the top panel, from running it all those times without it being reinforced, where the lift arm connects in the center top. However, overall the damage is minor and minimal. The crack is pretty small and harmless. might have to reinforce that crack and put some angle bar on it. Could take some pics to show you guys.

 

[boobag]

a pic would be nice

 

[gnpenning]

What size door?

As mentioned pics. Use the go advanced button scroll down to attach files.

So did you put on the horizontal strut?

Watch the upper corners as you open the door. Report back.

 

[iowajosh]

when you put the LHR top fixtures on, maybe you moved them. The top of the door is hitting the drums or sliding under the header if it isn't all flat. The strut needs to go at the top, even screwing it into the door skin around the crack helps the situation. The crack is not minor, it will wreck the whole panel if you don't do anything.

 

[singlegarage]

after putting lubrication on all the rollers and parts required, it helps fix the problem 90 percent of the time, maybe 95 percent. Once in a while it jams but the lubrication solved most of the problem. What would that mean? Rollers must be having difficulty only a small percentage of time, now that it's lubricated. Any idea?

Attaching some pics to my posts. It seems to jam around the built in bump on the track (bulge), but that could just be coincidence

 

[singlegarage]

more pics attached

In the previous post you can see the crack that needs some angle bar to reinforce it, I will likely use construction adhesive and put a piece of angle bar around the crack, after flattening it out as it is bumpy, and somehow affix some screws, without hopefully weakening the door further.

Again, now that it's lubricated, it works 90-95 percent of the time only jamming 1 in 10 or 1 in 20 times, sometimes it doesn't jam for 100 tries. I am concerned that oiling it up simply masks the real problem and makes it partially better because things are freer to move.

 

[atthebeach]

I don't see any springs in the pictures. There are springs, right?

 

[singlegarage]

I don't see any springs in the pictures. There are springs, right?

That was the joke when I bought the place, I thought there were no springs too. Then I found them, they are hidden beside the rails horizontally. Didn't take pictures of them.

They are not a torsion spring setup, and they are not vertical springs like I have seen on other doors. They are parallel to the roof of the garage by the rails.

 

[atthebeach]

With the vertical reinforcement piece and horizontal strut installed, do the springs still balance the weight of the door assembly?

I swapped out 2" struts for 3" struts on my double wide door and needed to install larger springs in order to balance the door. With the added weight you may find there is not enough spring energy helping to get the door over the bumps. You also should attempt to minimize the bumps where the track sections intersect.

 

[singlegarage]

With the vertical reinforcement piece and horizontal strut installed, do the springs still balance the weight of the door assembly?

I swapped out 2" struts for 3" struts on my double wide door and needed to install larger springs in order to balance the door. With the added weight you may find there is not enough spring energy helping to get the door over the bumps. You also should attempt to minimize the bumps where the track sections intersect.

I will see how balanced it is. It does stay open halfway, but as for staying open when it is say 12" off the ground, I'm not positive it does stay open. (going out to check).

There seems to be some adjustment available on the springs/cable system. I believe they are called extension springs, so at least I can do work on them unlike the dangerous torsion springs. Well, all springs are somewhat dangerous but you know what I mean.

 

[singlegarage]

other thing I was thinking about was whether the spring on the right is different tension than left, or vice versa, and needs some adjustment, as there are two springs, one for each side, obviously. Also track adjustment possibility; moving it to new position could help if it is not aligned. Garage doors are so simple, and yet there are so many variables. It's not rocket science. Thanks for help so far.

 

[gnpenning]

That is not a strut. It is a piece of pre punched angle. All the holes take away from the rigidness you are trying to get to support the broken top panel.

If it hasn't been done already run a piece of cable thru each extension spring and secure each end. If a spring breaks this will help restrict the spring from becoming a projectile.

Spring tension should be the same on both sides other wise one side is pulling faster than the other and taking more effort to pull down.

 

[Cardboard Man]

You stated that the door didn't bind until you installed the "reinforcement". Check to see if the edge of the piece you installed is coming in contact with track at any point. If so, just trim it back until it clears. Another thing to try is to loosen the nuts that secure the track to the brackets. Not so much that they flop around, just enough so that there is some movement. Operate the door by hand and let it find its happy place, then 're-tighten the tracks.

 

[gungatim]

that's not even the right re-enforcement piece, they sell a specific horizontal piece that looks more like a "V" with the bottom of the V facing away from the door. also that looks like a double track setup for low ceiling? are you binding when the other sections take the 2nd track?