New Door Lifiting up Crooked - Frustrated

[RyanEricW]

[FIXED] New Door Lifiting up Crooked - Frustrated

Alright so I ended up cutting out some brick, and putting in a new garage door next to an existing door.

Has all new hardware and everything. Doors level, theres ample gap between the rollers...the sections are straight.

Single overhead torsion bar spring setup with rollers and cables at each end.

Im completely at a loss here because while inside, the garage door when at the bottom of the travel the cables are tight. At the top of its travel, the left side cable gets extremely loose while the right side remains super tight.

This is causing binding against the bottom roller on the right side and hardware between the radius section so badly I cant get the door to close with a side mount opener. It binds but can be forced shut manually.

I tried untensioning the spring and putting a preload on the left side before tightening the set screws for the left side roller. The door actually was level before doing this. Now the door is actually slightly crooked with the left side being slightly picked up more than the right side with the door all the way down.

But the same thing happens!

I tried for 4 hours to get this to work properly and I'm fed up

Does anyone have any idea what I may be doing wrong?

 

[RyanEricW]

Pictures attached

 

[like2wheel]

Are the horizontal tracks square to the opening?

 

[RyanEricW]

Are the horizontal tracks square to the opening?

They appeared to be, maybe theres a better way to check other than by eye or tape measure on the ground

I even measured the distance from the floor to the bottom of the roller brackets and it's the same.

 

[pattenp]

What type of torsion bar is that? Looks like it's segmented. Could there be some twisting of the bar?

 

[firebirdparts]

From what you say, the tracks are just heading off to one side in the horizontal section. The door obeys its own squareness.

 

[LXCam]

Is there a difference in the circumference of the drums by chance? Is the tight side wrapping over its self where the loose side isn't maybe. If it is rewrap it maybe. Sorry being on a phone doesn't let me zoom in enough.

 

[manwithtools]

I can't tell for sure, but it looks like the cable drum on the motor side is higher than the one on the opposite side. Measure from the top door panel reinforcing rib up to the torsion shaft center line on both sides of the door - they need to be the same.

You can check the horizontal tracks squareness to the door by measuring diagonally from the ceiling supported end of the track to the track support wall attachment point on the opposite track. Both measurements should be the same.

 

[JohnKal]

The torsion bar seems to be sagging in the middle. Usually there's a support in the center of the span. Also the door doesn't seem to be level with the header (right side is low). Maybe it's just the way it looks in the picture.

 

[ob355]

The cables have to be the exact same length and the drums have to be set on the shaft in the same orientation to each other. This will pull the door evenly on each side.

 

[PassnThru]

Lift the door by hand and see if the ceiling end of the track is binding on the door. If it's catching on one side that would let the cable loosen up on that side.

 

[RyanEricW]

Thanks guys. This was my first garage door install from scratch.

Appreciate the feedback. Ended up fixing it today with fresh ideas and fresh eyes.

I measured the ceiling track width it was not the same as the wall tracks. It was before I made adjustments but I started with correcting the track width.

It was 111" iirc

Then after that I measured from the top flag bracket to the end of the ceiling tracks it was way off.

Once I made the measurements equal by moving the tracks over a few holes, I remeasured just to make sure my track width was the same.

After that the door is working good

I then untensioned the spring, made the cable drum on the left side match the cable drum on the right (no preload), retensioned the spring and it's perfect

Thanks again, sometimes it's the stupid small stuff that can get you

 

[Hot Rod Grampa]

Your rear hangers are not square to the front wall. You have a parallelogram. You need a rectangle. Measure cross corner at the track. Left side at flange where it meets the wall, rights side at the rear of the track. Then measure the other way. They must be the same. If not then re locate rear hangers to make them square.

 

[like2wheel]

Your rear hangers are not square to the front wall. You have a parallelogram. You need a rectangle. Measure cross corner at the track. Left side at flange where it meets the wall, rights side at the rear of the track. Then measure the other way. They must be the same. If not then re locate rear hangers to make them square.

That's what I was saying in post #3.
You said it better.

 

[James-W]

Glad you got it working correctly, Sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees.

 

[PassnThru]

Are the horizontal tracks square to the opening?

From what you say, the tracks are just heading off to one side in the horizontal section. The door obeys its own squareness.

Lift the door by hand and see if the ceiling end of the track is binding on the door. If it's catching on one side that would let the cable loosen up on that side.

So we get no credit at all because you figured it out all by yourself?

 

[RyanEricW]

So we get no credit at all because you figured it out all by yourself?

I gave thanks to everyone in here for the fresh ideas. I'm confused?

 

[K13]

Thanks guys. This was my first garage door install from scratch.

Appreciate the feedback. Ended up fixing it today with fresh ideas and fresh eyes.

So we get no credit at all because you figured it out all by yourself?

What part of this is not thanking you for your help? Do you want a parade or something?

 

[RyanEricW]

Yeah sorry guys I didn't mean it like that. Thanks to everyone's feedback and fresh ideas on how to tackle this, I figured it out thanks to you all on here.

Hope I didn't offend anyone

Sometimes we all just run into things, get frustrated and need a fresh perspective

I love this board for the solid advice and helpful tips that are always received

 

[Correllbil]

Is there a specification for the torque for the screws that hold the cable drum to the shaft? One of my doors drum keeps slipping. I want to make them tite but I don't want to strip them or break the drum.

 

[ob355]

I tighten them pretty good, to the point that they indent the pipe but not crush it. Then paint every bolt that holds spring tension bright red if it’s not already so people know bad things will happen if the touch it! The pipe will not be thick enough to strip the drum or bolt.

 

[Correllbil]

The shaft for the drums isn't a pipe but a solid steel rod about 1 inch in diameter. Today the drum moved again and the cable unwound and the door almost fell out of he guides. Wish I knew how much I could torque down the bolts.

 

[PassnThru]

What part of this is not thanking you for your help? Do you want a parade or something?

A parade would be nice of course - but I understand that they are hard to plan on short notice.

Thanks guys. This was my first garage door install from scratch.

Appreciate the feedback. Ended up fixing it today with fresh ideas and fresh eyes.

I did misinterpret that quote - for some reason I thought he woke up with 'fresh eyes' and solved his problem on his own. But he did mention 'fresh ideas'.

Cut me some slack - I was eddycated in KY. I'm lucky I can even read much less comprehend.

 

[Turbo]

Did you frame the opening yourself? I don't see a proper header over the door. Terry