New door springs,....ARGH!!!

[andyvh1959]

Left (from inside) spring broke on my 7x16 OH door. Its a steel insulated Coplay door that has been in the garage since I bought the house in Sept 2002. No issues other than routine maintenance, that is until the left spring broke just after I backed the car out on our 1100 round trip to Walton KY to buy a 1948 Jawa 250 Perak.

So today I headed to Menards and bought a set of EZ-Set springs, direct replacement LH and RH springs. I installed them into the EZ Set end housings, and installed each set to the correct end (matching the pitch angle to the original set). Left everything loose on the torsion bar so I could align it all and set the ends into the brackets. Started on the left end (from inside), set the cone with the cable attached, slightly stretched the spring before I tightened the set screws. Did likewise for the right end. Cool, all that is left is to crank up the tension, and done right,.......argh,,......NO!

The left side tensioned up just fine, cable tension came up. Before I went fully set I went to the right side and did likewise. Until the friggin allen screw socket stripped out just as the cable tension was coming up, and then I noticed the right spring winding, "funky"...... The left side tensioned up fine, I stopped when I had five indicator bands showing. Went to the right side and the spring went funly before I even got to fine indicator bands showing. ****,...looks to me like the spring had a "soft" spot that would up tighter than the rest of the coils. So I backed off the tension and the spring now looks like this. I may take it all apart again and reinstall the still good original right spring. Then contact IDEAL (owned by Clopay) to see what they think may have happened. Anyone else ever experience this? When I built my shop back in fall of 2019 I self installed the 7x16 door wiht the same style springs. Everything went together fine and works fine.

 

[firebirdparts]

It’s a dud.

 

[andyvh1959]

I suspect the RH spring has a material fault in the metal that caused it to deform during the winding process. But, I doubt I can take it back to Menards to get a replacement. I'll go to Menards again to get another new RH spring and install that. Perhaps if it installs properly I can take it back to Menards. I also started a product claim with IDEAL door to see how they support their products.

 

[RoninB4]

Very possible there was a material fault. For a piece that long which requires heat treating it's easy to see why the chemical composition might not have been uniform enough to behave as expected throughout the length. It's also possible that in the coils rubbing on each other during winding had excess friction which prevented a uniform physical behavior (slip) from one coil to another. When I installed springs on my own OHD factory literature advised to lightly grease all the coils (slip) so I did so with a brush.

 

[david3921]

I suspect the RH spring has a material fault in the metal that caused it to deform during the winding process. But, I doubt I can take it back to Menards to get a replacement. I'll go to Menards again to get another new RH spring and install that. Perhaps if it installs properly I can take it back to Menards. I also started a product claim with IDEAL door to see how they support their products.

Menards has great return policy. You shouldn't have any problems taking it back.

 

[andyvh1959]

Might try that. I already went to Menards and bought another RH spring. Installed it with new EZset end units and all is good now. Both spring tensioned up like they should and the door tracks up and down just fine.

I noticed on the instructions that after getting the end units in place in the brackets, then stretch the spring from fully relaxed no more than 1/2". Made sure I did that the 2nd time. I wonder if that is done so all the coils support each other as the tensioner winds up the spring.

 

[firebirdparts]

When you wind it, there are more turns in the same space. More turns in the same length. So you have to have some air in there.