My garage door can't get it up!

Ok, so one of my garage door springs broke the other day. After showing off my brutish strength by opening my door with only 1 spring (actually, I was grunting, straining and almost putting an exclamation point in my underwear) I wondered how to replace one of these things.
Anyone done this themselves?

Do you have a single torsion spring that goes across the top of the door, or two coil springs that go along each of the upper tracks? (Those are easy).

Two coil springs that go across the top of the door.

from experience....pay someone.

it's kinda dangerous if the springs slip with the rods in the ends winding them.

keep in mind, they are under HIGH pressure when down (16 turns?)

and Down is the only way you can install them\

I tried....I failed...I payed the $100 to pay someone to do it.

I second that... I worked with a guy who had most of one hand ripped off by a garage door spring. It was pretty ugly, he had steel rods in it.

Those sound like torsion spring stories.

The coil springs are easy. Replace BOTH at the same time. Raise the door as far as it will go and run the cables through the center of the spring to capture the spring if it fails again. Adjust as needed. Should take less than an hour.

If you have a two car garage, expect the other door's springs to fail soon. Replace them before they do.

That just happened to me too. Luckily I was outside the garage and my Capri with the front suspension torn apart resides behind said door. I'll probably pay someone.... hurmmphh .

I put up my roll up garage door by myself. You need really good vice grips and think everything out carefully, like grab this, twist this way, etc. It's a PITA.

DrBoost wrote: My garage door can't get it up!

They have a pill for that now.

Pay a pro... This is one of the few areas where I tried and failed painfully. I actually ran into a guy that had "Joes Garage Door Repair" on the door of his truck 2 blocks from my house and asked him about it. He came over and looked...said $100...I nodded and he jumped up there with a couple of cruel looking tools and was done in 10 minutes. I paid him and he stuck a sticker on my door and told me "Don't mess with it again..you could have lost a few fingers dude!"

He was right..I was stupid..nuff said.

Bruce

We have a few in the shop, the bigger the door, the greater the tension. Its not worth loosing fingers over.

I have three garage doors with those springs. Nothing to it. Buy two, not just one spring and make sure you run the safety cable through the center. If it breaks without the cable, there's a lot of energy flying across the garage hopefully not at a windshield.

Open the door, there's hardly any if no strain on the spring, that's where it should be to replace the spring. My local lumber supplier - hardware store sells replacement springs. They have a paint dot on them indicating the spring's strength or the door it is meant to lift. My two in the front are uninsulated aluminum and the one in the back is wood, different springs for each application.

If it were a torsion spring, I would hire someone, these are cake.

The guy you're going to pay to do this can read and has two hands; so do you.

Dan

I think I have what's called a torsion spring, even though it's two coils. They go around a solid rod not a cable and they are above the door so with the door open the springs are not accessible. I don't have medical insurance so I don't know if it's worth breaking or mangling my hands.......

it's not worth it... pay a pro. You need those hands to keep Lotii running, those are more important

Yep, that's a torsion spring. I paid a lot of money for these teeth, kinda want to keep 'em.

Dan

I have helped my FIL put up the torsion style. If you read up on how to do it, have the right tools and take your time you can do it. With that being said when the time comes to do mine I will be calling someone, it can be scary stuff if something goes wrong.

I have the two spring design, and being mechanically reclined, I paid the local Overhead Door Company to do it. Guy came out with his van and had it all done in 30 minutes. Even tightened all the nuts on the door. Totally worth it not to spend hours figuring it out myself.

I have the same type of door. One of my springs broke Easter Sunday. Called a local place that day, the tech came out at 7am Monday, replaced both springs, adjusted the opener, lubed the whole door/mechanism, gave me some maintenance tips, and I was still able to get to the office by 8am.

Much better than taking a day off work or trying to fix it in the evening.

DrBoost wrote: I think I have what's called a torsion spring, even though it's two coils. They go around a solid rod not a cable and they are above the door so with the door open the springs are not accessible. I don't have medical insurance so I don't know if it's worth breaking or mangling my hands.......

I've messed with those in the past. Don't do it. Pay someone.

this is a rare occurrence...GRM crew is enforcing the pay-someone-else policy

Well, this is a case where screwing up while figuring out how to fix the thing will likely result in blood loss. The pull-coil springs (run above the wheel tracks) are easy to replace. I'm replaced them a few times.

Grtechguy wrote: this is a rare occurrence...GRM crew is enforcing the pay-someone-else policy

Yeah, I'll tell ya what. If this was any other forum I'd be out there with a flat-head screwdriver, ratchet strap and a watermelon rind trying to fix it myself. Now when the ultimate DIY crew says don't DIY I'll listen.

DrBoost wrote:

Grtechguy wrote: this is a rare occurrence...GRM crew is enforcing the pay-someone-else policy

Yeah, I'll tell ya what. If this was any other forum I'd be out there with a flat-head screwdriver, ratchet strap and a watermelon rind trying to fix it myself. Now when the ultimate DIY crew says don't DIY I'll listen.

If it was the tension types that run along the rails we would have told you to DIY (I've done a bunch of them). But the torsion springs are a whole different animal.

Torsion springs are easy. Get the proper tools and take your time.

I've done probably 10 of them and am far from a "pro" but I have never had an "Oh E36 M3" moment. Not even close.

However, being self-taught to work on heavy equipment gives you a different perspective than your standard brake job, oil change, and tire rotation Saturday weekend warrior mechanic.

Again. Proper tools, take your time, RTFM. There's nothing to it.

Yeah, but by the time I pay retail for the springs and buy the proper tools I could just pay someone else to do it and have saved the time. I can get them both replaced for $140