Garage Door Trouble

[Daytrepper]

Hello everyone, I have a garage with two separate identical doors, and am
having a similar binding problem with both. What happens, is about 16
inches from the floor, going up or down, the door binds up, and I have to
force it up, or down, and when I do, I hear a bang coming from the torsion
spring. Once I hear the bang, it goes up/down perfectly. I checked the
track alignment on both doors, and found the track out of adjustment at
one of the doors causing a bind to one of the rollers, adjusted this, and
no difference. Do I need to replace the torsion springs, (something broken
internally maybe?) or is there an adjustment I can do? The springs do not appear
to be broken or damaged. I watched the whole torsion spring shaft
while lifting and when it bangs and binds, the shaft moves sideways about 3/4 of an inch. I cant really see any bolts or anything that have loosened and gotten in the way of the pulley, and the
cables are in good shape and straight, and look to be riding on the
pulleys like they should. Both doors are manual, no electric openers.

I am planning on installing electric openers soon and this will likely interfere with
their operation. Any suggestions?? Thanks for the help.

[Garage Door Doc]

There could be a few things wrong from the sounds of it. The torsion bar should not have room to move back an forth like you say it is. I wouldnt recommend trying to fix that problem yourself. To fix this you can try spraying the spring with either WD40 or a silicone based lubricant. Put the door in the closed position and soak the coils above the door. Then put the door in the open position and do it again.
You should also get the end bearings on both sides of the door. All hinges and rollers should be lubricated as well. If that doesnt fix it then you should call a local company before it ends up costing you alot more.

[Daytrepper]

Thanks, I will try the silicone spray tonight. I just bought the house and it had been empty for a year or so, and I am sure that no one has lubricated any of the door parts in some time, likely much longer than the house has been empty.

If this doesnt work I will call a garage door company to see what the deal is. I have replaced the other style springs before but have never messed with the torsion bar spring. Thanks for the advice.

[Daytrepper]

I unloaded a whole can of silicone lubricant spray into the garage door tonight. 90% better. The bang is almost completely gone, and it almost doesnt hang up at all. I am going to get a couple more cans tomorrow, and repeat the process again on this door and the other one. I have a feeling the doors havent been oiled in sometime, and im hoping the spray soaking in over the next couple days will kill whats left of the bind. It is almost unnoticeable now. Thanks for the help!

[mb123452010]

for future readers or the original poster as the problem may come back. Lube will work for the time being the real problem lies with the spring and shaft. when the torsion springs are installed there is a little bit of stretch added to the spring so the coils won't "grab" each other when they do grab its like brake that stops the door and you'll have to give it a little momentum to get past that point. the torsion shaft sliding back and forth tells me that the cable drums might have A)the set screws weren't tight enough and allowed the shaft to move which would take the stretch out of the spring allowing it to grab. B) they weren't set correctly to begin with, usually you want the cable drums as tight against the end bearing plate to prevent the shaft from sliding.

to fix the problem the right way; back the tension off the springs, put the cable drums as tight to the end bearing plates and make sure the set screws are adequately tight, retension the torsion springs, and add about 1/2" of stretch before you tighten the set screws on the springs and the problem should be gone for good.