Replacing a garage door spring is not as easy as it seems. When not correctly done, you could find yourself in an emergency room. In this article, we will walk you through the entire step to ensure that you get it right. Below is a step by step tutorial to help you replace a garage door spring.
Materials required
- Double-life torsion springs
- Bottom brackets
- Lift cables
Tools required
- Clamps
- Adjustable wrench
- Hammer
- Cordless drill
- Safety glasses
- Winding bars
- Rags
- Locking pliers
- Leather gloves
- Socket set
How to replace a garage door spring
Step 1: Lockdown the garage door
It would help if you clamped your garage door to the clamp using a C-clamp or locking pliers. Place your locking pliers above one of your garage door rollers. The door will, therefore, not shoot up and break your nose while you wind the new springs during the repair. You must also unplug the garage door and yank the plug before you start the spring repair process.
Step 2: Loosen the unbroken spring
You can then shove your winding bar into the bottom hole of the good spring. Ensure that you firmly hold the bar while you loosen all the setscrews. Hanging on tight will help you combat the powerful torque push once the screws are released.
Step 3: Unwind your broken spring
Use two winding bars to unwind the broken spring carefully. The second winding bar needs to be inserted at a 9:00 position for the best results. Once the bottom bar is removed, proceed to unwind the spring using quarter turns at a time. Leapfrogging after every turn will help ensure that the entire step is safe.
Step 4: Disconnect springs from center bracket
You need to remove the two bolts and nuts that fasten the center bracket to the stationery spring cones. You can then slide your springs towards your end brackets. This step requires a lot of patience since we need to avoid any accidents from occurring.
Step 5: Secure the Torsion tube
Snap a C-clamp or locking pliers onto your center bracket to hold the torsion tube. You can then proceed to loosen the setscrews on the right and left lift cable drums. Go ahead to disconnect the lift cables once this is done.
Step 6: Remove the old spring
Slide your torsion tube towards the right to remove your cable drum. You can then easily slide the old spring off.
Step 7: Install the new spring
it would help if you slid your new torsion spring onto the torsion tube while the stationary cone is facing your center bracket. Follow by reinstalling the cable drum and reinserting the torsion bar onto the bearing bracket’s left side.
Step 8: Install a new center bearing
Shove your torsion bar to the left and slide the center bearing into position. You can then place the right spring and push your bearing into position. Reinstall the bearing and replace the bottom brackets, lift cables, and rollers.
Step 9: Thread cables and tighten drums
Run the lift cables between the doorjamb and rollers. Using locking pliers to hold the torsion tube in place, tighten the drums.
Step 10: Wind the tension springs
Slide the winding bar into position and wind toward the ceiling. You can then use a garage door lubricant to lubricate the newly installed spring.
Conclusion
Understand that replacing your garage door spring is not an easy project. Most of the time, you will need to hire a professional to get the job done right. However, you can always use the procedure above if you are planning on saving some money.