I have a single spring garage door with a cable pulley on either side.
The cable on the right side has come off due to my daughters numerous attempts to close it (5)!
My question is, can I repair this without messing with the tension spring.
If so how?
Thanks
CB
What state is the door in now? Down or up?
It's down but i have no trouble opening it. The cable actually came unwrapped, I raised the door, leveled and removed the cable end. I can raise or lower the door by hand but I have not had a lot of experience with these.
Can I loosen the pulley rewind the cable wire and tighten to match other pulley? The spring seems to be on other side.
Originally Posted by cbr549
The cable actually came unwrapped, I raised the door, leveled and removed the cable end.
Not sure exactly what this means...just not visualizing it I guess.
You can replace the cable by putting the door down and locking it in position. Loosen the set screws on the drum..re-insert the cable end into the slot, wind the cable opposite of the other side. (large diameter to small) Put as much tension as you can on the drum, then tighten the set screws.
If you have access to do this in the up position, it would be better as there is less tension on the cables then.
This is only a temp fix...like using a mini spare on a car. It really needs to be un-tensioned, the drums adjusted then re-tensioned.
Yeah thats what I'm talking about.I can do this with door up or down. Easier access with door down though. I'll try it!
Thanks
Remember...I said this is a temp fix to get you (hopefully) working again. It still needs to be adjusted correctly.
One last thing...inspect the drum and cable for any damage. If you find anything...call a PRO!.
Hey gunguy45, I kept looking and thinking about how you suggested I repair that garage door and finally figured it out.
I raised the door about half way, so that the notch on the spool for the cable was easily accessible, chocked the door under that side that came unwound with a saw horse.
At this point the cable is completely off the door.
Re-wound the cable on the spool end in the correct direction!
I then manually pushed the other side down until the door was level and then just a hair more
Used vise grips to hold that side in place. This allowed me to re-attach the cable to the bottom of the door.
First I removed the saw horse and then the vice grips and viola, it worked perfectly.
Never had to remove or loosen anything except the cable that was already off.
Thanks for your input though!
This is the best thread and post in response to the question of rewind your garage door cable on the entire Internet (IMHO)!
First, it correctly instructs you on use the mechanical advantage of the garage door pulley in order to deal with the tremendous force of the garage door spring.
Second, it mentions a method of keeping the wound side in check, so that one person can do most, if not all, of the entire job (the vise-grip suggestion).
I had my wife (not a lot of strength there) focus on keeping tension on the unwound cable while I respooled it with the door in the up position and then had her assist slightly with maintaining proper door position while I reconnected the cable. The M.A. of the pulley adds all the extra power you need to slip the cable on against the tension of the spring. It is possible to do the job by yourself, if the proper caution is utilized.
Right on!
Tags: garage, door, cable, came, garage door, other side, raised door, with door, actually came, actually came unwrapped
