Repairing garage torsion springs/Carlos Pueblo
One day
several months ago, the garage door could not be lift, neither electrically
nor manually.
Finally, I found out one of the torsion springs was broken. You tube
provides
many do it by yourself films, I therefore watched several before I left for
Europe and I
was confident that I should be able to replace it by myself. I also learned
how to
measure three numbers of the spring, line diameter, inner diameter, and the
length of
the spring. After coming back home, I began to prepare the tools according to
the film, a
pair of vice grits , 7/16 and 9/16 ranch, a stand ladder can hold at least 280
lbs.
and a pair
of safety glasses, moving light stand etc. Almost all my friends and relative
discouraged
me when they heard my attempt because of injury might occur. I thought
the
principle of the torsion spring was potential energy, a very interesting
physics, as long
as I watched
closely to release or tie up the spring, I should be alright. Ming Chia
referred
me to his
mechanic for the job and indicated that the cost was not that much.
This Senior
Jose came from Mexico in 1978 when he was 16 with his sister. Now he is a
garage door
expert specially for commercial garage door, repairing and installation. From
the way his
talking and doing the job, I know that he is very successful, it is a
successful
immigrant
story. He has a house on a two acres lot which I envy very much. When he
releases
the spring
tension, he would hold that 9/16 ranch on the screw tie and roll the rod. This
makes
the safety
for no accident outburst. The difficult part was releasing one set of spring
rod lock
on one side
due to tie nod at the installation and limited
room for the electrical ranch due to
add on sheet
rock from the previous owner. He brought in a pair of my springs size, 2.18
inches
line
diameter, 2 inches inner diameter, and 25 inches length. I asked him how long
would this new
pairs last,
he was not quite sure because nowadays the material were all recycled. He is
successful
therefore,
he has his own opinion towards he world, capitalism. IRS, social security, and
immigration
etc. which
were all very interesting and that was why a 20 minutes job took 3 hours to
complete.
I know the
springs keep the energy by stored tension, preciously 28 turns for a 7 feet
high door.
when you
lift the heavy door by a little tough, the door would go up and down
automatically and
easily which
is an amazing mechanical engineering. He can tell where to re-adjust the turn
to make
the door up
and down properly and this is why the auto door opener motor is small power
required.
We used to
have a different kind of garage door at the old Traviata property and different
kinds of
problem,
either the opener or the small wheel out of track. It was a chain kind of
garage opener
because my
painter built a garage not high enough to install the torsion spring type
opener. I still
remembered
the hardship to close or open the old garage door during the winter.
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