Tag Archives: broken garage door spring

If your garage door opener isn’t in operating properly, you could be setting yourself up for an expensive repair down the road.

Examine your spring for a break in the coiled metal. Another sign of a broken spring is if the steel cables that run along the wall near the door jambs are loose.

Is your garage door operating at full capacity, or is it poised to malfunction? It’s recommended that you regularly check the real muscle of your automatic garage door system: the spring.

Few homeowners realize that it’s the spring (or springs) that do 90 percent of the lifting when an automatic opener lifts a garage door. The garage door opener’s motor is only designed to handle 10 percent of the lifting.” Over time, the metal coil that makes up the spring becomes weak and loses some tension, causing the motor to work harder than it should. If the motor becomes overtaxed, the plastic gears inside may break and you’ll be facing an expensive repair.

How to Test a Garage Door Spring

To check to see if your spring is no longer doing its fair share, conduct the following test.

First, disengage the J-arm (the J-shaped lever) from the carriage by pulling on the [more]