Garage Door Mechanism Repair SOS

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I'm an idiot.

 

I tried to close the garage door by pushing on one corner. Despite being told not to do this, I do it all the time. This time I was unlucky and one of the cables jumped off its roller and jammed the door halfway. I got the door closed but I had to cut the cable.

 

Fig 1 - Cardale CD

 

I'm going to call someone about it on Tuesday, but these types of callouts have a habit of running into three figures and due to poor life choices that's money I could do without losing. There are repair instructions online (this PDF) and replacement cable and roller pack is only £30.

 

Does anyone have experience of fixing this kind of thing? Is it as easy as the PDF suggests? The only bit I'm not sure about is how the cable attaches to the spindle bracket. That's where I had to cut it.

[Rusty Pelican]

Helped a neighbour do one a few weeks back , we had no instructions so muddled through , we re-tensioned the spring after refitting it all , about 3 hours to do , you need two people at least ( well we did ) .

Have a go , it doesnt work now so if it doesnt after theres no loss only time , at least you can say you tried

[trigger]

The same thing happened to mine a few years ago as well, My dad managed to fix it in 1/2 hour but i can't remember how.

 

Sorry that wasn't of much help to you was it!

[Timewaster]

I've had to do a mates garage door, but he HADN'T cut the cable. I seem to recall there is an allen key holding the spool in place which one of you does up while the other holds the tension with a big screwdriver in the holes.

 

It only took half an hour but there was no way 1 person could have done it.

[ashmicro]

This happened to me. That looks like a standard Henderson-type door arrangement. It was difficult to figure out HOW to fix it, but having worked it out, it wasn't that difficult. I'll have a dig in a mo and see if i can find the rest of the kit I bought.

 

EDIT: Found the instructions, I'll fire up the other desktop machine with the scanner. MASSIVE PICTURE INCOMING.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

The tension in the massive spring might be my undoing... I'll have a ring round some garage door people on Tuesday, might be cheaper to just let them fix it than break it further.

 

I'd much rather have just two big old doors like houses used to have in the olden days. Whatever was wrong with those?

[alf892]

You get new spools in the kit with cables attached.........these push on the shaft and then held with a roll pin. I had to let the mechanism off the frame to allow room to get the spools on. Keep the door closed and wedge the bottom to maintain the gap before undoing any brackets. It an easy job though you need a couple of big adjustable to retension.

 

To have the job done I was quoted between 160 and £200

[ashmicro]

[ashmicro]

What alf said +1

 

 

 

Here's what one side of the kit looks like

 

 

It wasn't too dear, about £20 I think. I'll have a look through my eBay stuff, and see who I got it from.

[ashmicro]

Here it is. I got it from these guys

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GARAGE-DOOR-PARTS ... 58856501c5

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Thanks for posting that AshM, makes me want to have a go again. £200, ouch

 

The door's pretty new, with any luck I could get away with just replacing the cut cable (eBay £4) instead of replacing the whole spindle assembly. There's a garage door repairman quite close who I'll ring first, if the cost is reasonable I'll let him do it and save myself the strife.

 

Stupid Sack o' Shite door.

[andrew e]

I have a complete garage door at the bottom of my garden to fit, sans instructions, so Peter your idle vandalism may have helped me out.

 

BTW if you buy a house with a garage, instead of asking "can you get a car in there" instead say "am I likely to find you have bolted the garge door shut on the day I move in with all my furniture?

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

UPDATE NEWS UPDATE NEWS UPDATE NEWS UPDATE NEWS UPDATE NEWS UPDATE NEWS

 

Just in case this has been keeping anyone up at night, here's an update. I called a professional in the end, and it took him three hours to change the cables while explaining just how awful these mechanisms are compared to better garage doors. Very glad I didn't attempt it because if I'd managed it at all (unlikely) it would have taken me years, and I would have kicked loads of holes in the door out of frustration. Rectifying my idle vandalism (including parts) was £90, which I feel was very reasonable.

 

UPDATE NEWS UPDATE NEWS UPDATE NEWS UPDATE NEWS UPDATE NEWS UPDATE NEWS