adjusting springs on ramp doors.

[chasg1]

I did mine with it up. so simple and very little risk of getting hurt.

I was trying to get the tension perfect and messed it up the first time. I called a garage door man and he said he could do it to perfection. $50 later he left and never came back. I learned enough from him to do it myself with the door closed. Actually didn't even have to use the vise grips because of very little tension on the springs.

just thought I would pass that on, might save someone some money.

[tac422]

Please detail the procedure...
The safety wire inside mine has come loose, so I need to redo it.
Is there an actual adjustment ?
What did you do wrong the first time ?
Thanks !

[Spotman]

Please detail the procedure...
The safety wire inside mine has come loose, so I need to redo it.
Is there an actual adjustment ?
What did you do wrong the first time ?
Thanks !

Ditto ^^^^^^^^^

[chasg1]

you can adjust it. Are your springs ok??

what I did wrong was mess with the spring adjustment(center parts). There is a little tension on the springs when the door is up and they unwound to nothing. probably about 4 turns and the spring became unstretched. If your problem is just in the cable winding cone, you don't need to mess with the spring adjusters except to use the adjusting rods to turn the bar(don't loosen anything in the center at the end of the springs or you will do the same thing I did). You can turn the bar down by hand maybe and then put a pair of vise grips or an adjusting rod on it to keep the bar from turning back.

sounds like you need to adjust the winding drum at the end of the bar to tighten the cable. There were two set screws on my drum. I did use a pair of vice grips and adjusting rod to hold the bar(at the center) and to put a little tension( about 1/4 turn)(down by the way) on the springs so the drum would tighten the cable when I backed off. I then wound the cable on the drum and retightened the set screws. Make sure both cones are the same distance from the ends of the bar. Mine was about 1".

I think I used a 12 pt 7/16 closed end wrench, it fits the square head of the set screw.

When you turn the bar down in the middle, it will take the tension from both cones. If you're not careful, the other cable will come loose also. It's easier if there are two people working on it. Stand to the side of the adjusting rods because there IS SOME tension. The adjusting rods are 1/2 ". I went to the hardware and bought a rod and they cut me 2 14" from that.

There are videos online about "garage" doors" springs. The directions of turn are opposite of cargo doors.

If this doesn't make sense..lol..let me know, I'll try to explain it differently...

[Spotman]

The door is up/closed. Before reading this, I went and loosened the bolts and started turning the spring (with bars) too tighten. BUT, the spring jumped about 3 inches toward the left side and the original indentations are showing to the right of the spring???

Now when I tried to turn it to bring it back, the WHOLE rod turned and the cables are now loose and have too much play in them?? So I tightened the bolts where they are now so as not to screw it up anymore. Maybe I should call an expert Garage guy to fix it, unless you have better options I could do. Thanks in advance.

Oh yeah, trying to make it easier to handle when I open the ramp.


Bob

[chasg1]

You did the same thing I did.

Keep the door up, put the vise grip in the center of the bar and brace it against door of the trailer.

loosen the cone at the end and rewind the cables and retighten the set screws.

Keep the door up, loosen the adjusting bolts in the middle and turn the adjustment down about 4 "1/4" turns. Hold it there with the bar against the top of the trailer. Then push the spring back to its original position and tighten. two people are better than one. I had no help and had to do it several times to keep the cable tight on the cones. You'll have to keep an eye on the cable cones to make sure the cables stay in their tracks.

If you want more tension to help raise the door, you'll have to repeat the tightening adjustment while the door is closed and keep the spring close to its original position. Mine are about 27.5 long, measured from the outside mount to the center of the adjustment thing.

I can now let the door down with one finger. It's a wee bit harder to get it started up. 8.5 X 6 door with 3/4 plywood on it.

[Spotman]

Chasq1 thank you very much, have to wait for a neighbor to come over to help, don't want my wife around me hearing all the nice words I might spew out!


Bob

[chasg1]

hope you get it done,,,it was a pain for me.

you'll have to loosen the set screws in the center tension adjustment so you won't turn the bar, and also be able to push the springs back to their original positions, then tighten.

I had to do this several times to get mine where I wanted. I have about 9 or 10 spirals on my springs when the door is down. You can see them if you look close.

[Spotman]

is that the picture in your post with the elec cord hanging???

[chasg1]

Bob.

Just thought of something.

If you have only one spring, you may be able to loosen the tension adjustment set screws and just turn the bar until the cable gets wound on the cone(then you won't have to mess with the set screws on the cone). If you have two springs and both are messed up, you could do the same thing.

Then adjust the tension.

[chasg1]

is that the picture in your post with the elec cord hanging???

yes, the other spring is not shown

[Spotman]

I tightened the spring and now it takes two of us to only open about a foot??

[chasg1]

you are probably going to have to stretch the spring out a little more. If you tightened it more than a full turn (4 ... 1/4 turns) you probably have it too tight for a starting point.

make sure the cables are on the cones correctly.

[chasg1]

.

[Spotman]

Well... after all that... we put the door down, kept tension on rod to keep cable tight, wound the spring open a little more, WALA, I can now lift and lower the door with 2 fingers! Needed this for being 65 and just had back surgery.
Thank you for all your help.