Garage door won't fully open.

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26 Dec 2008
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Location
Tyne and Wear
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United Kingdom
My garage door is a steel up and over one, but which I don't think was ever properly fitted.

It doesn't open fully and I often bang my head on it.

It seems as if the side rollers are supposed to slide to the top of the guides, which would lift the door up to the horizontal position, if it worked as designed.

Is there anything that can be done to fix it?




Cheers.
 
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Spray the long horizontal coil spring and the side guides and rollers with WD40.

Once it's all running free, get hold of a tin of spray on motorbike chain grease and repeat spray onto the areas you did with the WD40
 
Thanks, I'll give it a go.

The thing is though, I've tried to push up the door and it does lift a little, so it doesn't look like anything is actually stuck. I wondered if the coil spring hasn't been sufficiently wound, meaning it uncoils to its rest position before the door has fully opened. When I lift it as much as I can (an inch or so), I just loosen the wound support cable - the spring doesn't wind any more. I thought maybe the spring needs extra tensioning.
 
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If the spring is tensioned correctly then, with a gentle pull (from the inside) the door should rise from closed to approx waist height.
 
Yes but the spray-on chain grease , like a well-known beer, will lubricate the parts that other greases cannot reach.
 
Sorry for the delay.

I've liberally applied the chain lube and it now opens to the top, but as soon as I let go, it falls back to its previous height. The torsion spring continues to rotate and the cable supports wind around the cones, but it won't hold.

I've noticed that one of the previous owners has put a kink in one of the vertical runners, as if to prevent the the door falling down.
 
Long spiral spring is either disconnected from the shaft or it's snapped.
I'd suggest you get a garage door service guy involved.
 
Long spiral spring is either disconnected from the shaft or it's snapped.
I'd suggest you get a garage door service guy involved.
 
Wouldn't the fact it opens pretty easily to waist height and can open higher and remain there, mean it's simply not tensioned enough?

I'll certainly get someone in, if I need to, but I hoped I could retension it.
 
I've tensioned a garage door myself and it's a scary business, but the main thing is to ensure you've got hold of the thing at all times, and you're not at risk of letting go. If so then you need longer bars.

I was doing it on one of those big sectional american doors so yours will be very light in comparison. I also didn't have the right bars and used threaded stud in the end - I was continually rolling them on the bench to ensure they were not at any point of yield!
 

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