Up and over garage door falling on me - help!

[j1mm1nycr1cket]

I just moved into a new house and have a steel 'canopy' style up and over door on my garage. It is extremely heavy to open, doing none of the work for me. Once I manage to heave it up, it likes to try and fall on my head so I have to prop it open with a ladder.
I can't see any evidence of springs or pulleys/weights so not sure what to do in order to fix it... any ideas?

Thanks
Jim

 

[gregers]

get a garage door specalist to take a look.

 

[j1mm1nycr1cket]

Well, after asking a friend who has a similar door, it seems I need a spring at the top of the frame, attached to the hinge/ side runner bits with steel cable.
Weirdly, the whole mechanism has been removed from my door, so I had nothing to indicate what should have been there in the first place.
There are 2 pulley wheels at the top corners though, so those must guide the steel cable to the ends of the spring... I just need to get a look at a functioning one and figure out how to reinstate mine.
I found some spare parts on ebay etc so should probably be able to pick up all the bits I need, once I figure out which parts are missing...

 

[Burnerman]

Not really the easiest of jobs to do.....it sounds like your door is the Henderson type, which needs a large coil spring placed on the rod at the top of the frame.
The pulleys at the side are tapered and handed, and are held on by roll pins. Cords from the pulleys attach to pegs on the side of the door.
The biggest problem is turning the coil spring sufficiently to allow it to give you the required lift; in effect this has to be turned until heavily under tension and then locked onto the top rod with an allen screw. It can be dangerous to tension this without the locking peg and an assistant!
John

 

[crank39]

26 full turns it takes to load the spring up, very hairy!

 

[j1mm1nycr1cket]

Thanks chaps.
I discovered that it says Westland on the inside of the handle (which is also knackered, so have to add one of those to my shopping list)
This apparently means I can use 'Garador' spares as Garador acquired Westland.
From what I can figure out, I don't need to tension the springs myself, I just need a pre-tensioned spring box which comes with a new pair of cables and that *should* be all I need... lookee here:
http://www.garage-door-spares.co.uk/gara-pn58.htm#a

129 quid but still about a quarter of the price of a new door

 

[Burnerman]

Looks like your luck's in, mate!
John