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From the original install my garage door is slightly crooked when all the way up - one cable is looser than the other. Throughout the rest of travel it's level. I've also noticed that the drums aren't up against the end beating plates causing the cables to grind on the drum grooves. Can I simply tighten the cables and move the drums with the door up?

I am comfortable working around torsion springs, and understand the danger, thanks for reminding me.

My question is do I need to unwind/tighten cables on drum/rewind or can I do it as mentioned above.

Single car garage door, single torsion spring, 3 years old.

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4
  • have a photo for us
    – asinine
    Aug 1, 2022 at 2:53
  • 2
    Can probably adjust it, but those torsion springs are very powerful. They can be very dangerous with the possibility of killing if something goes wrong. It is one job that at least thinking of letting professionals/people paid for this work is an decent idea.
    – crip659
    Aug 1, 2022 at 11:23
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    I second the motion. I know of a local professional garage door installer who was nearly killed and permanently disabled by one of those things. If you see any nuts, bolts or screws with red color on the tension mechanism or the door, don't touch. Red=danger.
    – MTA
    Aug 1, 2022 at 18:01
  • with a pair of vice grips, the springs can be balanced and slack removed
    – Tony Stewart EE75
    Aug 3, 2022 at 4:52

1 Answer 1

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I ended up lowering the door, clamped the track (so it couldn't fly up if there was too much energy in the springs) used locking pliers to keep the torsion bar stationary, finally repositioned the drums and set the cable tension.

Key points:

  1. When clamping the rail try to do it as close to the rollers as possible.
  2. Make sure you clamp the torsion bar well (I clamped in two locations.
  3. Wear safety glasses and thick leather gloves.
  4. Slowly back the screws off the drum while keeping your hand on it so it doesn't slip backwards.

Took 10 minutes and it's working perfectly. Still have all my body parts and saved $100+

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  • My body parts are worth thousands of times more than the $100.00 it would have cost.
    – Gil
    Aug 3, 2022 at 22:16
  • Good for you, but who cares. So you just troll sites looking to for an opportunity to say something stupid? You win - something stupid was said.
    – Louis
    Aug 5, 2022 at 8:41

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