How To Relieve The Pressure On A Broken Garage Door Torsion Spring

One of the most dangerous repair jobs on garage doors is fixing a broken torsion spring over the top of the door. A lot of tension can remain in the spring even after the it breaks, and the tension needs to be removed before you can take the spring off of the torsion tube it is on. If you are a do-it-yourself type of person who is thinking about replacing the garage door spring yourself, here is how you can relieve the tension in the torsion spring so you can safely remove it.   

Personal Safety

You should avoid wearing loose fitting shirts and sleeves that can get tangled up in the spring if it starts spinning around uncontrollably. You should also wear heavy gloves to protect your hands against sharp edges on the spring and safety glasses to protect your eyes in case a piece of the spring breaks off and hurtles toward your eyes.

Secure Door

Close the garage door all the way. Place a C-clamp in one of the wheel tracks on the door rail and tighten it down so it doesn't move. The clamp should go just above the bottom wheel of the door in the rail's track. The C-clamp will keep anyone from accidently raising the door while you are working.

Unwind Torsion Spring

The torsion spring runs from the rail toward the other side of the door. The spring ends about halfway across the top of the door. At the end of the spring is a small cone with four equally spaced holes around it. Measure the size of the diameter of the holes. You need to obtain two cold roll steel bars about three feet long that will fit into the holes. The length of the steel bars will give you leverage to control the unwinding of the spring.

There are a couple of set screws holding the cone to the torsion tube that also runs along the top of the door. Place one of the bars into the hole nearest the bottom of the cone and turn the cone counterclockwise until the bar rests against the top of the garage door. The bar resting against the top of the door will keep the spring from unwinding uncontrollably when you loosen the set screws on the cone. Loosen the set screws so you can turn the cone around the torsion tube to unwind the spring.

Place the second bar in the hole above the first bar on the cone. Take the first bar out of the hole. The tension in the spring will cause it to turn counterclockwise. Allow the second bar to turn until it comes to rest against the top of the door. Put the first bar into the hole above the second bar. Remove the second bar and allow the first bar to also turn counterclockwise until it comes to rest against the top of the door. Put the second bar into the next hole and remove the first bar. Let the second bar twist down to the top of the door. Keep on repeating this process until the spring has lost all of its tension. 

For further assistance, contact local professionals, such as those from Ace's Garage Door Repair & Installation.