# Garage door bar



## kok328 (Mar 20, 2013)

I am curious as to the one piece torsion tube on my garage door.
It has a single torsion spring on the left with two cable drums on each end.
It was making a clunk sound when near to all the way close.
I disconnected the door from the opener and couldn't find any problems.
I lubed the rollers, spring and the torsion tube where it travels through the cable drums and has seemed to resolved the problem for now.
Anyway, the torsion tube travels about an inch to the right when open and back to the left when closed.  These directions of travel are from inside the garage facing towards the road.
I've never really noticed this before and was wondering if this is normal or an indication of something about to go wrong.


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## nealtw (Mar 20, 2013)

Just guessing but if you only have one spring, as it gets tighter it wants to get shorter and pull the rod sideways. If you had two they would be pulling against each other and wouldn't move. Pulleys must be locked to the rod or the spring wouldn't help so someone likely installed them with an extra 1" in there.


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## nealtw (Mar 21, 2013)

http://www.doityourself.com/forum/g...gainst-bearing-plate-garage-door-bucking.html


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## Fireguy5674 (Mar 21, 2013)

As the link Neal provided says there should be no gap between the bearings and the cable drum.  The clunk you were hearing may have been the torsion bar slipping from side to side.  By lubricating everything it may be moving more freely now and so not clunking.  The article talks about stretching the spring before setting the torsion load.  That is a new one on me.  I have put up several single spring torsion systems and have never heard of that so can't be much help there.  Make sure if you decide to release any of the components of the door under pressure from the torsion spring you know how to safely unwind the spring first.  You don't want a spring or cable hanging out where your ear used to be.


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## nealtw (Mar 21, 2013)

Found this at this site. https://diygaragerepaircom.uservoic...icles/106918-how-to-wind-your-torsion-springs

Professionals always stretch torsion springs after winding them because the shaft floats horizontally between the flexible end bearing plates as the door operates. Although this may be as little as 1/4", the binding of the coils as the garage door closes oftentimes keeps the door from closing completely, especially when the torsion springs and bearings are dry.


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## firehawkmph (Jul 13, 2013)

First off,
if your torsion shaft is moving back and forth, it shouldn't be. The drums limit the travel if they are properly tightened and the bearing plates are tight. Here's the sequence of how it should be set up from scratch:
Start with unwinding the tension on the spring. If you don't know how to do this, then don't. Get someone who does. It's the one thing on a door that will get you hurt. Once the spring is unwound, start with either drum, it doesn't matter which one. Let's use the left for example. Make sure the drum is all the way against the bearing plate with no play in between. Make sure the cable is attached and then wind the drum so it takes up the extra slack. Take a pair of vise grips and put it on the torsion shaft with the non-adjustable handle of the grip hitting against the wall or ceiling if its close enough. Just use enough pressure to hold it on the tube without deforming the tube. What you are doing here is maintaining the tension on the cable of the left drum so it can't unwind. While you're at it, take another vise grip and clamp one of the rollers to the track with moderate pressure. You are just trying to prevent the door from moving. Now go over to the right drum and loosen both pinch bolts. Move the drum over against the bearing plate so there is no slop. You can give the shaft a push to the left just to make sure there is no slop. Now make sure the cable is still attached and turn the drum to take up the slack. At this point, since you have the shaft clamped from turning, both cables should be pretty much equally taught. Tighten both pinch bolts snugly. Leaving the vice grips on, wind the spring. If its a 7' tall door, 7 full turns should do it. Once the spring is wound but before you tighten the two pinch bolts on the spring, take the winding bar that is not still stuck in the spring, and tap the bottom of the spring from one end to the other to help it lengthen itself so it lays straight and not up and down like a snake. Now tighten both pinch bolts carefully, while still holding the spring with your inserted winding bar. Once both bolts are tight, using both pinch bars, carefully release your bars control of the spring. It should move just a smidge and put tension on the shaft, which in turn will move your vice grip thats on the shaft about 1" away from the wall where it was sitting against. release the top vice grip, then the vice grip on the rail. Keep a hand on the door when you release the second vice grip. It shouldn't move. Now run it up and down by hand, keeping control of the door. It should move smoothly, without clunking. The shaft should not move back and forth, just rotate. If you lift the door about 4' off the ground you should find the balance point, where the door should just sit there and neither want to go up or down. Move it all the way up by hand. When you let go, it should hold itself up in the opening without falling back down. If you let go when the door is at the balance point and it wants to fall all the way back to the ground, then the spring may need another 1/2 turn to add some more tension. If you need to to this, make sure you put the two vise grips back on like before. If you don't, with only one spring on the shaft, the shaft will unwind when you loosen the pinch bolts on the spring and make a mess of the cables and scare the heck out of you. If you have the door at the balance point and when you let your hands off it, it wants to shoot up into the open position, then there is too much tension on the spring. You would have to take a 1/4- to a 1/2 turn off. This is all assuming you have the correct strength spring on the door. Let us know what happens.
Mike Hawkins


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