<VV> Garage Door Spring

[James P. Rice]

All:  I had a spring break in our garage door a couple years ago.  The
garage was built in 1971 by the previous home owner, and I assume the spring
was original, as I had not replace them during ten years of ownership.  The
18 inch long piece of spring bounced off the roof of my wife's Dodge
Avenger, leaving a nice impression as it passed.  It apparently happened
during the night, as my first clue was finding the spring on the floor after
entering thru the people door.

Could have taken a head off if one of us had been walking between the wall
and the car as it broke.

I had the spring system replaced with one which goes across the header of
the door opening.  It has a has a couple coils springs with a bar going down
the center.  Spring could break, but it has no place to go.  The spring
breaking is not common for old systems according to the guys who replaced my
system.

A good thick cable (with strong cable clamps) thru the spring should work
OK, provided you don't get any interference during use.

At first, I thought the subject was the springs in the car door.  Anybody
have any problems with them breaking at a unfortunate time?

Historically Yours,
                   James Rice



Message: 1
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:11:45 -0400
From: FrankCB <frankcb at aol.com>
Subject: Re: <VV> safety wake up
To: "Dennis PLEAU" <ddpleau at msn.com>, vv <virtualvairs at corvair.org>


Dennis,
     Good warning!  I can add that you can also buy these reinforcing cables
separately (by themselves) without buying the springs for those of us who
are more "frugally-minded".  Try Home Depot or Lowes or similar stores in
your area.  The springs are under tension when the door is CLOSED so just
bring the doors up to OPEN position.  Some small adjustment of the door
position may be necessary to remove ALL tension from the springs when you
add the cables.
     Don't let this matter go unless you want to see just what damage these
springs can inflict on your Corvair, or, even worse, on YOU!
     Frank Burkhard

In a message dated 10/13/08 21:59:05 Eastern Daylight Time, ddpleau at msn.com
writes:
I went to open my folks garage this afternoon and heard a big bang and the
door got really heavy.  One of the springs broke.  It didn't hit anybody,
but did leave a big dent in an antique carpenters tool box that belonged to
my great uncle.  Garage door springs have a lot of energy and the old ones
don't have a a cable through them to contain them when they break.  We found
a crack in the other spring.  My folks bought the house new in 52, so they
have had a lot of cycles on them.  Tonight they have two new springs.  I was
opening from the outside, so I was some what protected, being on the inside
would have been a lot more exciting.  If you have springs old enough to not
have arresting cable through them, you may want to replace them.

Dennis