garage door extension spring help needed.

[Tom7227]

I am replacing some extension springs on an old garage door. Trying to match the old one I ended up getting springs labeled as 160 lb. I am wondering if they are too much for a old single wooden 7 foot door. The labels on others listed the proper one for a single door at 120 lb, but that spring was much smaller than the one that had been in use. Any ideas on what is the proper spring to use?

The next thing I don’t understand is how you adjust these types of springs. Seems that once you weave the cable through the pulleys and attach them you don’t have any way to adjust them short of lengthening or shortening the cables, a task that seems cumbersome. There was some goofy setup where a rope was used to move one of the pulleys but that seems to me to be asking for trouble. How is the adjustment supposed to be made.

Thanks for your time.

Tom

[Surface Tension]

Its been a while since I've installed that type spring.

Yeah the springs match the door weight. There is a hook on the end of the cable. Your adjustment is to move the hook positions on the horizontal track. Its pretty easy to do.

Do the adjustments with the door in the up position.

The rope you speak of was probably put there to put a preload on the springs when in the down position. Reason being could be the door was too heavy to lift without the aid of the springs.

[Archtek]

Here you go Tom

Don't do what I did years ago and forget the safety cable through the spring. A cable broke and went through the back window of the car that was sitting in the garage. I was very lucky that it was a car, not a person, that it hit!

[Tom7227]

Thanks for the link. This is very helpful.