How To Adjust Tension On Garage Door Cable

Garage door cables can be adjusted by the home handyman with a little bit of patience and a few simple hand tools.

How to adjust tension on garage door cable. How to adjust garage door tension. It s actually one of the most important safety mechanisms of your garage door. Follow along as a pro explains how it s done. To make fine adjustments try adjusting the lifting cable instead of the spring.

Here s a breakdown of how to adjust garage door cables. Then insert another rod into a hole below the rod you already inserted. Because the garage door springs can be somewhat tricky to manage and are very dangerous things to adjust incorrectly you will need to ask a friend to help you. What a garage door cable does.

The cable runs through the torsion springs literally doing the heavy lifting each time the door is raised. The cable is attached to the door and runs to an s hook that attaches to the track support. Unless you know exactly how much you need to adjust your door go through all the steps and test the door. Automatic garage door openers make getting in and out of your garage easy although the machinery does require periodic maintenance to ensure proper operation.

Adjusting the garage door cables and the springs is a typical do it yourselfer s kind of a job. Learn how to repair overhead garage door springs and cables without winding up in the emergency room. To decrease tension for a door that isn t closing fully is difficult to close or opens too quickly wind the cone down in the opposite direction from how the garage door cable passes through the pulley. You might be wondering what purpose does a garage door cable serve.

Hold the garage door in this position by attaching a c clamp to the track at a point below the lowest door roller wheel. You need proper tension on a garage door to operate the door by hand or with an automatic opener. Lower the door and use 2 metal rods to adjust the tension in the spring. This is accomplished by opening the garage door as fully as possible until it hits the stop bolt on the track.

With the door propped open take the s hook out of the support and tighten or loosen the cable as needed. You must release the tension on the garage door springs before attempting adjustment or replacement. The garage door tension springs provide lifting force for the heavy door and are under tremendous tension get careless and they can hurt you.