2. Scraping noise while door in motion
This is often cause by spring routing where spring is rubbing against
outside of horizontal track and can be cured by alternate routing
to either keep the spring higher above the track or horizontally further
away from the track. The easiest is to move the fixed eyebolt that
holds the spring to the same angle iron supporting the horizontal
track to the ceiling. This is sometimes not an option due to a support
beam or other obstruction but you can also add a second piece of iron
running up to the ceiling at an angle that allows you to move the
eyebolt further away from the track. The drawing on the left above
also shows another option where you can flip the cable route up instead
of down anchoring the path above the fixed pulley instead of using
an S hook below the fixed pulley. sometimes the hole in the "flag"
plate is large enough you can still use the S hook.
3. Door seal keeps letting in crickets and cold drafts.
the door seals are susceptible to freezing and sticking in tracks
at left and right extremes which typically reveals itself with light
sneaking through on either side even when door is fully closed - This
is an easy fix for most steele door as you can purchase replacement
seals at Home Depot or Lowes for less than $20 - you just open door
and slide the seal out one side or the other..sometimes they crimp
the little tracks at 1 or 2 spots to keep the seal from walking, in
which case use a straight slot screw driver to uncrimp the track before
sliding out the weatherseal. You can also buy replacement weatherseals
for wooden door but these require more work both to remove and install
as these seals [called astragals] are held in place with roofing nails
which must be removed and then new ones hammered in to mount the replacement.
4. Broken extension spring.
You should always change springs in pairs to keep your system balanced.
The door has to be opened to repair and you may find you have to offset
your lifting position to favor the side that is broken since you are
also acting as the missing spring when you lift - Otherwise you may
think door is jammed because the good spring is causing the good side
to lift higher and you are cocking the door at an angle by lifting
in the center. On the broken side you will obviously discover no cable
tension but you may have to look for the S hook if it went flying
when spring broke - the tie plate that connects the cable to the S
hook should still be attached to the cable and if still connected
to S hook remove it so we can route it through new spring when get
to that step - this is also a good time to inspect cables for frays
and pulleys for bearing damage and replace as appropriate, remove
any safety cables anchored at front of door and pull them back through
the old spring and just let cable hang for now. Next unhook old spring
from eye hook mount. install safety cable through new spring before
hooking new spring into eyebolt by folding lose end of safety cable
into a loop and push it through spring, you may need a needle nose
to pull the loop out of opposite end of spring. Because you want the
safety cable to route to the outside of spring opposite horizontal
tracks to avoid both scraping and twisting up with door cable you
must now hook the other end of spring onto the eyebolt in the correct
orientation to accomplish this. the floating pulley and saddle clamp
probably still have a cable going through them and may even still
be attached to most of the spring depending on where the break occured.
typically the break occurs at the springs terminating loops where
they attach to either eyehook or saddle clamp. Use two 9/16 wrenches
to remove Pulley from saddle clamp and transfer saddle clamp to new
spring, next route the loose cable over pulley before bolting pulley
back into saddle clamp - slowly pull on lower end of cable to raise
the spring back into position and slide the tie plate back onto S
hook which should still be in original position on horizontal tracks.
compare against good side to confirm routing,
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