Torsion spring repair & replacement

The most important part of your garage door is the part you almost never see.

It sits on a shaft above the opening, it is under load every minute of its life, and it does nearly all the work. When it goes, the door becomes its full dead weight in an instant. This is the repair we do most, and it is the one we ask people not to attempt themselves.

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The five signs

How do I know
my spring broke?

You do not need to be able to name the part. These five are what a broken or failing torsion spring actually looks like from inside the house.

01 You heard a loud bang Usually mistaken for a gunshot or something heavy falling over. That is a wound spring releasing all its stored energy at once.
02 There is a visible gap in the spring Look at the shaft above the door. A broken torsion spring shows an obvious separation, usually a couple of inches, in the middle of the coil.
03 The door is suddenly very heavy A balanced door lifts with two fingers. If it feels like lifting a car, nothing is counterbalancing it any more.
04 The opener struggles It hums, strains, moves an inch or two, then stops or reverses. The motor is not built to lift the whole door on its own.
05 The door only opens part way It lifts a short distance and stops, or lifts crooked. Often the cable has come off a drum as a consequence of the spring failing.
Broken spring? Do not force the door.

With the counterbalance gone you are lifting the door's entire weight with nothing holding it if you lose your grip. Leave it down, do not keep using the opener, and call us. If a vehicle is trapped inside or the door will not close, say so when you call and we will treat it as an emergency.

How it actually works

Spring, shaft, drum,
cable, door.

Five parts, in that order, every time. The spring stores the torque. The shaft carries it across the opening. The drums convert it into cable travel. The cables lift the bottom of the door. Break the chain anywhere and the door tells you in a different way.

Spring→Shaft→Drum→ Cable→Door

Counterbalance

Heavy. Made to
feel light.

A garage door is one of the heaviest things in a house that moves every day. It only feels light because a wound steel spring is giving back almost exactly the force gravity is taking. Get that arithmetic right and the door glides. Get it wrong and every part downstream pays for it, starting with the opener.

The two finger test

Disconnect the opener and lift the door halfway by hand. A correctly balanced door stays exactly where you leave it. If it slides down, the spring has lost torque. If it runs away upward, it is over-wound. We do this test on every spring job before we call it finished, and you are welcome to watch it.

What we are replacing

A torsion spring is
a calculated part.

It is not a generic coil that fits any door. Six things decide whether your door will be balanced or merely openable. Get one wrong and it still goes up, which is exactly why the wrong one gets fitted so often.

CENTER BRACKET WIRE SIZE CABLE DRUM INSIDE DIAMETER OVERALL LENGTH END BEARING PLATE SHAFT WIND DIRECTION

The counterbalance assembly above your door. The spring stores the torque that lifts the weight, the drums convert it into cable travel, and the shaft ties both sides together so the door rises level.

Wire sizeThe diameter of the steel itself. It sets how much torque every turn stores. This is the number most often guessed at.
Inside diameterHas to match the shaft and the intended spring family. A spring that merely slides on is not the same as the right one.
Overall lengthTotal coil length carries the cycle life. A short replacement will lift the door, and then fail early.
TurnsSet by door height and drum size. Under-wound and the door drags. Over-wound and it slams and wears the top section.
Wind directionLeft hand and right hand wound springs are not interchangeable. On a two spring door, each side gets its own.
Cycle ratingA higher cycle spring costs a little more once and lasts through far more openings. Worth it on a door you use daily.

Please read this part

The one repair we ask you
not to try yourself.

A spring holding a door up is under significant tension every minute it is wound. Releasing that tension without proper winding bars and the correct procedure is how people get seriously hurt, and screwdrivers and rebar are not winding bars. The cables are under load too, and a cable coming off a drum under tension moves fast.

There is a second reason beyond safety. Even a spring that goes on without incident has to be the right one and wound to the right number of turns, or you have swapped a broken door for a badly balanced one that quietly destroys the opener over the next year.

If your spring has already broken: leave the door down, do not use the opener, and call us. If the door is stuck open, that is an emergency and we treat it as one.

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How the job runs

What a spring visit
actually looks like.

Step oneMeasure the door, not just the spring

We take the door's real weight and height, the drum size and the existing spring measurements. A replacement chosen off the broken part alone repeats whatever mistake was made last time.

Step twoCheck what the spring took with it

A failing spring usually leaves evidence elsewhere: frayed cables, a scored shaft, worn bearings, damaged top brackets. We inspect all of it before quoting.

Step threeQuote before we touch anything

You get the price and the reason for it up front, including the option of a higher cycle spring and an honest answer on whether that is worth it for your door.

Step fourFit, wind and set the turns

Correct spring on, wound to the calculated number of turns with proper winding bars, cables set evenly on both drums, shaft and bearings checked.

Step fiveBalance test, then hand it back

Opener disconnected, door lifted by hand and left at the halfway point. If it holds there, it is balanced. Then the safety reversal test, then we cycle it with you watching.

Straight answers

The questions we get
on every spring call.

My door has two springs and only one broke. Should I replace both?
In almost every case, yes. The two springs are the same age and have done the same number of cycles, so the second is usually close behind the first. Replacing one means paying for a second call-out shortly after, and a mismatched pair pulls the door unevenly. We will always give you the choice and the reasoning, never a scare story.
How long should a torsion spring last?
Springs are rated in cycles, where one cycle is a full open and close. How long that lasts depends entirely on how much you use the door. A household going in and out six times a day gets through a spring far faster than one that uses it twice. When we quote, we will tell you what your usage suggests.
Can I still open the door manually with a broken spring?
We recommend you do not. With the counterbalance gone you are lifting the door's full weight with nothing holding it if you lose your grip. Leave it down, avoid the opener, and call us. If a vehicle is trapped inside, tell us on the phone and we will prioritise it.
The opener is straining. Is that the opener or the spring?
Usually the spring. The opener is designed to guide a balanced door, not lift a heavy one, so a straining motor is normally a symptom rather than the cause. Replacing an opener without fixing the balance will kill the new opener too.
Do you carry springs on the truck?
We carry the common sizes, which is why most spring jobs are done the same day. If your door needs something less common we will tell you straight away and give you a realistic timeframe rather than a guess.
How do I know the new spring is the right one?
The balance test is the proof, and you can watch it. With the opener disconnected, a correctly sprung door lifts easily by hand and stays put wherever you leave it, including halfway. If it drifts down or flies up, it is not right. We do that test on every spring job before we call it finished.

Broken spring?We can usually be there today.

Torsion spring repair and replacement across the Bay Area, with a free estimate before anything starts and the balance test before we call it done.

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