Troubleshooting A Broken Garage Door Cable

There are plenty of reasons that you might find that your garage door is not working. Perhaps the remote is broken, perhaps some sort of electronic device is not working properly inside of your electric garage door opener, or perhaps the garage door has slid off of the rails that allow it to adequately open and shut. However, one of the things people tend to forget about when it comes to their garage door not opening or closing properly is the fact that the problem could have something to do with a broken garage door cable. Throughout the course of this brief article, you will be given several troubleshooting tips regarding broken garage door cables.

What Does The Garage Door Cable Do?

The garage door cable essentially acts as a safety device. Although there are many types of garage door cables that will allow you to continue to use the garage door even if the cable itself as broken, many types will disallow this behavior as a safety precaution.

Essentially, the garage door cable is in place to serve as a backup for the springs of your garage door. They act as pulleys that are laced through the spring and are attached to the same headboard to which your garage door springs are also attached.

Without the garage door cables, the springs are left to their own devices. Without this safety backup, it is possible that if they become loose, they can shoot off of their rails and fly around the room at incredibly high velocities.

Signs There Is Something Wrong With the Cable

The first and most obvious sign that there is something wrong with your garage door cables is that you will be able to hear a long "whining" sound emitting from your garage door. This is the sound of the cable thinning out, its threads becoming bare and waiting for its own eventual demise.

Secondly, if you have found that your garage door is becoming increasingly harder to pull by hand, this could be a case of your garage door cables wearing out. It is recommended that you take a look at the cables if you experience these problems. You will easily be able to tell if they are thinning or stripping by just a simple look.

Dangers Of Damaged Cables

There are various dangers associated with damaged cables. The first and more problematic danger is the fact that the lack of a cable can potentially send your spring flying through the air at very high speeds. Torsion springs are very tightly wound, and if they snap they can cause damage to not only your garage, but they might injure you, as well.

Secondly, a snapped cable can cause the door to violently close shut, which will, of course, be a danger to anyone standing under it, but also a danger to the person closing or opening the door itself.

Replacing The Cable

Pull the open end of the cable through a hole in the horizontal garage frame that is close to the movable pulley. Then thread the other end of the cable through the garage door spring. Continue threading it through the vertical metal frame near to where the spring is attached. Loop the entire thing back around to where it was and secure it with a cable clamp.

Garage door cables can be fickle beasts, but luckily, they are largely very resilient. It takes a bit of elbow grease and know-how to replace a garage door cable, but it is ultimately an easy process and one that will make the use of your garage door all the easier. If you don't feel qualified to repair an issue with your garage door, call in a technician from a company like DSI Door Services North Shore to handle the process for you.


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