Need to Adjust You Garage Doors Cables? Keep Reading…
Garage door cables, which connect to the torsion springs, play a vital role in counterbalancing your door’s weight.
In other words, they are the mechanism that evenly lifts and lowers your door.
Garage door cables also have a safety purpose.
In the event that your garage door spring breaks, the safety cables will prevent the spring from recoiling.
Therefore, even if your spring fails, you won’t get injured nor incur property damage.
Garage door cable adjustment is necessary if your cables have become loose.
Weak cable tension means your door is at risk of collapsing.
For your guidance, we will discuss how to adjust garage door cables in this article.
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Long Beach Garage Door Repair offers an extensive range of garage door solutions.
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When Do You Need To Adjust Your Garage Door Cables?
Some indications that you need to check your garage door cables and have them repaired are:
Loose Cables
You can identify if a cable adjustment is due by visually examining your garage door cables.
If the cables are drooping or out of the cable drum, that means that the tension is weak.
Don’t try to use your garage door and call a repairman immediately.
Grinding or Squeaking Noises
Do you hear grinding or squeaking sounds as your door goes up or down?
This indicates a flaw in the cable bearings, where the garage door cables travel through.
Worn-out bearings could also lead to visible damages to your cables.
Furthermore, the friction between the cable and bearings may produce a smoky odor.
Unbalanced Movement
If your garage door is not moving evenly, there might be damage to its cable system.
A loose or broken cable could cause your door’s alignment to be off and give it a hard time moving up or down.
A Loud Bang
When your spring or cable snaps, it’s usually accompanied by a loud bang due to the release of spring tension.
In that event, don’t operate your door; more so go near it as it could be extremely dangerous.
Call your technician right away to assess and fix the problem.
Malfunctioning Garage Door
In general, if your garage door is not working properly, you should check your garage door cables.
Loose cables can cause your door to vibrate or shake as it opens or closes.
They could also slow or hasten your door’s movement.
If you encounter any of these garage door cable issues, you should scrutinize the situation and adjust your cables.
Properly Adjusting Your Garage Door Cables
Correct garage door cable adjustment is vital to ensure your safety and the integrity of your garage door.
To help you, here are step-by-step instructions on how to adjust garage door cables.
- Put your garage door in the close position.
- Pull the release cord on the bottom of the trolley track on your garage ceiling. This step should disconnect the door from the opener.
- Next, manually lift your garage door as high as it can go.
- For your safety, clamp the door below the lowest rollers so that it doesn’t crash down.
- If the cables went out of the drum or pulley, wind it back as tightly as possible. Manually wrap the cable around the pulley.
- Lower your garage door and then make adjustments for the tension of the spring. Use 18-inch steel rods to adjust the torsion spring tension.
- Reconnect the door to the garage door opener.
- Test your newly adjusted cables by closing the door.
If you’ve adjusted your garage door cables successfully, no gaps should be present at the bottom of the door.
Open and close your door a couple of times to check.
Conclusion
Garage door cable maintenance is vital to ensure the smooth and safe operation of your garage door.
That’s why you need to keep an eye on the crucial components of your garage door.
Besides cables, that includes your spring system, garage door opener, rollers, and tracks.
Basically, you need to maintain every component of your garage door.
Providing expert garage door care and services in Long Beach is Long Beach Garage Door Repair.
We’ve been performing garage door repair in Long Beach for many years.
We also do garage door installation in Long Beach.
Call us anytime for prompt and timely garage door repair solutions.
The function of a cable inside the garage is to provide support in lifting the garage door.
The cables and the springs work together to lift hefty sectional panels.
Whenever you open the garage or lower the panels, the cables should wind tightly to avoid hanging doors.
Loose cables make the garage less safe.
Unadjusted cables are prone to breaking, and cycling along the cable drums makes these cables weaker.
If you don’t adjust the cables from time to time, you’ll end up with loose lengths that are one step to snapping off.
If you don’t know how to adjust garage door cables, you can follow some simple steps.
The adjustment improves the tension of the cables cycling around to carry the door panels.
Avoid unequal amounts of tension in the cable so that you won’t experience accidents in the garage.
Steps to adjust cables
You can start with the cable adjustment by assessing your garage.
If you see broken cables on the ground, contact us for urgent repairs.
Here at Long Beach Garage Door Repair, we attend to emergencies such as snapping cables.
If you’re only looking to adjust undamaged cables, this is how to adjust garage door cables.
Step 1: Disengage the door from the opener
Pull the emergency release cord to disengage the door from the opener.
This move allows you to open the garage manually.
Lift the door panels along the tracks.
Secure the bottom-most panel with a c-clamp.
Step 2: Trace the cables in the mechanism
Every cable length has two ends that are attached to different parts of the mechanism.
One end is at the bottom-most part of the panel, along with the roller.
The other end is on top of the frame, attached with a bracket, or connected to the tension spring.
In the middle, the cable drum winds the cable as the door panels move up or down the tracks.
Step 3: Cable drum adjustment
Take out the drum, which is on top of the frame.
Unwind the cable that is currently around the cable drum.
Now, rewind and align it properly around the cable drum.
Avoid misaligning the cable or forming knots, as this loosens the cable that travels around whenever you open or close the garage.
Step 4: Bracket adjustment
Put back the cable drum in its position.
Now, adjust the remaining cable length that leads to the bracket.
Loosen the hold of the cable within the bracket and pull it through the hole to increase tightness.
If the problem is the bracket itself, reposition it within the frame to a newer slot, so it readjusts the cable tension in its new position.
Step 5: Repeat on the other side
Check your work on one side.
Do the same steps to the other side of the tracks.
Make sure there aren’t significantly long lengths that are present from both ends of the cable.
If there are, cut off the ends using a cable cutter.
Step 6: Test the tension adjustment
Once you ensure the tension of the cable lengths, test your work.
Reengage the opener to the top-most panel of the door.
Open the garage automatically using the wall switch or remote control device.
There shouldn’t be any hanging panels or uneven sides in the movement.
Emergency cable adjustment
When you’re in the middle of an emergency, you need to get urgent help from professionals.
Don’t worry, as we offer you our urgent services.
We know that emergencies can happen, e.g., The cable snapped or the garage door suddenly hangs in the middle of traveling, so give us a call.
We will be with you shortly to offer the adjustment or repair you need.
Contact us at Long Beach Garage Door Repair
We are Long Beach Garage Door Repair, and we provide professional garage door services in town.
Our team has garage door repairs in Long Beach to help you replace your cable if they snap or break.
Professional technicians also offer garage door installations in Long Beach if you decide that it’s time to have a new model of doors in your garage.
Whatever you do, we are here to give you services backed up with years of experience in services.
We are always with you all the time.
Contact us for your garage needs, and we will be with you.
