Well that was a pleasant little gift--or not.

[VintageMusclecar]

So I'm out in the shop just a little while ago wrapping up for the day. I go to lower the garage door down when all of a sudden the garage door drops the last 12" or so to the floor and there's a lout *BANG!* immediately followed by the sound of something bouncing around in the shop. (Note that the 16'X7' garage door on my shop is solid wood and easily weighs several hundred pounds)

After a quick check to make sure I wasn't bleeding or missing any appendages, I took a look around and found these laying on the floor (I picked them up & placed them together before taking the pic):



I found this laying next to them:



I look up and see this:



THANK GOD no one was standing underneath when the springs broke.

Now I'm in a pickle; the Chevelle is parked directly underneath the other side of the door with those springs directly overhead. There's no way in hell I can lift the door by myself with only one side with spring assist, so until my contractor pal can swing by tomorrow to help me assess the situation, my paranoia levels are off the charts that the other springs are going to break and **ck up the Chevelle in the process.

In light of the absurd weight of my existing door, my contractor pal is going to get me a price on a modern replacement door + installation. Unfortunately the shop needs more repairs before a new door can be installed--namely where the springs on the other side of the door have actually pulled the exterior wall towards the inside of the shop due to the amount of tension they've had to have on them for all these years.

And as can always be expected, Mr. Murphy rears his ugly face once again--I was <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">just</span></span> starting to get a little $ ahead and was planning on getting the 302 back on the dyno in the next couple of weeks.

You ever get the impression that no matter how hard you try to accomplish something, certain things just do not seem meant to be? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/dunno.gif[/img]

I'm not giving up yet, but DAMN this &quot;one step forward two steps backward&quot; shit sure is getting old.

[Ryan1969Chevelle]

Lay some blankets on your car.

One door closes and another opens.

Ryan

[njsteve]

Where is the safety wire that is supposed to run inside the spring? It is designed to catch and hold the broken spring when it snaps, instead of letting it fly across the room. I lose one of the springs on my doors at least once a year - over the wife's car which is in and out of that garage door several times a day. Get the heaviest rated pair you can find and replace them both at the same time.

You can always try to rig up a ratcheting come-along for the spring-less side and slowly ratchet the door up to get the Chevelle outside. As you get the door up, use several vice grips as chocks so it can't slip back down.

[resto4u]

Get rid of the slinky springs. Get the horizontal spring over the top of the door.

[PxTx]

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I have one of these. They require the tortious spring. More room overhead and I feel the spring is safer. I have another door with a standard operator and a tortious spring. Glad nobody got hurt and the car was not injured either.

[earntaz]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: njsteve</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Where is the safety wire that is supposed to run inside the spring? It is designed to catch and hold the broken spring when it snaps, instead of letting it fly across the room. I lose one of the springs on my doors at least once a year - over the wife's car which is in and out of that garage door several times a day. Get the heaviest rated pair you can find and replace them both at the same time.

You can always try to rig up a ratcheting come-along for the spring-less side and slowly ratchet the door up to get the Chevelle outside. As you get the door up, use several vice grips as chocks so it can't slip back down.</div></div>

Yep -- done that on every door spring over the years ... and it works. Had one break over the 67' Vette and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Simple to fix -- run a 3/16&quot; cable through the center of the spring from one end to the other. Attach each end to the rail frame work with cable clamps. Spring breaks all the pieces are retained by the cable. TAZ [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]

[Mr. Chevy]

Eric, those heavy doors are a big problem for springs as you know... I would definitely switch to a lighter door..

Glad you were not hurt or the Chevelle was not damaged...

Rich

[VintageMusclecar]

I'm on a crash course on garage doors as of this evening--I knew Jack Squat about servicing &amp; maintenance up until now, so please keep that in mind if I seem naive on the subject.

I never knew there were supposed to be cables inside the springs. These are the same springs that were originally installed when we built this garage ~30 years ago.

Apparently there are two grades of door springs, and you need to know the door weight in order to get the correct rated springs. Again--two person job (minimum), so I'm back to my contractor guy for assistance there.

My conundrum is--I'm assuming four decent springs aren't going to be cheap--do I spend $400-$500 or more Band-Aiding the existing situation or drop $1500+ on a new door? I need to do this job right the first time so I don't have to worry about it again in the near future.

Oh, and I wasn't kidding about the shop exterior wall being distorted from the old springs. I took this picture a few years ago to show another friend why installing a heating system was a lost cause until I got the structure itself repaired.



The light you see emanating from around the door (mind you, the door is completely closed in that pic) is from the heat lamp that I have to keep on my air compressor pump in order to get it to start when it drops below about 30° or so.

I have a litany of issues to be addressed around here thanks to 20+ years of previous neglect (NOT on my part, but that's another story). I'm trying to pick them off one at a time as time &amp; resources allow, but for the last ~18 months I've been losing ground.

I won't even go into trying to get my father's house fixed up enough to sell it--between a rock &amp; a hard spot there too, but again, another rant for another time.

It is what it is I suppose. Do the best you can, cross your fingers &amp; hope for the best.

Oh, FWIW--they're calling for more nasty weather to come rolling through here sometime around 3:00 a.m. along with winds up to or beyond 80 MPH, plus we're under a Tornado watch until 5:00 a.m. Maybe mother nature will solve all these problems for me lol (just kidding--a little gallows humor).

More tomorrow--maybe! (lol!)

[cook_dw]

Not sure what the final cost would be but if you can convert your existing setup and add this I would recommend it.. Around here one spring assembly is roughly $45. I had a spring break back about a year ago.. super easy to replace and set the tension. If you did decide to go this route then you will need the twin springs (one on either side of the center mounting. Mine only had one as it is an aluminum door with just a few picture windows.

[earntaz]

If you don't want to spent the money right now ... get the 3/16&quot; cable and cable clamps and safety cable the remaining springs. Install one new spring and cable it as well ... TAZ