An unbalanced garage door can pose a serious safety risk to your family and property and can cause your garage door to break down, which may cost you a pretty penny to fix. When you are wondering how to fix an unbalanced garage door, keep in mind a professional like Girards garage door repair will be a much less dangerous option, faster and, cheaper than doing it yourself.
Gather your tools
While you won’t need special tools to fix an unbalanced garage door, you will need a few common items to make your task easier, so make sure you have them all handy before you begin. You will need a stepladder, locking pliers, two winding bars, and a 3/8-inch, open-end wrench. Once you have gathered these tools, you can start fixing your garage door.
Step by step
1. Get started by closing the garage door. Locate the area of the motor and disconnect the power cord to prevent any unwanted electrical shocks or surges, then pull the emergency release lever, which should release the door from the track that allows it to open and close automatically.
2. Open the door manually to determine where the balance problem is. This can be detected by visually verifying whether the door remains open, or closes on its own. If it closes, continue with the following steps.
3. Close the door again and use your ladder to gain access to the torsion rod and the adjuster for the tension spring, which is usually located on the outer area of the spring.
4. Use your locking pliers and attach them in a vertical manner to the torsion rod, at a distance of about 12 inches from the adjuster mentioned in Step 3. Make sure the handle of your pliers rests against the wall or door, which will help you prevent the bar from moving during the adjustment.
5. Place the end of one of your winding bars into the lower hole located on the spring adjuster to loosen the nuts on the adjuster with your wrench. At this point the tension of the spring will push the bar against the rail, so you should leave it in that position.
6. Place the end of your second winding bar into the perforation that is located above the area where you inserted the first bar, and grip the external end with one hand.
7. Hold the end of the first bar so it will not fall out of place and lift the second one so a 45 degree angle is formed by both.
8. Applying upward pressure place the end of the first winding bar into the lowest hole on the spring adjuster. You may have to stop applying pressure to the upper bar until the other one has come to rest against the rail.
9. Using your wrench, tighten the lock nuts and use the second winding bar to rotate the adjuster so you can safely remove the first bar.
10. Open and close the door manually in several movements, section by section. If the door continues to close on its own, repeat the process. Once the door remains open you can engage the emergency lever and reconnect the power plug.