Question:
My wooden garage door has the cable that goes to the lift spring hook
to a small peg on the bottom of the door. It sort of looks like a
nail head. In other words, if I pounded in a nail and left the head
stick out about 1/8" and hooked the loop on the end of the cable
between the wood and the nail head. What happens is this: If I lift
the door all the way up, which is slightly higher than the open
position which the spring lifts it to, the cable often pops off that
peg because there is no pressure on the cable at that point. Then I
have to spend a half hour running it around all the pulleys and
routing it back to that peg. This happens quite regularly because I
have to often lift the door to it's maximum height to get my pickup
truck in there. I am getting real tired of fixing this every few
weeks. Is there another method of attaching that cable to the door?
Answer:
I'd be a lot more concerned about the cable flying off with the door
closed, than slipping off when it's open! This arrangement is
extremely dangerous and I wouldn't operate the door until it's safely
secured. This could kill someone.
Normally, the cable ends are fastened to the door track at an
appropriate location with an S hook. The ones I've seen have holes
along the track to facilitate this. There should also be safety cables
on the springs. If it's an older door, it very likely would not have
them either. These are cables that go through the springs and are
fastened on either end. That way, if a spring breaks, it can't fly off
and hit someone or something.
Last summer I was installing a garage door opener on my second bay.
After just about being done, I was testing it and all of a sudden
Kaboom! The end broke off one of the springs while I was standing near
it. Had nothing to do with installing the opener, it was just it's
time to go. This was in a 17 year old house. The door had no safety
cables, so the spring just went flying.
