Sectional garage door wheel bracket repair

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Gordy7

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#251695 7-Jul-2019 13:44

A loud bang in my garage this morning lead me to an unexpected repair of a couple of wheel brackets on my sectional garage door.

It was on the 4th bracket from the bottom (both sides of door) which would have been carrying 3 door sections around a channel in the early raising of the door.

I would like to see if replacement brackets are available - I don't know how long my repair will last.

Door - No labels found but could be a B&D Door (circa 2001) based on the door controller:

One of the repaired brackets - with an added M6 bolt to support the fractured area:

The door controller and the only clue to possibly the maker of the door:

Gordy

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sparkz25

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#2271321 7-Jul-2019 14:56

It looks like a generic bracket (I'm pretty sure that is the exact same bracket that dominator use), Take that pic into a garage door place and they will probably have one on the shelf or could point you in the right direction.

Or have a look at this page where they have a wide range of parts and this looks to be the part

https://garagedoorparts.co.nz/shop/rollers-hinges/rh-hinges/commercial-3-overhead-sectional-door-hinge/

Gordy7

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#2271325 7-Jul-2019 15:09

sparkz25:

It looks like a generic bracket (I'm pretty sure that is the exact same bracket that dominator use), Take that pic into a garage door place and they will probably have one on the shelf or could point you in the right direction.

Or have a look at this page where they have a wide range of parts and this looks to be the part

https://garagedoorparts.co.nz/shop/rollers-hinges/rh-hinges/commercial-3-overhead-sectional-door-hinge/

Thanks - That is a good link.... also showing it as a #3 bracket... the same number bracket as mine that has fractured.

It is also interesting to see that there are extra fixing holes in the same place as I have fitted an extra M6 bolt in my repair.....

May have been a weakness in an ealier bracket deisgn.

I was about to contact Dominator and Garador as they mention stuff about B&D Doors.

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

Fred99

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#2272188 9-Jul-2019 08:47

Did you put the washer under the lower tech screw on the top part of the hinge?
There's no way a hinge bracket should ever split like that in normal use. I suspect "something happened" in the past - like a broken wire, the panels came out the tracks, and it's been DIY repaired. I suspect DIY as any reasonable service tech would have those hinges in their van, they're cheap, standard between most doors, and only take a couple of minutes to replace. They wouldn't or shouldn't do a patch up job with a washer. So if a DIY was done, I suggest getting a technician in to check and service the door, retension the springs if needed, check tension on the wires etc.

Gordy7

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#2272194 9-Jul-2019 09:07

Fred99: Did you put the washer under the lower tech screw on the top part of the hinge?
There's no way a hinge bracket should ever split like that in normal use. I suspect "something happened" in the past - like a broken wire, the panels came out the tracks, and it's been DIY repaired. I suspect DIY as any reasonable service tech would have those hinges in their van, they're cheap, standard between most doors, and only take a couple of minutes to replace. They wouldn't or shouldn't do a patch up job with a washer. So if a DIY was done, I suggest getting a technician in to check and service the door, retension the springs if needed, check tension on the wires etc.

Thanks for your info.

The door would have been installed in 2001 and I doubt any service has been done by provious owners.

I put the large washers on the upper part of the hinge about 2 years ago and of course added the M6 bolts the other day.

I just now checked the lifting force required for the door after I disengaged the drive - about 25kg - seems quite high.

The springs look pretty massive and probably too dangerous to play with without suitable tools, so I may contact the nearest service people - 100km away.

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

Fred99

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#2272236 9-Jul-2019 09:53

Gordy7:

Thanks for your info.

The door would have been installed in 2001 and I doubt any service has been done by provious owners.

I put the large washers on the upper part of the hinge about 2 years ago and of course added the M6 bolts the other day.

I just now checked the lifting force required for the door after I disengaged the drive - about 25kg - seems quite high.

The springs look pretty massive and probably too dangerous to play with without suitable tools, so I may contact the nearest service people - 100km away.

That's probably a little bit heavy - the springs possibly do need to be retensioned.

Check the tension on the wires on the drum when the door is in fully up position (with the motor on). Depends how it was set up. When the spring loses tension, then there's a risk of there being no tension at all on the spools/drums when the door is in the up position, and if they're too loose the wires can come off the drums. If that happens, then the door drops askew, the wheel bracket hinges can get wrecked, tracks ripped off the jambs, and you'll have a big problem getting the door open. The wires don't have to be tight, but even both sides and not slack enough that they could loop off. If they look dodgy, then a quick safety fix until you could get it serviced would be to adjust the top opening limit on the auto so it doesn't open far enough to cause the wires to go slack (this won't help if the auto is disconnected and you're opening it manually though). If checking the tek screws on the hinges (which do come loose over time), don't over-tighten them - it's easy to strip the hole in the panel. If they're stripped, replace them with a slightly larger thread tek screw.

If everything else looks okay - nothing urgent required, then as you're 100km away from a service person, you probably don't want to pay the entire travel/time for a service to retension the spring - which is only a 10 minute job with the right tools. Give them a call and get booked in for a service "when they're out your way", so sharing travel cost etc.

Gordy7

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#2272264 9-Jul-2019 10:41

Thanks again Fred99. Most helpful.

The wires check out symetrical with a small amount play when to door is fully raised - not enough to jump the edge of the spools - No apparent sign of the wires having previously jumped the spools.

So have made a service enquiry with Garador...

Gordy

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Gordy7

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#2278291 17-Jul-2019 13:52

I decided to retension my door springs myself.

I went to the local scrap metal dealer who gave me a 4WD damper and an additional shaft.

After retensioning the springs both ends by 3/4 turn, the lift off force was 5kg (down from 25kg) and with a slight self lift when the door was up 30% up from the floor.

Very happy. The hinge brackets should last a lot longer.

Click on the image for a larger view.

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

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Fred99

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#2278318 17-Jul-2019 14:50

Gordy7:

I decided to retension my door springs myself.

That door has an anti-sag section attached at the top of the panel - ok in that case as there's plenty of room above, but sometimes there's no room above the pole and the anti-sag doesn't give enough clearance to be able to do a full 1/4 turn, so you have to remove it before adjusting the springs.

You'll have first hand experience of how much tension is on those springs and one of the reasons why DIY isn't recommended.

surfisup1000

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#2278429 17-Jul-2019 16:01

You're keen fixing it yourself, can be very dangerous if you do anything wrong.

We had some major repairs done on our sectional garage door a while back, including spring retensioning and some things had broken. They had to pull everything apart... and only charged us $300 or so ... thought it was good value for a whole days work for 2 people.

Gordy7

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#2278468 17-Jul-2019 17:01

Fred99:

That door has an anti-sag section attached at the top of the panel - ok in that case as there's plenty of room above, but sometimes there's no room above the pole and the anti-sag doesn't give enough clearance to be able to do a full 1/4 turn, so you have to remove it before adjusting the springs.

You'll have first hand experience of how much tension is on those springs and one of the reasons why DIY isn't recommended.

I was able to get a full 1/4 turn with each lever swing - Certainly plenty of torque on the levers as I adjusted the springs...

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

Gordy7

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#2278509 17-Jul-2019 17:09

surfisup1000:

You're keen fixing it yourself, can be very dangerous if you do anything wrong.

We had some major repairs done on our sectional garage door a while back, including spring retensioning and some things had broken. They had to pull everything apart... and only charged us $300 or so ... thought it was good value for a whole days work for 2 people.

I did put in a service request with Garador (100km away) 10 days ago... never heard back so cancelled and took the risk doing it myself...

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.