The Complete Guide to Garage Door Cable Replacement

Garage door cables are your significant part to your garage door assembly. These heavy-duty steel cables are connecting your heavy door to the spring assembly and are like the ropes that lift and lower your door. When you operate the opener, the cables wind on drums at the top of the tracks to offset the weight of the door and allow the door to open and close without issues.

Without properly functioning cables, not even a capable spring or great opener can safely move that door!

In fact, if your cable breaks, no matter how strong your spring or garage door opener is, you will not be able to control the door. Even worse, a broken cable can cause your door to suddenly stop – sometimes even leaving your car inside the garage or leaving the door in a precarious position by being off of its track.

What Makes Cables Wear Out or Break

Like any other cable or wire in your life, garage door cables can become worn out over time from simply using the system. Each time the door opens and closes the cable has to flex and carry the weight of the door. Over time, the metal strands and fibers in the cable become weakened. If dirt or moisture begins to form, or there are signs of rust or corrosion, there are even more chances you may have broken cables lost to rust or just stripping over time.

Friction of those cables inside the system is another factor; if the pulleys or drums become dry, bent or out of alignment the cable can move in uniform fashion, resulting in frayed or broken cables.

Something as simple as an unbalanced door or improper tension or too tight or too loose of spring tension alone, contribute to the deterioration of the cables when that tension gets transferred to the cable, which causes it to stretch, fray, or simply snap.

In a nutshell, any thing that puts additional stress or wear on a cable or over the lifetime of the cable from weather, age or adjustment will contribute to lessen the life of the cable while increasing the probability of a failure.

Signs Your Cable Needs to Be Replaced

Cables have early indicators that they are failing. Here are key warning signs to watch and listen for:

• Fraying or rust occurs on your cable: Do you see broken wire strands protruding outside of your cable? Is there heavy rust? These are critical signs of a weak cable and it could snap at any time.

• Cable is loose or sagging: A good cable may get hard to pull initially, but should ultimately be tight. Don’t leave any slack or droop in your cable near the bottom bracket as it is not under proper tension.

• The moor movement is jerky or uneven: Watching the door open and one side is higher than the other, or the door jerks and strains to open are usually signs of a broken cable on either side.

• Odd noises: Listen for clanking, popping, grinding or rattling noises during operation. These could indicate that your cable is rubbing on a pulley or starting to tear apart.

• Door will not move or closes abruptly: If your door does not move suddenly, or slams shut instead of closing gently then a cable likely snapped. The door is no longer properly supported and is a warning sign of emergency.

If you see any of these signs you will want to call a professional. Ignoring these signs could result in total cable failure. This is when the door is dropped or could lead to injury if serious enough.

The Risks of DIY Cable Replacement

Replacing garage door cables on your own can be very dangerous. Garage door cables, and the springs that are used with them, are under a lot of tension, and if that tension is released suddenly a cable or spring can snap back, or that door may come crashing down on you with lethal force. While the professionals will make use of winding bars, clamps, and safety gear to manage the force of these repairs step by step, many professionals publish data that says not to bother with DIY cable repair, because one wrong move can cause injury or serious damage. Long story short, it is one task best left up to the professionals and trained technicians that know how to deal with high tension.

How Professionals Replace Garage Door Cable

A qualified technician will follow a thorough process to get your cables replaced quickly, safely, and properly. Here’s what’s involved:

• Safety First: The technician will disconnect the power to the door opener and use clamps or locks to assure the door stays in place and does not unexpectedly close down or go up.

• Release spring tension: Using their winding bars, the technician will carefully unwind the torsion springs to relieve most of the cable tension and tension from the door.

• Remove the old cable: The technician will unclip or unscrew the old cable from the drum and from the bottom bracket of the door, and fully unwind the old, worn-out cable.

• Install the new cable: A new cable (same thickness and length) will then be hooked to the bottom bracket and wound on the drum, making sure it fits in the proper grooves and not binds.

• Retension and test: Finally, the cables will be tensioned back to the correct tension required for your door and the technician will unlock clamps and test your door, letting it go up and down multiple times until they are satisfied that the door balances correctly and goes up and down safely.

Since the professional does this type of work every day, they will also provide an inspection and adjustment to the entire door system (springs, roller, tracks, etc.) to make sure it does not have any future issues. With the tools and experience, they need to set the cables with the correct tension and alignment, avoiding smaller issues you might have made during a DIY project!

Call us for Safe, Professional Cable Replacement

Do not wait for a cable to fail and keep your garage door from working, or having worse repercussions because of an accident!

OC Garage Door Guys is proud to offer an expedient, 24/7 cable replacement service in Orange County.

Our very friendly, trained technicians, will show up on time with the parts you need as well as the proper tools to make it safe for you by taking this off your honey-do list!

We will test the door multiple times to assure it is "perfectly balanced" and that it functions safely and reliably before we leave.

Call us today! We are happy to assist you in keeping your garage door in great working order and functioning safely.