Garage door cable repair when a door hangs crooked

On a torsion-spring door each cable runs from a bracket at the bottom corner of the door, up beside the track, to a grooved drum at the end of the spring shaft. As the springs unwind the drums turn, the cables wind into the grooves, and the door rises evenly. The system depends on both cables staying tight and in their grooves at all times.

---

Two ways a cable fails

Fraying at the bottom

The bottom foot of cable lives next to the floor, where rain, snowmelt and road salt collect against the bottom seal. The galvanized strands rust, then break one at a time. You see it as a fuzzy, bristly section just above the bracket. A cable in that state can hold for months or let go on the next cycle, and there is no telling which.

Jumping the drum

A cable only winds cleanly while it is under tension. If it goes slack, it loops off the drum, and the next time the door lifts it winds outside the groove or not at all. Slack happens when the door lands on a trash can or a bicycle, when one spring breaks and the balance shifts, or when an opener keeps pushing a door that has stuck in its track. The result is the same: one side lifts and the other does not.

---

What garage door cable repair involves

The technician first takes the tension off the springs, because the cables cannot be handled while the springs are wound. The door is clamped, the springs are unwound with winding bars, and the old cables come off at both ends. New cables of the same length and diameter are hooked into the bottom brackets, run up to the drums and seated in the grooves with even tension on both sides. Then the springs are wound back and the door is balance-tested.

While the system is apart it is worth checking three things that fail alongside cables: the drums themselves, which crack or get chewed by a cable that ran outside the groove; the bottom brackets, which rust at the same rate as the cable; and the springs, if the cable jumped because a spring broke. A good written price says which of those was inspected and which was replaced.

---

Garage door cable replacement or a bigger repair

A cable that simply wore out is a short visit. A cable that jumped the drum is a symptom, and the cause needs its own fix: a broken spring, a door that came off its track, an opener set to push too hard, or a door that keeps landing on something in its path. If the door is also out of its track, read about a garage door off track; if the spring snapped first, the visit becomes torsion spring replacement for the garage door with new cables included.

Doors with extension springs use a different arrangement: cables run over pulleys at the back of the horizontal tracks, and the pulleys wear too. The symptom is the same crooked door, and the same rule applies about not touching it while the springs are stretched.

---

Garage door cable repair: questions

The door is hanging crooked. Can I lower it?

Leave it. A crooked door means one side has lost its cable and the other side is still carrying spring tension. Lowering it by hand or with the opener can pull the good cable off its drum too, or drop the loose side.

Why did the cable come off the drum?

Usually because it went slack. That happens when the door comes down onto something, when a spring breaks, or when the opener keeps pushing a door that is stuck in the track. A slack cable does not rewind neatly, and on the next lift it climbs out of the groove.

Is garage door cable replacement done on both sides?

Normally yes. Both cables were installed together, carry the same load and see the same moisture at the bottom brackets. If one frayed from rust, the other is not far behind.

---

Related repairs