How to respool garage door cables??

[cbassett]

I'm not sure how it happened, but the cables that run down either end of the garage door popped off their spools.

It happened in the morning before work... There I was, running late and with a garage door that wouldn't close the last 2 feet (the cables were pinching themselves on the rod that big spring and the spools rides on). So I unhooked the cables from the door and set the door down unsprung. Good GAWD those doors are heavy!

So now I'm faced with respooling the cables in proper tension to counterweight the door through it's range of motion again. Is there some trick or tool to aid in doing this?? I started doing this by hand but couldn't get close to full spool.... and I had the other spool to deal with too!

[DsrtJeeper]

Be very careful with this. The spring is possibly broken causing your cables to unspool. It's best to call in a professional if the spring is broke. The service is very cheap. Many people have been seriously injured or worse trying to tighten the spring.

[Tumbleweed]

That caution was well put. As a young Air Force man one of my duties was to help repair these types of doors (on a much larger scale). I had the proper tool for the job and it slipped. Instant broken wrist, and a sprained ankle from fallling off the ladder. Not fun. These tools were 1" diameter steel rods-about 3' long.
After it broke my wrist, it continued on it's cycle and bent the rod when it slammed into the framework. Be careful. And find out how many turns of tension you can put on them-both sides need to be even at least.

[Jerry Bransford]

As suggested above, I'd call in a pro for this job.

I HAD to repair this same problem at the house I sold last year because it happened on a Sunday and we were supposed to close escrow on Monday... and any delay could have kaboshed the whole deal. It was a scary job for sure. Those coil springs at the top of the door have a lot of force stored in them and getting them tensioned evenly is not that easy. Even the individual panels exploded out of the roll-up door section slightly bending 1-2 of them.

[cbassett]

Thanks for the words of caution guys, appreciated.

Guess I'll wait til Seth gets up here and have him help!