Garage doors are a common part of our regular life. A little hassle in this door feels a lot painful at the end of the day if it doesn’t work properly. It can be as a result of age, rusting, wear and tear or simply because they didn’t do it on time. “How to replace garage door cables?” This is a common question that many DIY enthusiasts have.
If you have been asking this question for some time but haven’t found an answer, then this article is for you.
How To Replace Your Garage Door Cables: A Step By Step Guide
Assuming that you are thinking about how to replace cable in my garage door then you are in the exact place. We are going to show you step by step how to replace the garage door cable with ease. So let’s have a look…
Step 1: Prepare your tools
You will need the following tools & supplies before getting down into the replacement work.
- Cordless drill/driver
- Socket wrench
- Vice Grip
- Step Ladder
- New garage door cables
- Safety glasses & gloves
- A rotary tool with wire brush wheel
Step 2: Prepare the door
First of all, unplug your garage door’s opener. You can do it by pulling the emergency release bar. Before getting started, always make sure your garage door is properly lifted. After opening the door up you can take a vice grip under the bottom of the roller of your door garage. Do it for both the left and right sides so that it can hold the garage door remaining open when you will be replacing the cables. Also, disconnect the power supply to your door opener. Never attempt working on your garage door when it’s connected to an electrical power source.
Step 3: Removing old cables
Now position yourself on the center of the garage door. Loosen up the screw of the springs using a winding bar. Don’t forget to insert the winding bars properly and fully. In any way, avoid getting into the way of those bars. Now, you can fully unwind the spring of your garage door and will notice that the tension has gone. In case your garage door has two spring systems you need to follow the same method for the other spring.
As all the tension has gone from the spring, take a wrench and start to loosen the set screws that you have on the cable drum. Now just take off the cable from the garage door’s cable drum. It’s time to take off the cable from the bracket that’s located at the bottom side. A socket wrench will be useful to take off the screw connection with the bracket. Now just detach the cable from the bracket.
Step 4: Fit new cables into place
Once you have taken off the cable you can install a new cable on your bottom bracket. Make sure you cut off as much length as possible from all new cables because they need to be tightly tied down to drums. Now take one cable at a time and tie it securely around the center bearing plate. Run it through the hole in the bottom section of the drum & tie it again very tightly. Assure that, while winding them they don’t get weirdly wired or overlapped. Also, make sure it doesn’t touch any sharp edges or other fasteners inside the drum!
Then pull your cables tautly across the bottom section & tie them securely. Connect the top section of the drum to the bottom one using the remaining screws & bolts, making sure they are tightened properly. Finally, keep away the vice grip from under the garage door’s roller and then re-engage your garage door by using the emergency handle.
Conclusion
All in all, replacing your garage door cable is a fairly simple process. Just follow the steps outlined here. And you’ll have a new set of cables installed on your door within an hour or two at most. I expect that after reading it, from now on you know ”how to replace garage door cables”. In the end, we are only humans and sometimes even humans need help from other people too!
