What do garage door torsion springs do?
If your garage door spring is broken, your garage door becomes very difficult to lift. Why? At each end of the shaft above the door there are round cable drums (see photo to the right). Lift cables are attached to those drums and wrap or unwrap from around the drum as the garage door goes up or down. The lift cables run from the cable drums along the side of the garage door to the bottom of the door where they attach to the lift bracket. The twisting force of the garage door spring turns the shaft and the cable drum, puts tension on the cables and helps lift the garage door. Depending on the size and type of your garage door, you may have one torsion spring or two mounted to the shaft above your door. Some are mounted in the center and some are mounted on the side, but they all do the same thing. They twist and help lift the door. Consequently, if the spring breaks, your garage door becomes very hard to lift.
