Garage Door Cable Repair
Snapped, frayed or unspooled lift cables replaced, with the drums and bottom brackets inspected at the same time.
A frayed or loose lift cable can let one side of the door fall, so a door with a cable problem should not be run. Lift cables are the braided steel lines that connect the bottom corners of the door to the drums on the torsion shaft; as the spring unwinds, the drums wind the cables and raise the door. When one side loses tension or slips off its drum, the door goes crooked, binds in the track or drops.
We replace cables as a set so both sides carry the load evenly, check the drum grooves and set screws, inspect the bottom brackets and the rollers beside them, and recheck the spring tension, because a cable that failed is often a sign the spring or a bent track overloaded it. DASMA says cable engagement should be inspected by a trained door systems technician, and that is who does the work.
Warning Signs on the Lift Cables
- A cable hangs slack or lies on the garage floor
- The door hangs lower on one side
- Strands are fraying or sticking out of the cable
- A cable has jumped off the drum above the door
- The door jerks or catches halfway up
- The door will not rise evenly with the opener running
☀️ The North Texas Heat and Hail Factor
Cables here wear from friction and corrosion as much as from age. Grit collects in the bottom corner where the cable meets its bracket and wears the strands at that point, while the humid summers the National Weather Service describes, with Gulf moisture and overnight lows that sometimes stay above 80°F, leave galvanized wire rusting wherever the coating has rubbed through. Hail and wind add a third cause, since a door knocked out of true loads one cable harder than the other. After a storm we look at the cable ends and drums before the door is run again.
What Happens on a Visit
Secure the door
The door is held safely in place so spring and cable tension is controlled before any cable comes off.
Inspect the cause
Cable ends, drums, bottom brackets, rollers and spring tension are checked for whatever overloaded the cable.
Quote before work
Both cables and any worn brackets are quoted on site, and nothing starts until you approve the number.
Replace and level
New cables are set at equal length on the drums, tension is adjusted and the door is cycled until it runs level.