Garage Door Cable Repair
Frayed, broken or unspooled lift cables replaced, with drums and bottom brackets checked on every job.
Lift cables carry the door's weight up the opening, so a frayed or snapped cable means the door will not rise level, or will not rise at all, and the second cable is overloaded until both are renewed. On a torsion system, each cable is anchored at a bottom corner of the door and winds onto a drum at the end of the shaft. As the shaft turns, the drum takes up cable and raises that side. On an extension-spring door, the cable runs over a pulley at the spring.
Cables are made of braided steel and live under tension. Clopay warns they can snap when worn or frayed, and DASMA's inspection sheet tells people to look at parts under spring tension and not to touch them. DASMA also publishes a standard for sectional-door lifting cables that covers strength and testing. We replace both cables together, inspect the drums, bottom brackets and shaft for wear, and reset the tension so the door lifts level and holds at half open.
Lift Cable Warning Signs
- The bottom edge tilts, lower at one end
- A cable hangs slack or lies loose beside the track
- Frayed strands of wire show near the bottom bracket
- The door jerks or stops at the same spot every time
- A cable has jumped off its drum and the door is cocked
- A snap, then an opener that cannot lift the door
🔥 The North Texas Heat & Hail Factor
Cable life follows cycles, moisture and age, and all three run high here. A door that runs four times a day completes more than 36,000 cycles in 25 years, and the Census Bureau's median build year for the older towns in this area is 1993 to 1997, so many original cables are well into that range. Spring and fall bring the wettest weather in North Texas according to the National Weather Service, and moisture that runs under a door reaches the bottom brackets first, so where it lingers, rust can start there and weaken the strands. Clay soils that move under a slab edge can also raise one track and load one cable more than the other, so we check the opening along with the cable.
How Each Visit Works
Secure the door
We make sure the door cannot fall, and we take any spring tension off the system before a cable is touched.
Inspect the parts
Both cables, both drums, the bottom brackets, the shaft and the tracks are checked for wear and the reason the cable failed.
Replace as a pair
New cables go on both sides, with the exact quote approved first, so the lift stays even.
Reset and balance
Spring tension is reset, the door is balanced at half open, and it runs through full cycles on the opener.