Broken Garage Door Cable

[JoeyGee]

One of my garage doors has a broken cable. This is an old door and does not have the center torsion spring. It has springs on either side, on the back of the rails, connected to the cables, which run through pullies.

Where the cable loops back on itself, it's joined with some sort of coupler which appears to be crimped on. This is what has failed. I have not been to the store, so I don't know what's available. How hard is it to find parts and replace this?

Once I do fix it, I will need to check everything to make sure something else didn't make it break...

[newbie2wood]

The cable is readily available at HD and Lowes. It is a common part and universal to most garage doors.

The cables are either 7x7 or 7x19 strand. Just look at the broken end of the cable to see what you have. Also measure your door height (7' or 8' doors) before going to the store. You should get the right cable length for your door height.

If your garage door is old, you should inspect the condition of the springs. If the springs are good, you should consider adding a safety cord through each spring if there is none. The safety cables will prevent the springs from flying around if they should break later on.
________
Realwish

[JoeyGee]

Thanks, yes we do have safety cables through the springs.

The damage wasn't what I originally thought. The bottom of the door has a bracket that rusted through, and the post that the end of the cable secures to is gone. The cable itself is intact. I mis-diagnosed it while looking at it when it was bout 10 degrees out and I was not entirely thorough.

I put a lag screw and washer through the "eye" of the cable to hold the cable in place.

For once in my life, a job I planned to take several hours only took 10 minutes, instead of the other way around .