Garages and Carports - heavy garage door won't stay open

We've recently moved into an older house with a big 2 1/2 car garage. The place was formerly owned by quite a motor head who built hot-rods in the garage so we have more electricity in the garage than the house, heat and space for a future Fonzie apartment.

We also have a very heavy garage door that will not stay open on its own. The springs seem to be attached and contract when you open the door but do not stay contracted. How can we tell if the springs are good or need to be replaced? Is there a good tutorial out there for replacing them if we need to do that? I've heard that springs are color coded - ours seem to be all black. Is that a one of the potential colors or did our motor head spray paint them (he spray painted the windowscreens when he spray painted their frames so I wouldn't put it past him). He seemed to have been paranoid about the garage being broken into - a deadbolt and two padlocks on the human-sized door to the garage, an old disconnected alarm system, padlocks on the garage door itslef, and styrofoam added to the panels.

Thanks

you did not say if the springs were torsion, or if they were streach. if the springs are torsion(they run across the header, or front) id have a pro look at them. they are not the hardest thing to work on, but like working with electricity, its best if you know what youre doing

Thanks for the response. I did some looking around to see pictures of the different types. We have extension springs on either side above the track. If I remember correctly we have two - one on each side. Not four. Is this what you mean by stretch? I came across a few ordering guides that tell you to either go by what is on the tag. I'll look around again but I didn't see one and don't have much hopes for one. They also said go by the width, height and weight of the door. Weighing a garage door - fun!??!

Appreciate any help.
Thanks!

Garage door springs can be very dangerous and if you are not sure of what your doing, you or some one else could get injured. The springs you have can break with no warning, shooting the spring across the garage. There should be a safety cable running through the spring to contain it if it breaks.
With that said, your old springs may be OK. If the motorhead added insulation to the door it made it a little heavier. You may need to shorten the spring cables to put a little more tension on the springs. They make a little bracket that goes on the cables to adjust them. You should also make sure you have that safety cable on the springs too.

Yeah, the safety cables are REALLY important. About 3 years ago one of the cables on my garage door broke (no safety cables) and the spring went through the back window of the wife's car and ended up on the back seat. Thank God it didn't go through someones head. Needless to say, I put safety cables in that night.

Another lesson learned the hard way!

Bruce

There should be two cables on each side of the door. One safety cable, attached to the header, running through the spring than attached to the door hanger at the rear. This one you have already discussed. If it isn't there, install it first!
The other spring should be attached to the bottom of the door, runs up to a pulley at the top of the door, back to a pulley located on the end of the spring, than back to the track for the door. This is the cable you want to shorten.
Open the door all the way, not so far as it falls off the rear of the track, but a bit higher or level with the header. Take a pair of vise grips and lock them on the track, this should hold the door in place.
Go to one side of the door and find where cable #2 is connected to the track, most times it is just tied there. Loosen up the knot and pull the slack through the hole and resecure, keeping a slight amount of tension on the spring.
Now go to the other side and repeat the process. Careful to only put a slight amount of tension on the springs!
Now remove the vice grips. Did the door stay up? If yes, you are half way there. If no, you may have to repeat the above steps, applying a bit more tension.
Once this is accomplished, you have to do the real test. Close the door. If you have the tension right, all will go well. If it is to tight, the door will be hard to pull down and worst case, the spring will break (thus the reason for the safety cable first).
If the door closes...great.
One more check. Unlatch the door, it should pull itself up a few inches, not half way up the track!

If you do have to get a new spring. Some have a tag, some are color coded, some have a number stamped on them at the end where they are attached to the hanger or pulley. If you don't find any of these....take the old spring with you to the store, with a name of manufacturer of the door and the size of the door.

Thanks for your help. The step-by-step directions are great. Now we can get down to tacing this this weekend.

The age of the door is a concern with me.

The springs that came with that door when new were probably 10,000 cycle springs, which means , once up and once down is one cycle. Do the math 10,000 divided by 2 times per day divided by 365 days a year =13.7 years. If this door is that old these springs could be on their way out (getting weak-causing your sagging door). It would be a good idea to call a professional.