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Cable Respooling and Drum Alignment

Lift cables wind onto drums at each end of the torsion shaft. When one comes off, the door immediately hangs unevenly and jams.

The usual causes are a door that hit an obstruction, a drum that slipped on the shaft, or slack introduced when a spring lost tension. Slack is what lets the cable jump its groove.

Slack on one side while the door is closed is the warning sign, and it does not resolve itself. A cable that is off its drum will wind unevenly on the next cycle and can crush itself flat.

The correct response is to stop using the door. Each additional cycle risks turning a respooling job into a replacement, and a crushed cable is no longer safe to reuse whatever it looks like.

Respooling requires the door secured and the spring tension controlled, because the cables are only under load while the springs are wound. It is not a job to attempt with the door hanging.