Everything You Need to Know about Garage Door Pulleys

When a garage door fails to open and close properly, the cause is often a worn pulley. Maybe the garage door opens halfway and either stops or closes. If you hear a scraping noise, that could be a worn ball bearing is causing the pulley to grind the track angle. If the door binds or sticks, that could be the result of a split pulley caused by a failed rivet.

If your garage door jerks or shifts from side to side, you probably need new pulleys. To determine if the pulleys are worn, it’s important to take the spring tension off of the pulleys and cables first. To relieve tension, open the garage door, which will remove nearly all of the tension from the extension spring. Use vise grips on the track to hold the door up and prevent it from falling back down.

Then wiggle the pulley to see if it has a lot of movement from side to side. You can also check for loose ball bearings by shaking them. Make sure they turn smoothly and check for bearing wear by twisting them while they’re bolted to the pulley fork or track.

DIY Garage Door Parts Tip: Replace your pulleys when you replace your extension springs. Like standard extension springs, standard pulleys are rated for 10,000 cycles. If the pulleys aren’t worn at that moment, they likely will be very soon. Even if each pulley has just minor roughness, when you multiply that roughness by four to account for all pulleys, you end up with serious performance issues with your garage door.

DIY Garage Door Parts offers pulleys that are an upgrade over standard pulleys because they’re made from heavier gauge steel and have a higher weight capacity, and all of our products are American-made. You’ll be amazed at how much more smoothly and quietly your garage door operates with new pulleys.

Watch our how-to videos to learn more about replacing your garage door pulleys, and call us at 1-866-813-7899 if you have any questions.