The running-gear glossary.

The door types

Sectional door

A door made of horizontal panels hinged together, rising vertically and stacking flat along the garage ceiling on curved tracks. The dominant modern residential type; also called a panel-lift door.

Roller door

A single corrugated steel curtain that rolls up around a drum above the opening. Needs little ceiling space, which is why it suits tight-headroom garages, townhouses and workshop units.

Tilt door

A one-piece panel that tilts outward and up as a single unit on pivot arms. The standard fit on much of Australia's post-war housing, including most of the Cardiff valley's original garages.

The lifting system

Torsion spring

A coiled steel spring mounted on a shaft above the door that winds as the door closes and unwinds as it opens, holding most of the door's weight the whole time. The reason a heavy door can be lifted with two fingers.

Extension spring

An older lifting arrangement: a pair of springs beside or above the tracks that stretch and contract as the door moves. Common on older tilt doors.

Winding bars

Solid steel bars seated into a torsion spring's winding cone to add or release tension, a quarter turn at a time. The only correct tool for the job, and a technician's job, never a DIY one.

Winding cone

The fitting on the end of a torsion spring that the winding bars seat into, and that locks the set tension to the shaft.

Cycle

One full open and close of the door. Springs are designed for a finite number of cycles, which is why a door used daily reaches the end of its spring sooner than one that rarely moves.

Balance

The state where spring lift matches door weight through the whole travel, so the door stays wherever it's left. The single best quick health reading a door has. See why a door goes heavy.

Rebalance

Re-setting spring tension to match the door's actual weight, usually alongside lubrication and a running-gear check. Restores a heavy door to light, if the spring still has life.

Lift cables

Steel cables that transfer the spring's lift to the bottom corners of the door. They fray before they fail, which is what a good inspection is looking for.

Drums

The grooved wheels on each end of the torsion shaft that the lift cables wind onto, keeping the door rising evenly on both sides.

The running gear

Tracks

The steel channels the door travels in: vertical up the sides of the opening, curving to horizontal along the ceiling on a sectional. Bent, pitted or misaligned tracks are why doors grind or jump.

Rollers

The wheels, on stems, that carry the door through its tracks. Each has a bearing that wears; dry or seized rollers are the most common source of a noisy door.

Off the track

The state of a door whose rollers have left their channel, leaving it crooked and unsupported in the opening. Not safe to force back; a door off its track can fall.

Hinges

On a sectional, the joints between panels that let the door bend around the track's curve. Worn hinges click and bang as each panel takes the corner.

The opener

Opener

The motor unit that drives the door, mounted to the ceiling (sectional) or inside the drum (roller). It steers the door; the spring does the lifting. An opener straining is usually a balance fault, not a motor fault.

Safety beams

A photo-eye pair across the bottom of the opening that reverses the door if anything breaks the beam while it's closing. Also called photo eyes.

Auto-reverse

The opener's obligation to stop and reverse when the closing door meets resistance. Worth testing periodically; a service always does.

Manual release

The red cord that disconnects the door from the opener so it can be moved by hand, in a blackout for instance. It disconnects the motor, not the spring: a balanced door stays liftable, a heavy one stays heavy.

The visit

Call-out

A fault visit: the technician comes to the door, inspects the whole system, prices the repair on site before starting, and repairs on the spot where parts allow.

Measure & quote

The new-door visit: the opening measured properly, the door types that genuinely fit laid out, and a fixed quote given. Free, and without obligation, here at least.

Headroom

The space between the top of the door opening and the ceiling. It decides which door types physically fit, and it's why roller doors rule tight garages.

In good running order

The pass standard this business is named for: inspected, adjusted, everything worn replaced, and handed back fit for daily service. The phrase comes from the railway workshops that built this suburb; the standard travels to anything with tracks, rollers and a wound spring.