I installed a Pinnacle 200mm Galvanised Coil Gate Spring, with the intention of making our gate close by itself.
Basically, I installed it, it worked, then after about half an hour it stopped working.
In more detail, I should mention that our gate is probably pretty heavy, having a steel frame with wooden slats. I installed the “post end” (bottom) into the steel frame, and the “gate end” (top) into a black of wood that I screwed onto the slats of the gate, to allow me to try different positions. As you might notice from the picture, I installed it more vertically at first, but this didn’t seem to have enough force to close the gate, so I installed it more towards the horizontal axis. This seemed to give it more force but still didn’t close the gate. I then turned the spring using the supplied adjusting rod and the supplied rivet. I think I made a mistake here – at first I tried turning it clockwise (when looking down on the top of the spring) which seems to loosen the spring, then I tried turning it anticlockwise which seems to make it tighter, and after a few anticlockwise rotations, it successfully closed the gate. I tested it a few times and it worked ok, though it wouldn’t get up enough momentum if I only opened the gate by say 150mm. But I thought that was good enough because the only time you open this gate is for a person to walk through it which requires much more than 150mm opening distance.
Then, half an hour later, I tried the gate again and it stopped mid travel, about 400mm open.
Have I damaged the spring by my initial turning it the wrong way? Have I done something else wrong?
