American Craftsman 70 series spring coil

A quick learner from Tampa says:

Hi,

I have a couple of American Craftsman 70 Series windows that have problems with the spring coil assemblies. In one window a spring is broken, and in another the plastic support has shattered. I am providing pictures of the parts where the support has shattered.

I wish to replace the entire assemblies in both sides of both windows, hopefully with better parts.

What are the correct parts for me to order, including the pivot shoes.

Thanks,

Mark  

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Bob from SWISCO responded:

Hey Mark. It looks like you have a 15-228 Pivot Shoe, which uses either the 1/2" thick Series 160 Coil Balances, or the 3/8" thick Series 165 springs. Please tell me the exact weight of the window sash as well. That will tell us how many coils you need on each side of the sash, and therefore the proper replacement housing supports. Let me know if you have any other questions. 

A quick learner from Tampa says:
Hi Bob,

My window sash weighs 51 lbs. The springs I took out are 1/2"

Thanks,
Mark
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Bob from SWISCO responded:

Thanks, Mark. If the springs are 1/2" wide then that would be our Series 160. Since you're using 6 balances altogether (3 per side) then the ideal spring weight would be 8.5 pounds.

The problem is that the Series 160 isn't available in that precise weight. Instead, what you can do is use two 9 pound springs and one 7.5 spring per side; that gives you 25.5 pounds of support on each side, which adds up to 51 pounds of total support. Hopefully that makes sense. To summarize, that'd be two S160-9 springs and one S160-7 spring per side.

It's okay to use different weight springs in this capacity, just make sure they have symmetrical positions on the left and right side.

For the cover, see our 15-150T. This is a triple spring cover designed explicitly to support the Series 160.

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