Coil Support Springs in a 'Cardinal' brand window, mfgr.Bridgeton MO (circa 1992)

Handy Person from Eldon MO

Dec 18, 2018 10:10 am

I am having difficulty removing the spring housing/vinyl cover from inside track of window frame. Cannot tell if there were one or two springs inside. Springs came out in broken pieces. Both sides need to be replaced. Need help choosing coil spring type/ # of springs to order. Your Series 165 stainless steel spring looks to be the exact width and type. Maybe you can advise me further. I will be ordering extra to have on hand.

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9 Replies

Tom from SWISCO

Dec 18, 2018 1:32 pm

I'm afraid that those stickers don't tell us anything about your windows or what balances they use. Can you show us a photo of the balance itself? That would be a big help. In the meantime, see our video below. This may offer some insight on how this hardware works.

Quick Learner from Eldon MO

Dec 18, 2018 3:22 pm

Thank you for your amazingly prompt response!! I hope these will help. The top fastener/release is also broken. I tried to show the balance and the wear directly behind where balance springs were located. I'm wondering how to remove that cover to replace springs without cover or glide channel breakage. Also how many springs are evidenced on each side?

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Tom from SWISCO

Dec 19, 2018 9:59 am

Thank you! Okay, we're getting there. These pictures are a big help. I can narrow your spring down to either our Series 160 (1/2" thick) or Series 165 (3/8" thick). Measure the thickness of your spring to determine the better match. The only question after that is to determine which option would be best. I'll go over that a little later in this post, since it's a little complicated; let's address your other questions first.

Looks like your window used 4 springs on each side. This means that your cover is very tall. I can understand now why you were having trouble removing this. Unfortunately, there's no real trick to getting this out of your window. You want to remove this through the same cutout that you used to remove your springs. If the cutout isn't big enough for your tall cover, you may need to cut it a little and make it tall enough. Review the video below for more info on how this can be done.

Hopefully you can open your cutout a little more, enough to remove the cover from the track. Let me know if this works out!

Now let's return to spring strength. Coil balances work a little differently from other balances in that you want to distribute the sash weight evenly between the springs used on your sash. If I'm right and you have 4 springs on each side, that's 8 springs in total that we need to account for. I highly recommend weighing your sash on a scale and then dividing its weight by 8. That should allow you to determine which Series 160 or Series 165 option you need.

Let's use an example. Say your spring is 3/8" thick, so you go with the Series 165 spring. Then you weigh your sash and get 24 pounds. You'd divide that by 8 and get 3, so you'd want to go with our S160-3 spring. Each of these carries 3 pounds, so all 8 of them working together should be perfect for your sash weight.

Let me know how that works out!

Tom from SWISCO

Dec 19, 2018 10:00 am

Oh, I almost forgot about your tilt latch. I can't tell exactly what you have from that photo but it's very similar to our 26-243 and 26-244. Remove an undamaged version of your latch from the window and carefully compare it to the dimensions and pictures we show. I think there's a good chance they'll match up.

Quick Learner from Eldon MO

Dec 20, 2018 1:01 pm

These will hopefully fill in all the gaps. This is a learning process for sure. Anyway I don't think I need new pivot shoes, just the 2-1/2" pivot bars (#26-021) the coils, balance covers and left & right window tilt clips

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Tom from SWISCO

Dec 21, 2018 10:10 am

Okay for your top tilt latches, use 26-243 and 26-244. See our video on removal and installation. For the triple coil springs, the pivot shoe will be 15-191,the triple cover will be 15-205 and for the 3/8" coil springs for a 20 lbs. sash, use two S165-3 and one S165-4 on each side of the window.

Quick Learner from Eldon MO

Jan 18, 2019 2:07 pm

I just want to report that my problem window is 100% restored to full working order. All parts you recommended fit and performed perfectly. Your company is way beyond extraordinary. Tech help was awesome and very helpful. Needless to say, I highly commend and gratefully thank you.

Tom from SWISCO

Jan 18, 2019 3:35 pm

Thanks for getting back to us with the great update! We're happy that we were able to help you out. Let us know if we can help with anything else.