Hinges and Rollers Work as a Pair
A wheel does not mount to the door. It mounts to a hinge, and the hinge decides where the wheel sits and how much freedom it has. The page at Garage Door Roller Repair Orange County CA 4 Rue Montmartre treats the two as one assembly, because half the repeat failures seen on an Orange County garage door come from fitting a good part into a worn joint.
What the Numbers on a Hinge Mean
Intermediate hinges are stamped with a number. Number one joins the bottom section to the one above, number two joins the second to the third, and so on. Each number places the pivot at a slightly different offset so the sections can turn through the curve of the rail without the panels binding on each other. They are not interchangeable.
What Happens When They Are Swapped
Put a two where a three belongs and the door will rub at exactly one point in its travel, usually as the section enters the curve. The wheel at that position gets pushed against the flange, the tread scrubs, and that one part fails long before the others. It is a fault that looks like a bad roller and is not.
The Stem Hole
The stem passes through a formed hole in the hinge leaf. Once a bearing has developed play, the stem starts working in that hole and wears it oval. A new wheel dropped into an oval hole has the same freedom to wander that finished off the old one, which is why the door is quiet for a few weeks and then is not.
Checking a Joint Properly
Pull the wheel with the door down and look at the hole against a straight edge or simply against a new hinge. Rock the stem in place before removing it. Look for cracking around the knuckle and for a hinge leaf that has begun to spread, both of which are common on doors that have run with a tired counterbalance.
End Hinges Are Different Again
The hinges at the outer edges of the sections carry the wheel and take the sideways load, and on most doors they are a heavier gauge than the intermediate hinges in the middle. They are also the ones that see the most stress when a door has been running out of square. Check them first when a door has been off track.
Changing Them Together
When a full set of wheels goes on, the hinges are worth inspecting position by position, and the worn ones changed at the same time. A hinge costs very little next to the labour of taking the door apart twice, and it is the part that decides whether the new wheels get to reach their rated life.