Garage Door Opener Screwed Up

Woz the Painter

I have a Stanley garage door opener on a standard steel two car garage door. About a week ago it stopped working, so I pulled release cord and used it manually. I tried using it again yesterday and it would open to 3/4 and stop. I'd click again and she would go all the closed, then immediatly open to 3/4 and stop. Opener was on garage when I bought the house 6 years ago, so I'm not sure how old it is. Does anyone out there have an idea what could be causing this? Any suggestion would be appreciated! Thanks, Rich

Mike Finley

Sounds like the chain is out of sync now with were it starts and stops. It thinks the garage door is connected to it 1/4 of the way up the chain if that makes sense?

Sonny Lykos

Woz, I had a similar problem with my LiftMaster. I downloaded the ownermanual from their web site since it was therewhen I bought the house in '01. It ended up being that the panels were pinching together. close inspection to the hinges between th e panels showed they were bening out a their ends. I used some 1/8" masonite I had as spacers and removed the hinges, straightened them and reinstalled them with the spacers to allow clearance, then removed them.

I figured that out becasue to was difficult to operate the door manually. I also adjusted the up and down sensitivity. If it's to sensitive you and my problem can also coccur.

Almost forgot, make sure here the track parts meet near the top is not off kilter. Where the vertical track meets the rounded/horizontal run.

Woz the Painter

I'll have to check Mikes thought on the chain, the only problem now is I can't disconnect because door won't go up all the way, will have to disasemble bolts on door bracket itself. Also Sonny, I will check my clearance beween panels and check my track. Thanks guys!

viking2131

I agree with mike, sounds like for some reason the timing mech on the gears are off. From what you discribe the rest of the system is moving fine.

jmic

Woz,
There should be an adjustment screw on the motor to get it back in sync. Or sometimes you'll see the adjustment up where the mechanism attaches to the chain. Good Luck!

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Joe

joasis

One of my sidelines is overhead doors and openers. One of the most important things to check on with an OHD is operation: When you have the operator not connected to the door, does it go up and down with little effort? Does the operator move the door trolley back and forth on the track freely or jump around? See what I mean?

I leaned this lesson long ago, but when things quit working correctly when they were working correctly, then something changed. Somewhere, somehow, something that makes it work changed. On a chain style door operator, I have seen the nylon gears "jump" when the door was needing maintenance and consequently, getting harder to lift. On doors with coil springs, one breaks, and the opener litterally has to winch the door up, if it will lift it at all.

I always check the door first. If you can open it and close it manually and it works as it should, without jumping or crashing back down, then look at the operator. Cycle the operator and watch the trolley and see what is going on. For my money, if the door opens ok by hand, you have a worn gear on the operator that allowed it to get out of time. For the money, it is cheaper to get a new operator then repair the old one. Also, I always install screw drives when I have the choice.

Blackhawk

I installed a Stanly opener quit a few years back and it had adjustments on the unit itself for stuff like this small screws or knobs i think hope this helps..

IHI

Just repeating what has already been said from lots of experience installing these units, typically with folsk that have old azz fiberglass paneled OHD's. I always check actual door operation prior to installing openers and I can tell them stright away if there will be problems or not with the opener working with what they have or not. Often the actual door itself is 90% of the problem and needs a "tune-up" as far as realigning of hinges/wheels in the track, squaring up the track, readjusting spring pressure and always applying some litheum grease to all.

So disconnect the OHD however you must and check the up/down operation free hand and see exactly how the door works. If it's hard to go up or down but does'nt feel "blocky/notchy indicating a bind" then put a few more winds in the torsion spring or put more pressure onto the tension springs.

If you feel the door "catching" in certain areas when your lifting the door then something in the trolley/wheel and hinge assembly needs religning and that will just be a matter of checking out each hinged section with wheels to see exactly where it's binding and taking approprate measures to fix it. It really helps to have a buddy on hand to lift/lower door while you check out what is going on.

If the door itself checks out for smooth operation, with the door still unhooked from the trolley of the opener track, raise it up (the opener itself) and see if it goes all the way back towards head unit, then you can raise the OHD and see where the door ends up when it clicks itself into the trolley. Repeat this same experiment by lowering the trolley as far as it will go under power from head unit and check that. If at this point trolley with no door attached is going full lift and full down then it will tell you opening/closing pressures need to be increased (pending OHD operation is smooth) and there should be screws on head unit that take care of opening/closing pressure forces.

If the trolley stops short of full lift/full down then you may in fact have to adjust travel limits themselves. Hard to say how old of a unit it is but the newer generation of openers either use magnetic stops, lever sensors that are tripped by trolley, or have a learn button on head unit that you must depress until door goes where you want it to.

Hope any of that mumbo jumbo helps ya

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