garage door opener

kospotts · 02-23-2008, 04:27 PM

Hello out there. I am new to this forum. Hope I can find some help from all you experianced folks out there. I have a 1/2 horse Craftsman garage door opener. Last week when when using the interior button to close the door It went 1/2 way down and then just quit. Motor not working. I repaced the worm and drive gears (all plastic) about 6 months ago. I thought that it might be the capacitor so I replaced that yesterday and still no luck. When you try to activate the door with either the remote or the button the opener just click 4 times it sounds like relays or switches opening or closing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. p.s. the opener is about 10 yrs old.

redline · 02-23-2008, 04:52 PM

Did you check to see if the wires going into the motor are getting power?

Are there brushes on this motor?

With this unit being 10 years old it may the motor has run out of life.

Does it get considerable amount of use during a week?

have you check to see if the safety sensors are lined up?

kospotts · 02-23-2008, 05:32 PM

No I have not checked power to motor but I will and as far as i know there are brushes of some sort on the motor. It does get moderate use during the week. Probably 10 to 15 cycles during the week. The safety sensors appear to be lined up. How lined up do they have to be. Is there a way to tell if the motor has brushes without opening it up?

gregzoll · 02-23-2008, 05:57 PM

Un hook the door from the chain, and then try cycling the door. What has most likely happened, is that the chain is out of sync with the opener, which means that you will have to adjust the chain while unhooked from the door, and the gear.

kospotts · 02-23-2008, 06:11 PM

the door is unhooked from the chain as I have been manually opening and closing it for a week now.

gregzoll · 02-23-2008, 09:01 PM

And have you tried cycling the Door opener to see if you can find out if the chain is not in the right position for the Up & Down positions?

**joasis** · 02-24-2008, 05:58 AM

Considering the cost of a new door operator, and the age and use of your current operator, you would probably be better off simply replacing it. I would guess you have a relay out.

I hate to say throw anything away, but time vs. replacement, the choice is obvious.