[[email protected]]

I moved from NorCal to SoCal to care for a relative and rented my house out. The tenants vacated without notice a couple of weeks ago. Aside from many other problems I find the Liftmaster garage door opener isn't working. The motor makes a noise but it doesn't attempt to lift the door.

The opener is about 13 years old and is a chain drive. It has been regularily maintained. Is there any troubleshooting or tinkering I can try before calling in a repairman or replacing the unit? The quick disappearance of the tenants left me short on money so if possible I'd like to try to fix it.

Thanks,
Ixia

 

[Sammy]

If your tennants took off that quick they may have also took off that quick on the electric bill... Which means they may have had to open the door manually by releasing the clutch on the door to raise/lower it.
If you can rasie and lower the door without the opener, this is probably the case.

Look for a rope/cord hanging from the track. Its used to disengage the motor and open the door during a power outtage. If its been pulled your motor will cycle but the door wont move since they are not connected to each other. Reset it and cycle the motor a few times.

 

[jrclen]

When this happened to mine the main nylon drive gears needed to be replaced. Take the cover off the opener and run it to see what is happening. On a customers door, I found a simple adjustment on the opener solved the same problem. The key to both was opening the unit and observing what was going on.

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks!

I'll a) check to see that the opener is talking to the door (power is on but the rope/manual open has been used and may not have been reset) and b) open the cover to see what I see. It's been awhile but my recollection is that the motor doesn't make any noise when the manual opener hasn't been reset. I'm guessing there are stripped gears or something.

 

[buletbob]

I'll a) check to see that the opener is talking to the door (power is on but the rope/manual open has been used and may not have been reset) and b) open the cover to see what I see. It's been awhile but my recollection is that the motor doesn't make any noise when the manual opener hasn't been reset. I'm guessing there are stripped gears or something.

could of sheared the key pin on the gear shaft?.