help with garage door opener won't close

[rfuerst911sc]

Today out of the blue our Sears garage door opener won't close. It goes through the motion but about two foot from closure it reverses and goes back up. I've cleaned the safety beam eyes and tried aligning with no luck. The lights on the eyes one is green the other yellow, don't know if they are supposed to both be green ? Is there a way to bypass the safety beams ? We have no children in the house so not concerned about that. We're in manual mode right now and have the door closed. Any help appreciated.

[LeeH]

Look for an adjustment for the safety reverse circuit. You may have to increase the closing force a bit.

[oldschoollear]

This. It's Npt the sensors(one yellow is normal). Make Tue above adjustments, you'll be set

[Z-man]

1. Check to make sure you have the safety wire secure in the springs.

2. See if the beam is functional by breaking the light path earlier.

3. Watch the garage door as it closes - I suspect something is binding higher up.

4. Carefully disconnect the door from the auto door mechanism. (IE: Pull the chord attached to the release lever). Now, carefully close the door manually.

Be very, VERY careful -- the potential energy stored in those springs, especially when fully extended is HUGE. A broken spring can literally fly through a wall. If you aren't comfortable doing this yourself, then get a professional to do it!

-Z

[LeeH]

What I think he means...

Originally Posted by oldschoollear

This. It's not the sensors(one yellow is normal). Make the above adjustments, you'll be set

[Por_sha911]

I had the same symptoms. It drove me crazy (short trip) for an hour or more. Turned out to be a spider web had a leaf stuck on it and the sensors that protect you from the door crushing something or someone would reverse the door when the leaf got about two feet off the ground. The system I have has a little light on the sensors and when the beam is broken the light goes out. See if there is something that breaking the beam before you start adjusting the closing force.

[VaSteve]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

I had the same symptoms. It drove me crazy (short trip) for an hour or more. Turned out to be a spider web had a leaf stuck on it and the sensors that protect you from the door crushing something or someone would reverse the door when the leaf got about two feet off the ground. The system I have has a little light on the sensors and when the beam is broken the light goes out. See if there is something that breaking the beam before you start adjusting the closing force.

^^^ This.

I also have all kinds of wood scraps, bicycle pumps and the stuff of life jammed in the edges of the garage near the tracks. Sometimes something shifts a little and the door will catch it go back up. It doesn't need a lot of force to send it back up.

[murphyjp]

As mentioned, first manually release the door from the opener and see if you can close it. If the door closes with no issue then you need to check 3 items.

First I would check the flags that the opener uses to know when to stop at the open/closed position. Look on the drive rail and you will get the idea. I had a wire break off one of mine and it did the same thing you described.

Second, check the alignment of the sensors, or just bypass at the opener. These are pretty forgiving as regards being aligned so unless you think there was a significant collision with one I may skip this and move to the next step.

Third, check the open/close force mentioned already.

Hope this helps.

[rfuerst911sc]

All fixed I just had to adjust the closing force. Thanks guys.