Garage Door Motor Failing?

[VaSteve]

Over the past several weeks, my 9 year old garage door opener is failing. (The batteries in both the two remotes and the mounted remote are original. )

The door, will open (or close) a couple of inches and just stop. I can usually restar it, but not always. It's not as if something is jammed and it's reversing for that reason. I checked and it's all plugged in OK....plug has not shaken loose.

What causes these to fail? Cracked circuit board from vibrations? Motor burns out? I would figure dirty tracks would make it work like the auto reverse trigger.

Thoughts?

[wdfifteen]

First thing I would do is pop the motor drive release and see if how opens and closes manually. If it seems OK I would cycle the motor without the door engaged.

[Hugh R]

Do you have coil springs? Check them and do what wd suggests. Greasing the chain/drive screw and oiling the hinges (if its a sectional) doesn't hurt either.

[john70t]

Ditto wd's suggestion.

Instead of a lazer stop sensor, there's probably an inline amperage overload saftey switch which kills the motor and reverses whenever it hits something and can't move.

Check physical tracks, rollers, alignment, easy gliding movement, and spring centering balance(about halfway up) first.

[Scott Douglas]

As the guy who put in my opener said, it doesn't do anything except tell the door what position it should be in, open or closed. It shouldn't really do any lifting if the door is balanced correctly.

[VaSteve]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

As the guy who put in my opener said, it doesn't do anything except tell the door what position it should be in, open or closed. It shouldn't really do any lifting if the door is balanced correctly.

Hmmm?? This is a chain drive and the door is a very light aluminum one on tracks. I don't have the springs and all.

I'll look at all the tracks and such. Probably wouldn't hurt to clean the bugs out of the light section.

[Skytrooper]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

First thing I would do is pop the motor drive release and see if how opens and closes manually. If it seems OK I would cycle the motor without the door engaged.

Do this first !

P.S. you definitely have springs, wether they are extension springs, or torsion springs. There is one manufacturer, the name escapes me at the moment, that has the springs inside of a small diameter barrel running above the door. Those of course you cannot see to tell if a spring is broken.

[shadowjack1]

Check for plastic gears in the motor/ transmission . Sears units eat the gears about every 10 years. Mine is 22 years old and have replaced the drive gears twice.

[VaSteve]

Yes, It does have big springs on the side. LOL oops.

Just now, I pulled the release and ran the motor and it went about 1/2 way an stopped. I did get it to work eventually. It's a craftsman. Sounds like it's fixable if it's gears.. How difficult?

[12own911]

Mine does that same thing as above. When I call the garage guy, he comes out checks everything and says nothing wrong. Then I have to pull the do-hicky and let the garage door slam as I head off to work. When I get home, I have to pull out the ladder and set it again to maybe work the next time. My spring was broken one and my garage opener is only 8 years old. I've been thinking about getting a new opener hoping it would help.

Next time it freezes I will disengage and run the moter like suggested above. Thanks guys!

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by 12own911

Mine does that same thing as above. When I call the garage guy, he comes out checks everything and says nothing wrong. Then I have to pull the do-hicky and let the garage door slam as I head off to work. When I get home, I have to pull out the ladder and set it again to maybe work the next time. My spring was broken one and my garage opener is only 8 years old. I've been thinking about getting a new opener hoping it would help.

Next time it freezes I will disengage and run the moter like suggested above. Thanks guys!

You certainly need a new garage door repairman.

[Hugh R]

Originally Posted by VaSteve

Yes, It does have big springs on the side. LOL oops.

Just now, I pulled the release and ran the motor and it went about 1/2 way an stopped. I did get it to work eventually. It's a craftsman. Sounds like it's fixable if it's gears.. How difficult?

If either a chain drive or screw drive sounds like the track is out of alignment or loose. The motor runs or it doesn't. It stops when the trolley hits something that maybe misaligned. Look at the track and see if its tight and aligned. Look for smutch on the travel of the chain or screw drive (dead lizard, stick, etc). You might also have a broken gear, but I doubt it. The gears rotate many times in the course of opening and closing.

I thought about changing my coil springs myself once, and then I remembered a friend of mine did his and he broke his jaw. The array of different coil springs at HD is large, and the differential cost of having someone come and do it, who has WC insurance, and supplying the springs was negligible, like $50.

[T77911S]

make sure the door is balanced. my brother was having opener problems. i could barely lift his door.
you could probably lift my doors with 2 fingers.

[fintstone]

I just fixed one like that for my mom lat Sunday. Adjusted the spring first...but it really didn't need it. If it goes up and down easily when you do it manually, that is probably nit the issue. Found a broken wire that went to the sensor on either side at the bottom of the door... But that didn't fix. Turned out the sensors didn't line up exactly right... Bracket on one was slightly bent. Also had to unplug the opener briefly to reset it.

[fintstone]

Some openers have a little led on the back which flashes a fault code similar to a car. The manual for the opener tells you what it means.

[Skytrooper]

Most of your openers have plastic gears in them. If the door has been out of balance for an extended period of time the plastic gears wear down. I have replaced a lot of these lately. The gear sets are sold by the opener manufacturers and are relatively inexpensive (compared to a new opener). The are easy to replace. Remember the door needs its counter balance springs, the operator is not designed to do the job alone.

[mreid]

^This^

[p911dad]

You didn't note what kind of opener you have, but there is a way to adjust the amount of force the motor uses to open and close the door. I had a very similar problem recently (Genie screw drive 11 years old) on our door.
I very slightly increased the force controls for the up and down. These are generally plastic screws located on the side or under the light cover. Mine are under the light cover. I turned them slightly (maybe a 1/4 turn clockwise) to add force and the door immediately worked perfectly, both up and down. Caution: you can wreck the door if you get too much force, so go in very small increments.
I was ready to replace the opener, but now I don't have to. I am guessing that as the drive aged it went out of adjustment, and just needed a little tweek.

[look 171]

Check alignment and grease rollers. it just don't have enough power to overcome the rusty rollers and all the extra stress. check the springs up top. apply motor oil or heavy oil. then if it still dowsn't work,, check the motor.

[look 171]

If it does go bad, get a Marantec. They are one of the best, quiet and slow. when my garage door open and closes, I can't hear it in the hosue. My garage is attached to the main house.