Automatic Garage Door Opener problem

[enigma]

Periodically the garage door (Norelco Genie Trac-Drive), operated both by the hard-wired switch and the remote, will go down/up a few inches, then stop and retract a few. If I continually hold the button, I can get it to continue to move, though it sometimes stops after a few feet until I do it again. I've repeatedly lubed all elements, and indeed, it appears that spraying teflon lubricant on the rail/track will remedy it, for a few days/weeks, anyway. But I don't imagine that should be necessary? I also tried white grease on it to last longer, to no avail. This appears to be the issue, but fwiw where the rail attaches to the front of the garage moves a bit when it starts/stops. I thought that might be the problem, but then it's remedied by the lubricating. Any thoughts? TIA!

[jim]

on my sears screw drive gar. door opener. i had to get all the old greas off .. i took the screw mechanizm down and put it in the back yard and sprayed some brake cleaner on it and worked on it with a wire brush and got all the old grease off... spraying some WD-40 on it before this seemed to work for a day or so.. the WD-40 is a solvent and cut the grease and let the old grease lubricate it but the real fix came with removing the old grease that was full of dust/dirt... it then worked like a charm....

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Use the clutch adjusting tool which came with the opener to take up the slack. The tool should be left with you when the opener was installed by installer. I don't use grease, I spray twice a year with Teflon based lubricant. Also I wet springs with it to prevent metal fatigue from metel-metal rubbing. Dry springs will fail premature. Tony

[enigma]

Thanks for both tips! What's the "screw mechanism"? I began to do this when I thought that might be the problem in the wheels of the door, but it was such a hassle getting the first one off, and I wasn't sure that was the problem, that I stopped. Then I found that it appeared to be just in the rail. I'll check to see how hard it would be to take that down. Re: adjusting the clutch, I'll try that. But since the door works after lubrication, my guess is that the clutch is okay, as long as the mechanism is clean and oiled. Though, at least temporarily, that could be a way to get it to work until I can get around to completely cleaning it. Thanks again!

[Dan Hartung]

Hmm. Does the door open fine manually, with the emergency cord? With the door off the chain, does the chain mechanism work properly? And is the emergency stop sensor clogged or obstructed in any way, and are all the connections sound? This sounds like emergency stop behavior.

Wild guess, FWIW.

[Doordoc]

The trac drive opener (no longer made because the tape that was suppose to never break or fail did break & fail on a regular basis) was not suppose to be lubricated. Plastic tape sliding through aluminum shouldn't need lubrication. Where the tape goes trough the gear box housing on the motor is just large enough for the the tape to go through. Grease which collects dirt (as another post mentioned)inside the housing and will not let the tape travel smoothly through.

The drive gear (also plastic) in the housing also failed regularly. Look at the holes in the tape, if they are starting to split the drive gear is going bad & chewing up the tape and the shavings are also collecting inside the housing. If you can find the parts they can be changed but it's a real pain to do and you will still have a very obsolete opener that makes a better paper weight than garage door opener. Actually I'm surprised it lasted this long.

Doordoc

Doordoc

[Walt Conner]

Genie did have a toll free number you could call and they would help you diagnose problem free of charge. I don't know if they still do but worth a try.

Walt Conner

[enigma]

Boy! Now that's an informed answer! Thanks so much for all the info. I'll try opening the housing and cleaning it out. Since the lubing does help, temporarily, is it that, though not supposed to be necessary, the lubing is helping it to travel more freely? I'm guessing so, though apparently at the peril of collecting more stuff inside. Ooppsss... Thanks again for the great advice!