Garage Door Opener problem

[James]

This is a Craftsman unit, about 12 years old. It uses the chain, but has worked fine.

Today, the door would not go up and down. The unit buzzes (loud) like the motor is trying to run, but the chain does not move. Can unhook the door from the chain, and run it up and down manually, but the drive motor seems to be buzzing and not functioning properly.

Is the a home repair, or more likely a worn out unit needing replacing ?

Thanks

James

[fftt]

check to see if the chain has jumped off the drive sprocket & has jammed the unit

next remove the chain from the drive sprocket & see if the unit cycles w/o load

cheers Bob

[Stormin Mormon]

Look for red reset button. Might be bad run capacitor for motor. Motor and chain may very well be dried out. So many options.

[James]

thanks for replies. Have checked for chain jumping off sprocket, but it has not done so.

Will look for reset button asap. Will also try the test with chain off sprocket.

Thanks again !!

James

[Hipupchuck]

See if the drive shaft is spinning in the sprocket.

[HeyBub]

This model may have nylon gears - and they often get stripped. A new set of gears is cheap and easy for the homeowner to replace.

[PeterD]

Crapsman? Probably best to replace, they are not expensive. I'd guess (just a guess) the motor bearings are 'frozen'.

[jamesgangnc]

This is very likely to be the correct answer. Many of these have a nylon gear set that slowly wears away. Looks like this;

[Hipupchuck]

Made by Mattel, they are swell.

[Sooperdave]

Totally off the mechanical subject, but wanted to add that my unit stopped working and didn't respond to the remotes or hardwired pushbutton. This one is similar to the Craftsman but sold under a different name.

I pulled the electronics out and on the PCB found FOUR cold solder joints (and a couple more that i didn't quite like the looks of.) Resoldered all the joints and it works like a charm.

[The Daring Dufas]

Most of the problems I come across when repairing electronic equipment has to do with cold solder joints. It's amazing how much good stuff people discard in the trash that has little or nothing wrong with it. I've see many expensive control circuit boards thrown away that had a simple to repair bad connection.

TDD

[James]

thanks everyone for the good comments and advice !!

James

[PeterD]

I had exactly the same problem with one of mine too... A bunch of bad solder joints that made the thing fail after a few months in service. Again, that is what comes from buying the cheapest imported crap from China that there is. Next time, I'll look for American made--could not find any last time, but maybe next time someone will have started making a quality unit here.

[Steve Kraus]

If it's humming as opposed to making mechanical grinding sounds I'd guess maybe the motor capacitor.

We have a Craftsman still in service after 33 years and the only thing it ever needed was (many years ago) a new capacitor, a new belt (maybe 5 years ago), and a repair to the thermal delay for the light bulb (a few months ago. I was able to solder the tiny wire where it had broken).

[Stormin Mormon]

So, what did you find? Please tell us what was the problem, and how did you fix it?

[James]

The problem was the plastic gear in the motor control unit. It had worn out completely. Replaced, and the door works great !!

Thanks for all the replies !!

James

[pheeh.zero]

Heybub is the winner...to the point and nearly precise! I am a mechanic (almost) and this is NOT the easiest job. I think the gear set was 20 or $25. And Sears' openers are Chamberlain...and NOT a crappy opener!

[clare]

Make sure you got all the grease that came with the kit into the gearset. Without that grease they are about a 6 month item - with the grease, 12 -15 years or more.