Garage door opener - part III FIXED

The part I ordered on Monday was shipped Tuesday and it arrived this morning.  Oh yay!

Step 1:

Clean out the drive unit.  Someone said he used an air compressor and just blew out the debris.  While I enjoyed the opportunity to use MY compressor and air jet fixture, it was of little use.  The all of the steel filings and nylon gear grindings had mixed with the old grease and dirt that's been building up for year.

The only thing that worked was an old toothbrush and Q-tips.  A real pain, too, as there was little room to get at stuff.  That took some time, but I got the job done.

Step 2:

Drop in the new sprocket/gear assembly.  I took the top of the one guy on the vid and used my drill/screws to pre-thread the 3 attachment holes in the lid of the assembly.  That tip alone was worth watching his vid.  That done I dropped in the assembly, lined up the holes and screwed it into place.  I finished the part off by securing a new nylon bushing/gear to the bottom of the shaft and lock it in with the new pin.

Not too bad to this point.  But the next one took some time.

Step 3:

Re-attach the chain.  This was the hardest and dirtiest of the lot.  The chain was heavy, awkward and totally uncooperative.  I struggled with it for nearly 15 minutes.  Eventually I unscrewed the chain adjustment to the loosest point possible, just shy of dropping off, and was able to FINALLY get the chain around the sprockets.  *pant*  I needed a little sit-down after that wrestling match.

Eventually I got the chain back to the tension it was before (more or less).

Step 4:

Grease grease grease.   The vid made greasing look easy.  Again, it was not.  (A caveat here - the LiftMaster that he was fixing was way newer than mine and was made a little differently - oh, not in the basics, but in the access and placement of some parts.  That's why I was having such difficulty in some steps.)  He made greasing look easy because he had full access to the drive gear.  I only had partial access, so had to resort to piling grease on the flat of a screwdriver and pushing it into the back of the gear like frosting a cake.  Awkward, but doable.  He advised using all the grease in the tube.  Just not possible here, so saved the other half of the grease for future lubes.

Step 5:

Plug in the unit, step back, cross my fingers and -- push the button.  Push the button.  PUSH THE BUTTON YOU WUSS!   Okay okay.  I pushed the button.

Rumble rumble rumble rumble.  The chain ran to the 'down' position and the grabber thingy on the chain clicked into place on the (still closed) garage door.  So far, so good.

Push the button again.   Go ahead.  What could possibly go wrong?  I pushed it.

Car back into garage just before next rainstorm

The door went up. But such noise, grumbling, groaning.  Eeek.  I calmed down and thought about it.  The chain looked loose and it took me some ladder time to get it where I think is right.  Further tries were a bit quieter.  I also had to adjust the down travel and backed the door up about under an inch (not bad for not knowing what I was doing with the chain).  There.

I closed up the unit.  It needs 2 light bulbs, now.  The old bulbs burned out and all I have are those squirrelly fluorescents and they don't work in the opener.  But the security laser still works. (I put something in the path of the door and the unit stopped, not letting the door down.  And, I think I'm going to have to check into that groaning noise when the door goes down.  It's always sumthin'....

Bottom line - it's fixed (knock wood)!    A scant $27.50 for the part and about *mumble* hours of time (research, figuring things out, finding tools, making do and just feeling my way).  LOL 

There.  I fixed a garage door opener. Ha!    Just one more thing I can scratch off that bucket list.  *heh*   Time for a celebratory beverage, no? :-D  (And, honestly, I've got to load up this bucket list with better stuff.  Fix a garage door opener?  I think I need to adjust my meds, for crying out loud!)

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Garage door opener - Part II

Sunday evening I started researching a fix for my opener.  After a few false starts, I narrowed down the search parameters to "replace gear in LiftMaster garage door opener".

That netted me some gears/parts AND links to a couple YouTube videos.

After watching a half-dozen vids, I learned a lot!  Some vids are just useless, but one guy EXCELLENT.  (Click here for the vid.)

Hmm, it doesn't really look too hard to do when he does it....

I wonder if I could just buy the gear kit and have Craig put it in?

This morning (Monday) the garage door guy returned my Saturday call.  Before he even started, I said, "Wait.  Listen.  This is just advice, but your outgoing message implies that you're there, but can't get to the phone now.  So I waited by the phone for a long time for you to call back, but no."

"Uh, oh."

"If you're not open on Saturday, let us poor people out here know that - so we can move on with our lives!"

"Um, yeah.  Maybe we could do something about that..."

Nuff said.  Anyway I told him how my nylon gear looked like a birds nest from what I could see and do they have a replacement kit?  Yep.  How much?  $46  And total if you guys install it? Lessee.... labor... service call...  around $130-150.

Okay, thanks.  I'll get back to you.  *click*  Riiiiiight.

I called another outfit only closer.  Unit price?  $52  Holy cow!

But WAS the unit the problem?  Only way to find out.

Next thing you know this idiot is up the ladder and taking off the hood.

Oh good grief!  What a mess.  Yep, that gear is toast!

The bottom bushings were good and so was the worm gear.  Looks like all it would need is:

remove the chain

remove 3 screws to free up the gear/sprocket assembly

remove the pin from the bottom bushing and remove that

then just pull the damaged assembly right the top of the unit

Gee, it DID look kinda simple on the vid....  let me just get my cordless drill.

While it took me over half-an hour, the whole process WAS straightforward and no blood was spilt (always a good thing).  The hardest thing to do was remove the chain.  And I'm sure I frizzed it up so the 'travel' will be way off when I put it back together.  Hope I'll be able to adjust okay.

Yeah, you can see that not only has the nylon gear (bottom pic) been destroyed, the sprocket and bearing that runs the chain is obviously (by all the metal grindings) that it's toast too.

Y'know, I CAN do this!   But buy locally?  Nuts to THAT.  What a rip.  Back to the computer!

Ebay - $27 + free shipping.

I hesitated.  I really hate buying stuff online.  Push the darn button, you wuss!  PUSH IT!  

Okay okay.  

Replacement unit coming from Michigan and should be here Thursday or Friday.  So we wait.

The guy in this vid was great.  Two things he mentioned that you should NOT miss:

1) The 3 holes in the top of the replacement unit (that holds it to the frame) are NOT DRILLED.  So save some grief and use your drill to drive the old screws into those holes to thread them BEFORE you get back up that ladder.

2) And this one will be taped right on my opener:  Use ALL the lubricant that comes with the kit - use it on EVERY gear, replaced or not.  Then - here's the kicker - DO THAT EVERY 5-7 YEARS.  That way the darn gear won't NEED replacing next time.

(#2 is something that NO ONE making these service calls (like I had in January) inspect the innards or even MENTION that lubrication is VITAL to the whole thing)  Why?  Gosh, if the stuff doesn't BREAK, where would they sell new equipment or gouge you for repairs.  I'm just saying...

Stay tuned.

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Garage door opener - Part I

Saturday dawned - bright, mild, inviting.  Hey, maybe a little time outside, I thought.  So I tidied up the kitchen, grabbed the compost and took it out to the garage, hit the door opener and .... nothing.

Well, except for a really bad noise from the unit.

Oh what fresh hell is this???

Hey, who in the back laughed?  This is serious stuff.  I have a HUGE doublewide heavy wooden garage door which even when I was in good shape, CAN NOT LIFT IT.

I was trapped in my own garage.  The car was trapped.  Garden tools were trapped. 

I called the same people who were out at the end of January who adjusted the chain and 'gave the unit a once over'.  (More on THAT later .. *fume*)  All I got was a recording - "We'll get back to you soon."  HA!   I called another.  Not open on Saturday.  Wha???

I hiked over to the nabe's, and asked their son to some open the door for now.  That done, I drove the car out, grabbed a ladder, hauled myself up it (look Ma, no net!), and peeked through the hood. 

That nice white nylon gear the guy said looked good, now looked like a bird's nest!  And there were a lot more metal filings on the gear that ran the chain.  One of these days I'm going to stop getting angry, give up, and just have a good cry at the unfairness of it all. 

I priced new units.  OMIGOD.  Okay, I thought.  Step back.  The car is outside.  A garden helper and I could work outside and use the tools.  At the end of the day I can close the door.  Then, Sunday (or Monday) I can do some research on the unit and make a less knee-jerk decision about it.  Still, all I can say is -- CRAP CRAP CRAP.

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