NF - Garage Door opener gears

[John Bacon]

Has anybody here ever replaced the drive and worm gears for a Craftsman garage door opener? Is there anything specific that I should be wary of? It looks like I am going to have to remove quite a bit in order to get the two gears out.

[HTHM]

For what it costs I would suggest that you replace the whole thing. It will be less work.

[tb4me]

I have changed them..You will have to take the operator down to complete the job..Its fairly easy once you have it on the ground.Just be sure to put the new ones back on the way the old ones came off..Dont ask me how I know this...LOL

[pikehunter]

You must have a screw drive opener? Chain drives have a gear in them, a plastic one, and I hear about them from at least one customer every week giving out on them. Wish I had some advise for you about repairing them. Price the parts and compare the cost to a new opener and if it isn't too much do as tb4me said.

[Rattletrap2]

John,

I can't help you with your specific problem, but last week, I closed my door on the recycle bin! I had the torque turned all the way up from the winter when it is difficult to close the door when there is snow under it.

 

Needless to say, it made a hell of a racket and no longer functioned. I tried all of the adjustments for travel and torque, but to no avail. The door would only travel about 8 inches and then reverse.

 

I called the technical support folks and they were fantastic. Spoke to a guy named Anthony in Tucson, Arizona and we went over several items. He told me to go home, pull the cover off and call him back as I had called from work. They are open from 5am to 6 pm PACIFIC time. This gave me till 9 pm our time!!!

 

I went home, had a closer look inside and found the interrupter cup for speed sensing had shifted out of place. Fixed this and set things up. It works great again.

 

My point of all this is that they have fantastic customer service and support!!! The opener is a 1/2 H.P. Liftmaster by Chamberlain. They also made some for Sears Craftsman. If i ever had to buy another, this is the one I would buy...hands down! The quality of the thing is very good. Mine is a belt drive model.

 

Good luck with yours!

Edited May 12, 2010 by Rattletrap2

[John Bacon]

Thanks for the replies. It actually wasn't too difficult to fix. Definitely easier than replacing the whole unit; and about $200 plus taxes cheaper too.

 

I did have a bit of a Homer Simpson moment though. There is a short piece of rope attached to the door to help pull it closed if you don't have an automatic opener. I usually keep it tied to the handle but it had come undone. I was just about to give up on trying to figure out why the door would reverse whenever it got to within about 8" of the ground when I realized that the rope was tripping the sensors... doh! The sensors do work.

 

I think it had been running with chewed up gears for quite some time now. I always thought it made much more noise than it should. It is much quieter now that it has new gears.

 

I am pretty sure that it is Chamberlain that manufactured the opener for Sears.

[tb4me]

Lol good one there "Homer"! I have repaired a few over the years. I belive sears would have the gear kits in stock.If not any lift master dealer can get the kits.