Garage Door Opener problem

I appreciate any advice for fixing this problem. I have a Raynor 2280RGD 1/2 HP garage door opener that has worked fine for the two years I've lived in this house (The house was built in 1986 and I can only assume this is the original GDO for it). Manually, the door opens very easily and will balance fine at about 1/2 open. The GDO won't open it since last week when it broke. Shortly after closing it the last time it worked, the rubber belt shot out and appeared to be very loose and possibly broken. Upon closer look, the trolly bolt was still attached to it. I found the trolly nut on the floor and reattached it and I followed the owner's manual to adjust the tension on its spring. However, I cannot get the door to open. Or more importantly, If I disengage the trolley, I can't get it to travel completely open or shut. Regardless if the door is disconnected from the trolley (I pulled a pin to disconnect the door from the trolley), or connected to it and engaged or disengaged, it acts all the same: it doesn't want to open. At first, immediately after I re-established tension on the trolley belt, I only heard a hum for a few seconds and no movement when I used the wall control. After adjusting the up and down travel screws, I get the trolley to move towards the garage door until it (hits the end of travel?) and jerks the track and GDO and then reverses about 1 foot. The garage door never moved when attached. I'm just trying to see if I can get it to go to a full open position and then close. NADA... Currently, the door is disconnected from the trolley via the door arm. I feel I'm going in circles adjusting the up and down travel limits, without fully understanding them.

I really appreciate any help since I'm guessing it should be relatively simple to get this working again. I don't know if the GDO thinks the door is already open (and thus tries to close it?) or what, and if there is a way to reset anything it is thinking so it knows it is shut. I only have one button for opening/closing, so its not like I can click it to tell it to open. thanks

With the door disconnected, is it sending the carrage all the way out till it psysically hits the end, shutting off opener or sending it back twords motor? When it sees the travel limits it should stop kind of peacefully. I dont think it is seing the up/down travel markers. Good luck...

Thanks Triple D. No, this thing will travel toward the door (away from the GDO). I'm assuming this is trying to close the door? It goes toward the door, stops abruptly and shakes the rail and GDO and then reversese and goes toward the GDO and stops. The most I can get it to go toward the GDO is about a foot. I've played with increasing and decreasing the up and down travel. Worse case, I just get a hum and no movement. I know it says 1 turn = 2 inches. Well, i've turned these things up to 10 turns in either direction for both and not making any progress. I don't know if the motor "thinks" the door is open and wants to close it (but can't because the trolley is near being closed)???

I'm successful at manually opening and closing the door. I haven't been able to move the trolley that's attached to the GDO/belt. lots of tension on that thing. Beleive me, i'd love to move that toward the GDO and have it engage and work on closing the door (since it doesn't want to seem to want to open the door).

If i'm leaving out any pertinent details, please let me know. bottom line: it worked fine until the trolley/belt nut came off the trolley/belt threaded bolt after the door closed last week. Thus I would hope the motor thinks the door is closed and needs to be opened, but I don't know. If it helps, I suppose I could take a video and put it on u-tube and include the link. hehehehe. Thanks...

So neither at the end of the shaft at wall/header, or next to opener, you dont see a limit switch? The only thing that stops this hummer is the sensitivity?

I haven't looked for actual limit switches. The only thing I've done while troubleshooting this was place a large bucket in front of the protection sensor and it worked (caused the GDO to blink several times and no action). I've adjusted the force screw on the GDO, but was a little afraid to do so since there should not be a reason to do so (not that I plan on standing under the garage door while it is opening or closing).

The main thing I don't understand is that in a previous house, when something has acted up, we were able to disengage the door opener and manually open the door. then "re-engage it" by flipping something on the rope and watch the (I never used "trolley" before this garage door) travel and re-engage. That thing never had an issue with the GDO cycling thru open and close cycles and watching parts move. This thing just moves a little and clunks really hard and reverses a little.

You think there is a physical limit switch by the garage door near the shaft? I definately didn't see any next to the opener. The only thing I've played with is the adjustment screws for the up and down limit on the opener and one of the two force screws on the opener. I hope that helps.

I figured by disconnecting the door from the opening system, that it could now cycle independently of the door, and that is not the case. It seems to travel and bump at the end of the line at the wall/header and then bounce back toward the opener. Of course it hums if I have the up or down limit screws adjusted wrong.

I don't know if when that belt came loose, if that caused a minor adjustment problem (and I made things worse by adjusting the wrong way). I don't know if there is a way to "start over" and set it so the GDO can cycle thru an open and close cycle and then I can fine tune the closing by placing a hard object 1 inch off the floor.

Thanks...

If you look at the header end, is there a trigger switch there that the carrige bumps into when it reaches (closed)?

triple D said:

If you look at the header end, is there a trigger switch there that the carrige bumps into when it reaches (closed)?

Click to expand...

Thanks for all your help. Problem is solved. This GDO doesn't have any external switches. Everything is done INSIDE the GDO itself. I found the problem for why it hasn't worked the last few days, and I believe I found the original cause of why the nut went flying off the drive belt, thus flinging the belt that night.

1. The internal limit switches were not properly set. Triple D knew that. However, my inconsistant results of twisting the UP travel screw and the Down travel screw on the side of the GDO unit was a result of the screw unit being loose (came unsnapped from some plastic tabs) and thus the (worm gear?) wasn't interacting with the drive gear inside the GDO itself. In other words, when the owners manual says turn this clockwise or counterclockwise to increase/decrease the travel. 1 turn = 2", that assumes everything is nice and tight on the inside. So I got a clue when the two plastic screws (normally level just inside two holes in the GDO motor case) became all cockeyed and I had to play with them to get them to even turn. The other thing that went batty on me inside the GDO motor case was a pin came out (and is now missing) that holds a small plastic gear on the bottom of the main shaft (that turns when the motor turns) and then turns a smaller gear that adjusts a moving plastic shaft (that's in the middle of the up and down screws). YEP. This bad boy had no reference point. Since I didn't have a small nail or any bailing wire handy, I stuck some of those garbage bag twisty wires thru the hole in the shaft to hold the little gear on. works nice. I'll change this out soon.

2. What was I doing the last few days besides scratching my head on the humming motor and short travel? Well, we know the limit switches were not aligned properly in the motor housing of the GDO. I just knew if I was lucky enough to increase the up and down screws, then I'd get a little action. Mostly crashing into the header wall, or so it seemed. Tonight, I adjusted the UP screw all the way and it worked. It now traveled and hit the screw (that is in the rail to protect the GDO motor from getting run over by the Garage Door. So the rest of the night was mostly wasted until I figured out the stuff I already said.

3. Why do I think the nut came off in the first place and shot that belt all over the place (lucky I wasn't near it). I think the spring tension on the belt was not tight enough. I noticed after I found the nut on the floor and put the belt thu a hole in the "trolley-thing that moves the garage door when the belt moves", that I had to tighten the nut. But the owner's manual mentioned when installing the thing to jam a screwdriver between the spring and a washer, which will release the spring because the spring will push the washer over some small bolt looking thing. Bottom line: the spring wasn't released. Well, how can this be installed 9 years ago and no one 'released' the spring? page 3 or whatever of the manual. like step 2 of putting the thing togehter??? So, I didn't tighten the washer enough and tonight, the garage door really wobbled when you started it up either opening or closing. in mid-travel, it was ok smooth. I tightened the nut on the spring so the spring collapsed to be 1.25 inches long and that seemed to tension the belt pretty good. The next 10 or so open/close cycles were pretty smooth.

So tonight, I have it set so on opening, it stops about 3 inches from hitting the stop-limit bolt (no crashing - yeah!!) and when closing, it is smooth and stops right after the rubber thing under the door hits the floor. No reversing or crashing at all.

I'll likely play with the open/close force screws because I think i have them set to max and i know that's not good. plus i should test the safety/reversing thing.

Once again, thanks for your help and I think if anyone with a similar belt system/internal switch system, should really take the cover off the motor unit and see what's under the hood. Might save you a few hours.