Garage door does not open (trolley stuck?)

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

alu2007

Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
23
Reaction score
4
Hi all,
My garage door started misbehaving and finally stopped opening. The other day I closed the garage door but it opened up right away after closing. After a couple of attempts it stopped opening altogether.
When I press the opener on the wall the chain just shakes /rattles and gives up.

I have detached the door from the trolley and am manually lifting up the door to get the cars out. The gear and sprocket looks fine. But I changed it out just to be sure but same behavior

If I disconnect the chain the motor rotates fine.

But if I connect the chain back (door still disengaged) all it does is the chain tightens up very hard but the trolley does not budge.

The trolley is on garage door end (not on the opener end). I disconnected the chain and pressed the wall switch to make sure the gear rotated clockwise so that it would be as if garage door was closed. With the garage door still disengaged, I connected the chain back and pressed the button on the wall to see if the trolley would reverse. Motor just hums and chain tightens up but trolley does not move towards garage opener side.

I am not sure what is preventing the trolley from moving. I would assume the trolley would move from door end to opener end easily with the garage door disengaged

Any idea what I should check for ? Should I increase the limits or the force?
 
Last edited:
Have you opened the cover on the machine yet?

Most have a plastic gear inside of them that fails and is easily serviceable.
 
Can you check the voltage at the motor and see if it is within range?

Any chance the opening/closing force setting got bumped out of whack?
 
Can you check the voltage at the motor and see if it is within range?

Any chance the opening/closing force setting got bumped out of whack?


I have been trying it this afternoon. With chain disconnected the motor moves. With chain connected (garage door is disengaged), the motor just hums and the chain on one side tightens up.

I did not change the opening /closing force.

How do I check voltage at the motor and what is the expected range.
 
Hi all,
Restating the problem..

Problem:
Trolley is on door side. Not against stop bolt on the opener side. Garage door no longer opens

What I have tried so far:


  • Replaced gear and sprocket. It did not make a difference
  • Removed chain from gear. Disconnected garage door. Motor turns fine clockwise and anticlockwise with chain removed
  • Connect chain. Garage still door disconnected. Press wall switch to open. Chain tightens on one side but trolley does not reverse. The other side of the chain is loose. But one side is really tight
  • With chain tight on one side, try one more time. Just a small buzz and GDO blinks 5 times and does that over and over. No movement
  • I have not changed the limits or the force.



From what I have read, it appears that the problem can be any of the following
- Limits or Force out of adjustment
- Starting capacitor
- RPM sensor
- Bad logic board or a cold solder on the logic board
- Gear and Sprocket

Can anyone guide me on the next step to troubleshoot. I already bought the gear and sprocket but it did not fix the problem. I want to avoid buying the capacitor, RPM sensor or logic board.

Thanks
 
I am sorry, but you are beyond my garage door knowledge so far.

I posted a link to this thread to see if I could get FirehawkMike to post on this as he knows his stuff very well.

If you want to PM me your email, I can have him email you as well.
 
I am sorry, but you are beyond my garage door knowledge so far.

I posted a link to this thread to see if I could get FirehawkMike to post on this as he knows his stuff very well.

If you want to PM me your email, I can have him email you as well.


Hi WindowsonWashington,
I sent you a PM with my email address in case FirehawkMike can provide any insight. Thanks again for your help
 
I pm'ed him on the other board and I did get your message.

He hasn't been on the other board much of late as I am sure he is busy with work.

Hopefully he pops in and sees about making some recommendations. He is really good with the garage door, amongst other, stuff.
 
Alu,
what kind of opener is it, and can you post some pics? Your binding up problem sounds pretty strange. I'm just wondering with having the chain off, sprocket and gear changes, etc., things got out of sync as to where the chain is and where the opener thinks it is. When you disconnect the chain from the sprocket on the motorhead, does the trolley move freely on the rail, and also, if you take the chain all the way off, does the sprocket or pulley at the door end of the rail turn freely? How old is the opener?
Mike Hawkins
 
Alu,
what kind of opener is it, and can you post some pics? Your binding up problem sounds pretty strange. I'm just wondering with having the chain off, sprocket and gear changes, etc., things got out of sync as to where the chain is and where the opener thinks it is. When you disconnect the chain from the sprocket on the motorhead, does the trolley move freely on the rail, and also, if you take the chain all the way off, does the sprocket or pulley at the door end of the rail turn freely? How old is the opener?
Mike Hawkins


It is a liftmaster 1/3 HP about 13 years old. I did not change the position of the trolley when I changed the gear/sprocket . I will post pictures and videos later in the day. I have to get them off the camera. With the chain off, the trolley moves freely. One thing I noticed is that I am not able to turn the sprocket on the motorhead with the chain off. Should that turn as well ? With the chain off, the motor and gear/sprocket rotates fine when I press the wall switch. It rotates clockwise and anticlockwise. But I cant rotate it by hand with the chain off. Should it rotate by hand as well ?

Thanks
 
Alu,
you won't be able to turn the gear on the motorhead by hand. If the trolley moves freely with the chain off, and the motor turns fine with no load, try turning up the force buttons. The button should rotate almost a full turn, not quite. There should be a little arrow which shows which way to turn to increase force (clockwise). If no arrow, there may be numbers from 0 to 9 or something like that. Let me know where it is now and then turn it up some more and see if that gets it to lift the door. If after turning force up all the way the door still doesn't lift, you may have a worn out clutch. If that's the case, replace the opener. Let me know what happens. Also, did you say you just replaced the gear on the motorhead, or went inside and replaced the inside drive gears?
Mike Hawkins
 
Alu,
you won't be able to turn the gear on the motorhead by hand. If the trolley moves freely with the chain off, and the motor turns fine with no load, try turning up the force buttons. The button should rotate almost a full turn, not quite. There should be a little arrow which shows which way to turn to increase force (clockwise). If no arrow, there may be numbers from 0 to 9 or something like that. Let me know where it is now and then turn it up some more and see if that gets it to lift the door. If after turning force up all the way the door still doesn't lift, you may have a worn out clutch. If that's the case, replace the opener. Let me know what happens. Also, did you say you just replaced the gear on the motorhead, or went inside and replaced the inside drive gears?
Mike Hawkins

Hi Mike,
I replaced the gear and sprocket on the motor head. It is the part in the middle at this link. I did not replace the worm gear
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00023RTD6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

The garage door has been disengaged from the trolley by pulling the red string. So, basically the opener is turning with the chain removed and garage door disengaged. But once I put the chain back on, garage door is still disengaged, there seems to be not enough torque to rotate the chain.
I am trying to post pictures
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Videos added.

Trolley moves fine with chain removed off the motorhead
[ame="http://youtu.be/lOXXnectGC8"]http://youtu.be/lOXXnectGC8[/ame]

Gear and Sprocket/Motor rotates fine with chain removed. This is how I understand it. When looking from below, if gear rotates anti-clockwise then garage door is opening. Clockwise means garage door is closing.
[ame="http://youtu.be/qn6JszP1hS0"]http://youtu.be/qn6JszP1hS0[/ame]

I made sure that the motor rotated clockwise i.e. garage door in closed position before trying to open the door. Trolley is on garage door end. Note garage door is not connected to trolley i.e. no load from garage door. The chain is hanging loose (lot of slack). Next press wall switch to open the door. and you see the opener tries to start but something prevents it from rotating and the chain just tightens up really hard on one side. Other side still has a slack. Either there is not enough torque or something else that prevents the chain from moving. Chain tightens up on one side. Then press wall switch again. Just get a buzz and 5 blinks. ..

http://youtu.be/-qgSZ5P4SsU
 
In your first video, where it shows you moving the trolley back by hand, where is your adjustment bolt that hooks up the other end of the chain to the hole in the trolley? That needs to be there and properly tensioned so that the chain doesn't droop enough to hit the steel track.
Mike Hawkins
 
In your first video, where it shows you moving the trolley back by hand, where is your adjustment bolt that hooks up the other end of the chain to the hole in the trolley? That needs to be there and properly tensioned so that the chain doesn't droop enough to hit the steel track.
Mike Hawkins

The adjustment bolt is there...I have attached a photo. When I shot that video with my phone it was initially inverted and I had to rotate it to straighten it out. So I dont know what happened there.

But video # 3 is what puzzles me. With the chain loose (droop), and pressing the wall switch, I would still expect the trolley to reverse since there is no load (garage door is disengaged). However, the opener attempts to start and the chain on one side tightens up. Other side is still drooping. It is as if something in the motor or gear is locking up or does not have enough juice to rotate it
trolleywAdjBolt_zps47581338.jpg
 
Back
Top