Craftsman garage door opener, model 41a4315-6c. Has always worked fine, but a few years ago I disconnected the linkage to the door because I had heard stories of people having their doors opened by people fishing hooks in to grab the red handle, etc (who knows if it was a valid concern or not).

Anyhow, now I'm working on connecting the door back to the opener. First, though, I thought I would press the remote and make sure that the "carrier" (?) was still traveling fully along the length of the track. However, the carrier only travels about 3 feet before stopping. When I press the remote again, it comes 3 feet back towards the inside of the garage. It appears to be coming to the end of the track on the inside of the garage, so I guess you could say if I had a door hooked up, it would be starting in the fully up position and only closing the door down 3 or 4 feet.

I wanted to add that the sensors both appear to be working properly, they both have solid green lights, no flickering whatsoever, and when the carrier is in the middle of its 3 foot travel, I can put my hand in front of the sensor and it will immediately stop the door. So, my guess is that it is not the sensors.

I am mostly confused because (unlike some of the other posts) the whole thing was working perfectly until I disconnected the door. I never played around with the system itself outside of this. I am having a hard time thinking that some piece of electronics has gone bad by just sitting in my garage for a few years.

Is there a certain amount of tension that the carrier needs to have on it to work properly? Could it be that it will work fine once I reconnect the door to the carrier?

Looking forward to hearing what you experts may have for ideas. Thank you in advance for your help.

Mark