craftsman 1/2 hp garage door struggles to open

9 years ago

I consider myself pretty good with fixing things, but this one has me baffled.

I have a 12 year old craftsman garage door opener, all the springs and pulleys are ok, everything has been greased etc, but the opener struggles to lift the door, often getting stuck several times, and I have to help it along manually.

If I release the door from the opener, the door opens and closes smoothly. When the opener is not attached to the door, the mechanism moves along the rail smoothly.

The door closes fine as well, presumably from the weight of the door and gravity pulling it down. So it's just opening it.

The chain had some slack in it, so I tightened the chain, but that seemed to make it worse. Also, in warm weather, it seemed to stick more than in cold weather.

Could it really be the opener itself? Seems like the gear inside the opener is warn out or slipping or something.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, thanks!!!

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Comments (3)

randy427
9 years ago
There are neoprene drive gears in the Sears GDO that wear out over time. Sears has replacement parts kits for this which are easily installed by the 'moderately handy'.
First, make sure your door is in balance where the springs are doing the heavy lifting. When disconnected from the GDO, the door should be able to be left about half-way down without closing on its own.
ericb1
Original Author
9 years ago
hey, thanks for the reply! Yes, after I posted that, I was so perplexed as to what it could be (since I had replaced the springs a year or two ago) that I opened the housing to the opener, and all the pieces from the broken plastic gear inside came spilling onto the floor.

For anyone else who comes across this post, there is a sears kit, part # 41a2817 that has all the replacement parts in it.
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mike_kaiser_gw
9 years ago
Chamberlain makes Craftsman (and Liftmaster) openers and the gears wearing out is a very common problem all three brands.