&*!@##** Garage Doors

[roadwreck]

RoadWreck...I just noticed your avatar...hilarious. Both of my friends babies are chunkers like that. One is 2 months old and wearing 6 month clothes already...if they did a picture with a little wagon that would be it exactly...

I just thought the expression on his face (which doesn't really come across in the avatar) was fantastic!

(uh oh I assumed it was a boy even though he isn't wearing blue hmy: )

 

[knight1fox3]

FWIW, on many doors you know the sensors are an issue if the door won't close and the light blinks 10 times. The first thing to check is alignment. They have LEDs on each sensors. One (sender) is always lit indicating power, the other (receiver) lights when it get a goo signal from the sender. The receiver LED should be on steady without any flickering. A small adjustment can make the diference.

EG: Too bad you didn't post here first. We could have gotten it figured out.

Those damn sensors provide more trouble than they do safety. I know ours are aligned properly but my house faces north. So in the morning when the sun comes up, the sunlight shines directly at one of the sensors which distorts the beam enough to not allow the door to close. In the evening when the sun is setting, again the same problem. I need to dig into it to see if I can just disable them. I've seen people mount the sensors out of the way so they point directly at each other but I am wondering if I can just connect the signal wires.

 

[FLBuff PE]

Can you mount them farther inside the garage, so that the sun doesn't hit them directly? I often have the same problem with mine.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

You may be able to replace them with a different style. I have a west-facing garage and never had a problem so far [knock on wood].

 

[knight1fox3]

Can you mount them farther inside the garage, so that the sun doesn't hit them directly? I often have the same problem with mine.

I will look at doing that but was hoping to not mess with the mounting/re-alignment. I did put some short cardboard tubes around the sensor head to try and shield them from the light but the angle of the sun still gets in there.

 

[pbrme]

I would be looking at the spring tension also. Be very carefull with this, if you don't know what your doing you could get mamed. Using carriage bolts or other thru bolt would also be fine on the bracket. Again, if your not comfortable with knowing the spring troubleshooting, call for the tuneup guy as mentioned above. Youtube videos are good as well.

 

[Road Guy]

It is the kind that has the spring over the top of the door, its the 16' door so I think most of them are that way...

The door worked fairly well until the wife tried to open it and it pulled the bracket off..

I'm not gonna mess with that type of spring though, I may just drill new holes in the bracket and if that doesnt work call the Overhead Door People (or whatever they are called)

 

[MA_PE]

Good plan. I wouldn't screw around with a torsion spring. Did you check and see if it's broken?

 

[engineergurl]

It is the kind that has the spring over the top of the door, its the 16' door so I think most of them are that way...

The door worked fairly well until the wife tried to open it and it pulled the bracket off..

I'm not gonna mess with that type of spring though, I may just drill new holes in the bracket and if that doesnt work call the Overhead Door People (or whatever they are called)

Careful, they charged me $130 to tighten a screw remember?

 

[Road Guy]

I'm not a blonde....

 

[engineergurl]

umm... neither am I....

 

[pbrme]

It is the kind that has the spring over the top of the door, its the 16' door so I think most of them are that way...

The door worked fairly well until the wife tried to open it and it pulled the bracket off..

I'm not gonna mess with that type of spring though, I may just drill new holes in the bracket and if that doesnt work call the Overhead Door People (or whatever they are called)

be sure to hire a licensed ODP. Who's payed thier registration fees. And get a signed contract.

 

[Rockettt]

ive overtightened them coil springs and when I let that baby go, took my buddy right off the ladder! That is why you put the bolts in the ends of the tracks. i bet all 4 panels woulda came flying out the end and on top of him if werent for them bolts.

But he's quite athletic i must say. held onto it and rode it out until it hit the end bolts and away he went into a bunch of clutter in the back of the garage. I could BARELY get down from my ladder as i was laughing so freeking hard my eyes were watering!

hahaha im cracking up just thinkin about it.

 

[MA_PE]

ive overtightened them coil springs and when I let that baby go, took my buddy right off the ladder! That is why you put the bolts in the ends of the tracks. i bet all 4 panels woulda came flying out the end and on top of him if werent for them bolts.

But he's quite athletic i must say. held onto it and rode it out until it hit the end bolts and away he went into a bunch of clutter in the back of the garage. I could BARELY get down from my ladder as i was laughing so freeking hard my eyes were watering!

hahaha im cracking up just thinkin about it.

yeah, it would have been even funnier if he got seriously hurt or killed.

I believe that you're talking about the extension springs, two total, one at the end each track. the correct way to work on those is to put the door up, put some c-clamps in the track, at the opneing to prevent the door from closing, then set the springs in the "relaxed" position with only light tension on them. When set, operate the door and see if they are tensioned correctly. If further adjustment is needed, repeat the process until it's correct.

RG has a single torsion spring at the door head. It is tensioned by winding the torsion spring and then locking the tension in. If I recall correctly, there are marking on the spring and depending on the weight of the door, the spring is tension a specific number of turns. This has to be done while exposed to the full kinetic energy of the spring. I don't recommend this for a DIYer, call a professional.

 

[Rockettt]

haha. yea they are at the top of the opening. torsion spring setup at the top. clamp and turn. I let that clamp off and baby he went sailing! he wasnt gonna get hurt haha. We did what the instructions said and wasnt hardly doing anything. so we improvised. Didnt want to clamp again so we went a little extra for insurance haha.

I do everything myself. need a roof? i put it on. about the only thing i wont do is my own dentistry. I like my teeth!

 

[jeb6294]

FWIW, on many doors you know the sensors are an issue if the door won't close and the light blinks 10 times. The first thing to check is alignment. They have LEDs on each sensors. One (sender) is always lit indicating power, the other (receiver) lights when it get a goo signal from the sender. The receiver LED should be on steady without any flickering. A small adjustment can make the diference.

EG: Too bad you didn't post here first. We could have gotten it figured out.

Our sensors are conveniently mounted on the ceiling just above the opener so we never have a problem with them. It's got the automatic reverse if it hits something so it's not like it's going to crush one of the kids or anything...much.

 

[Rockettt]

ya them sensors are a pain. just set the reverse light enough it'll reject to a fly.

 

[jeb6294]

When I was a kid we had forgotten something at home so dad and I ran home to get it real quick. This was when we had our old school 16' wood door with the old Genie opener. As I was jumping out of the car to run in the house dad hit the button to open the door. What he didn't tell me, as I turned around to say something to him, is that to save a little time he pushed the button again so the door stopped about halfway up (lord knows that extra 2 seconds would have made all the difference as we were backing out the driveway). I turned around just in time to run face first into the door while running full tilt.

 

[Road Guy]

Well I spent about 2 hours bolting the plate back onto the door.. If I kept all my tools in one place it wouldn't have taken so long.. But I think something is still wrong and I can't tell if it's the door track, spring or the opener..

Door closes with no problems

When I go to open it, it will only open if I hold the button down continuously. If I just hit the button it only opens about a foot. If I hold the button down the opener bends a little as the arm moves the door fully to the open position. There's also was more bounce in th door than there was before.

I assume something must be wrong with the track, spring, etc? Visually I can't see any damage to the tracks or wheels. I hate to call a "professional". But just don't know what to do, I bought some garage door lube from the home depot but that didn't really seem to do anything.....

And to re summarize, it's a 16' door with the single spring above the door...

 

[cdcengineer]

Hold the button down for now and run it into the ground. When it no longer works at all, than have it replaced