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Craftsman 1/2 HP Garage Door Opener won't Close

11 years ago

Hi, my power went out today, came back on briefly and I was able to open my garage door. When I left the house, the power went off again and I had to manually close my garage door. I pulled the pull cord down so the door could be released manually. It closed with no problem. When I returned at the end of the day, I knew I couldn't use my remote to open it so I manually opened it up and then was told by a few friends that I had to reset the pull cord.

Ok, I was instructed to pull it back into place as hard as I could. Well, when I did that, the door won't close or open on it's own now. It's still open and wouldn't close manually either. What am I not doing right? I'm so frustrated, it shouldn't be this difficult. The chain will move back and forth but it doesn't seem to be catching. I even tried using the remote and wall switch. Can you please help me on what I'm not doing right and tell me how I can fix it please? Thanks in advance for your help.

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Comments (2)

john_in_sc
11 years ago
Ok.. Just try running the garage door by pushing the button and see if it catches the latch just fine. It will probably be just fine....

What your friend was trying to tell you to do is to grab the garage door and manually open or close it to catch the latch back onto the chain. You don't want to pull on the red cord when you are doing this - just grab the bottom of the door and either open it or close it to catch the latch.

You REALLY don't want to do this with all your strength - or you might break something in the garage door latch.. It's usually harder to open and close the door - so it takes some strength to open it up without the help of the motor... but you want to go slowly when it's hooking the latch back up or you might break that part.

Here's what is going on....

The Red pull handle thingey has a spring loaded latch inside it... kinda like how a door knob works. That latch grabs onto the hole on a plate connected to the door opener chain - and the garage door goes up and down when the motor runs. (It holds together like how a door latch holds a door closed)

When you pull the string - you just pull the latch out of the hole in the metal plate connected to the chain.. like how turning a door knob lets you open a door.... and you can manually pull the garage door go up and down without the motor moving the chain.

Does this make sense...
don_1_2006
11 years ago
Pull straight down on the rope and release it. Now you can either move the door manually or run the opener until the two halves of the trolley snap together. The way you were told locks the trolley in the released position.
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