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Craftsman 1/2 hp garage door opener

17 years ago

Hi-

I've skimmed all the previous messages about the GDO, hoping to see a simialr problem and solution---with no luck. Ours is a 1998 13953664SRT for 2 doors with 2 remotes, and inside control pad, and an outside numeric pad. My husband has been fooling around with them for about a month, and I can't take it any more, so I got involved.

I read the manual, and had him follow the installation and troubleshooting info step-by-step.

Here's the status:

- Door #1: Door was bouncing up and down when you pressed the remote. We adjusted the force and distance settings, and the door seems to go up and down pretty smoothly now. It passed the box test in the manual, but did not pass the wood block safety test: the door stayed completely open with the piece of 2"x4" in the middle on the floor. The most disconcerting thing is that after the door closes, a humming sound comes from the opener (was there previously to our adjustments). It will only stop when the light button on either the remote or the wall control unit is pressed. How do I stop this infernal humming?

- Door #2: We couldn't get any signal/green light from the sensor receiver no matter what we did. We're installing a new sender/receiver unit this afternoon. We may have many questions after that!!!

Thanks so much! My husband has made this his mission in life, so I need to help him out before both garage doors are jetisoned down the street!

Lee J

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Comments (4)

sdello
17 years ago
the door bouncing indicates to me that there may be something amiss with the door mechanism. Did you disconnect the opener and operate the door manually? It should be smooth and require minimal effort. The springs should do most of the lifting work and a properly balanced door will require virtually no assistance to hold itself 1/2 way open. Adjusting the force of the opener is not the proper way to compensate for problems with the door mechaniasm.

With respect to the hum, does the trolley stop and when the door is closed at a position where the connecting arm is somewhat hanging freely (little to no force through the arm to the door) or does it force and "hold" the door closed (compression in the arm)? If it's the latter then the down stop needs to be backed off. Sounds like it is jamming itself closed and then sitting until the motor overload kicks in.

It is not unusual for the staples holding the sensor wires to cut through the insulation and short the sensors. You might check the wires.

Hope this helps.
leej
Original Author
17 years ago
Dear sdello-

Thanks for the advice. Door #1 is balanced nicely (I just rechecked it as we had done yesterday), but you were right on the money about the arm being too tight. I compared it with Door #2 whose arm swings loosely when closed, and the arm on Door #1 is way too tight. When I pulled the red release cord, it really made a snapping noise. Tomorrow we'll have to loosen the force.

We replaced the both the sender and receiver sensors on Door #2. The receiver sensor still wouldn't light up. We moved it all over the place; we even took both out of their receptacles and brought them to within a foot of each other---with no luck. Althought we can't see any uninsulated staples or staples/screws going through the wiring, there's obviously something keeping the power from leaving the opener to the receiver. The sender is lit green. We even turned it around and made it send to the receiver of the other door which lit up the green button. But, nada with the receiver of Door #2. My husband is very fed up as he is off to get replacement wiring, more connectors, and insulated staples.
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Don_
17 years ago
You really need a technician out to your home. You are describing dangerous conditions with your door #1 and are pouring money into door #2. I hope you don't have little kids or pets.
leej
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks, Don. I'm on my way down to the garage to unplug both units until the technician gets here.
Lee

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