Old Stanley Garage Door Opener



Question:
This is a shot-in-the-dark, but I s'pose it might be worth asking about ... About 20 years ago I installed a Stanley residential garage door opener (chain-drive, Model 2000.05, maybe 1/3 hp). It has given good service. The unit is actuated by either a hard-wired button or a remote. There is a 40w bulb that lights when the door is actuated and stays on for perhaps 2 minutes. I typically go in the garage, open the door with either the button or the remote, pull the car out of the garage, then attempt to close the door with the remote. The door closes OK about 50% of the time. When it doesn't close properly, I can work the remote any number of times having no effect. But if I wait 2 min. until the light goes out, actuation with the remote works fine. A new battery in the remote has no effect on this behavior. Positioning of the antenna wire also has no effect. So I guess this is a "weird wiring" question. Does anyone have any idea why actuating the door with the remote would be dependent on the light-timer circuit?

Answer:
The door should close properly 100% of the time if the door and opener are in good condition. Is the door properly balanced and, when disengaged from the opener, will slowly fall when held open about 1/3 of the way but slowly rise when held open about 2/3 of the way? Are the pivot points greased or, for track doors, the roller shafts oiled? Is the opener's force sensor adjusted properly (on a yellow Stanley, probably a large knob on the bottom)? Is the rail clean (wipe off but do not lube -- Stanley chain drives run dry, except for the chain)? If the opener always closes from the wall button but not from the remote, then it's possible that the switch on the remote has developed cracked solder joints. But if the wall button works no better than the remote, I would suspect cracked solder on the opener's circuit board (motor vibration is rough on it), a bad motor start capacitor (about 1.5" diameter, 3-5" long), or a burned motor relay. There are 3 relays --motor up, motor down, and lamp, and the lamp relay can usually be swapped for a worn motor relay, which will still usually operate the lamp normally. Those old Stanleys are very good, except for the lack of an electric eye safety beam, and all the electronic parts are cheap and generic (three $1 CMOS chips, the main problem area is a pair of 1/2 watt resistors that overheat -- replace with 1W resistors ). One possible problem is the gearbox housing, which is made of brittle plastic and can cause a hazard if it cracks where the safety microswitch attaches to it.





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