Garage Door Opener Adjustment Questions



Question:
Our house has a Sears garage door opener. The previous owner didn't leave the manual so I'm a bit in the dark. The hole door/opener as a whole had a few problems. New springs and lubrication have gotten them all fixed except one. Sometimes when the door is closing, it will close all the way and then reopen. I think the opener believes that something is stuck in the door. I base this on the observation that the chain has quite a bit of slack when the door is closed. There are two adjustment screws on the unit. Am I correct that these determine how far the unit moves the door and that if the lower one is set for too far then the unit will falsely assume the door isn't all the way down (something stuck in it)? It's a 1/2 hp unit, model 139 of undetermined age. I thought about just replacing it with a new one with more whistles and bells, but if I can keep it working for another year it would be better on the budget.

Answer:
There are four adjustments on your standard pre-photocell opener. (Well, five is you count the chain tension adjustment on the trolley.) Up force, down force, up limit, and down limit. The up and down limit adjustments control how far the door travels, while the up and down force adjustments control how much force it takes to cause the door to reverse. It's important that you figure out which adjustments are which, and it's most important that you not increase the force adjustments beyond a safe level.





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