Is It Worth Fixing My Garage Door Opener?



Question:
The same day I help a friend install a new garage door opener mine breaks. I come home that day, press the remote control to my Craftsman 1/3 HP chaindrive door, which has never given me a problem since we moved into our 12 year old house last year, and the door only goes up halfway. Strange, I think, something must be stuck. I press again and it goes down one foot, stops, goes back up one foot, and then stops. That is how it's been since. I've disengaged the garage door from the opener so we can open it manually now but since the track is stuck in the middle I can only open the door halfway. So now I have a choice. Do I call a repairperson for help or just chuck the whole thing out and install a new one? Does anyone have a quick fix? Has anyone had this problem before? What did you do? Thank you in advance for your answers.

Answer:
I had exactly the same thing happen to me. I removed the cover at the drive mechanism and discovered that the drive gear was worn down. There is a screw and gear set that Sears sells for under $30, I think. It took me about 20 minutes to take the old one out and a half hour to put the new one in. You don't say if the motor runs when the door does not move. That was the symptom for mine, so I figured some portion of the drive was slipping.





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