Sears Garage Door Opener Problem, And Questions



Question:
I have an older , Sears, chain operated garage door opener. Mechanically, the door is working fine, but I have a problem with the two safety sensors that beam a light across the bottom edge of the door, about 5 inches off the floor bottom. The door will open fine, but will not close. I am 99% sure the problem is in the two sensors just described. On one of the sensors, which I think is the sending unit, the little pilot led light is bright and pretty. However, on the other unit, which is marked the "Receptor" unit, the small led light is barely, barely, lit. It is getting voltage, as the led pilot light will very faintly light up when I apply the electrical wiring plug into it. I can also tell that when I line up the two sensors, and then place my hand across the beam of light, I can just barely detect that it faintly changes the intensity of the led pilot light. My suspicion is that this "Receptor" unit has gone bad. Two Questions please: 1. Am I on the right track ? 2. Can these sensors be bought at Lowe's or Home Depot ?

Answer:
As noted, never had one w/ the light interlock to have had the opportunity to fiddle w/ it, but would seem that would be wrong set of leads to short -- I'd think there would be a completed circuit via the emitter/sender unit from one to the other. The inputs at the unit from the interlock would be where I'd do my jumpering...again, this is surmising w/o direct experience. Did you try the lens-cleaning and the direct-coupling alignment/ sensitivity experiment(s) suggested?





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