Garage Door Opener Motor Runs
The garage door opener is a tremendous invention and fairly simply too. In this article, we look at a problem where the garage door opener motor runs and runs and runs.
Garage door opening systems come in a variety of forms. In this article, we’ll look at the most common form. It has two sensors at the base of each corner of the door. A bracket system on each side of the doors that is spring loaded. A metal bar running from a bracket on the top of the door frame back to the opener proper and, of course, a bar running from that metal bar down to the top of the garage door. The garage door is then lifted or lowered by the opener which is a motor that pulls a chain forward and backwards. The chain pulls the bar running from the top of the garage door back to open the door and releases it forward to lower the door.
If your garage door opener motor runs, it is a sign of a problem in the system above your head. By this, I mean the problem is either in the opener itself or with the chain section. Your first step to figure out what is what is to disengage the garage door. Do this by pulling on the release cable that is about half way between the opener and the garage door. The door may come down, so be prepared!
Once this is done, test the garage door. Can you manually open or close it with no problems? If so, click the opener. Does the chain move forwards or backwards? It should not. The lack of movement is a sign of one of two problems. The first problem is the chain has somehow come off the gear. This is very unlikely, but is worth popping the top of the garage opener to take a look. On second thought, the likelihood is so low that you shouldn’t even waste your time.
The far more likely problem is the gear assembly is broken. The motor and gear on a garage door opener is surprisingly small. The garage door is a heavy mass. The motor and gear are put under incredible strain when the door is opened and closed each time. Sooner or later, one of them will fail. Since you can hear the motor running, the gear assembly is the biggest culprit.
So, what do you do when the garage door motor runs? Well, you can have it fixed or just buy a new opener system. The fix may sound good, but the motor may follow the course of the broken gear in short order. In fact, the new gears may be so strong that they’ll immediately overwhelm the small motor and burn it out! It is probably best to just buy a new garage door opener and avoid the problem.
