My father has a Sears garage door opener that has stopped working. He needs the opener to work, since the door is pretty heavy, and my mother is unable to lift the door herself. The opener is a Sears 1/2 horse electric opener. The gears are stripped, but the motor works fine. We are told that the replacement gears, which are designed to shear at 45 pounds, cost about $35 from the Sears parts store. A new opener costs $162, without the extra remote control openers. Here are my questions:

Should we fix or replace the opener?

Is this repair easy to do? I have some mechanical ability and will accept a challenge, but will I need special tools?

Does any other manufacturer make parts for the Sears brand openers?

Are the old remote control openers 'reprogamable' for use on the new opener?

Anything else I need to know??????

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

-- clove (clovis97@Yahoo.com), January 01, 2002

Answers

How long had it been in use before it stripped the gear? If the door is too heavy your repair won't last long. It the gears just wore out from old age I'd fix it. $35 is about right for a gear set. No special tools needed. Some have c-clips but you can remove with a small screwdriver or needle nose pliers. Most Sears openers are made by Liftmaster. Some remotes are compatible, not all.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), January 01, 2002.

I doubt the remote will work on both. It sounds like you need to adjust the helper springs or replace them. round here the Sears Door openers are on sale most of the time for more like $125. If the gears is the only thing bad I think I would replace them and work on the springs. Be very careful when working on the springs, they can get you.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), January 01, 2002.

I forgot to mention my remote went bad and I went to get a new oe from Sears. They wanted $95 for the remote and new reciever so I put in a whole new opener for $125. The openers is one thing Sears has that is still one of the best on the market.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), January 01, 2002.

I did that exact same repair on my Sears door opener. Got my parts from the Sears counter and felt good when the lady behind the counter told me she had just replaced hers. As I recall the price was more like 22.00. Did it in one afternoon-Not hard really, and they came with good instructions. Lots of little screws to keep track of and a pin to drive out. I think the kit came with an allen wrench too. So don't be afraid to give it a whirl.

-- Walt K. (kraterkrew@lcsys.net), January 01, 2002.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!!!!!

The opener has been in service for about 14 years, and has always worked like a champ. After close inspection, we believe that the door and header has settled, and the door has been catching on a piece of trim. We will remove this catch, and then repair the opener with a new gear set.

It appears that the plastic/nylon gears have been wearing heavily for some time now.

Anyone got any other suggestions?

Thanks again for for all your time and help.

-- clove (clovis97@Yahoo.com), January 01, 2002.

we replaced the plastic gears in my unit about a year ago.

the only other advice i would give you, is to be sure that the springs are at the proper tension. when they are, the door is easily lifted up and down by hand. i'm not exactly sure if that's something i would want to tackle myself, i've seem them break on our big commercial doors at work. when the springs are properly adjusted, it's easy for your door, when they are not adjusted properly and the motor has to strain to open the door then that's the main reason gears strip.

good luck

gene

-- gene ward (gward34847@aol.com), January 02, 2002.

I would try to fix it. There is a company called McMasters and another called Grainger where gears and odds and ends can be purchased.

It is not unusual for parts to carry at least a 100% markup, so if you can accurately measure the gears, it is possible you might be able to buy them outright a lot cheaper than from Sears. The company that is making the opener is probably paying less than a dollar for the gears.

As far as the springs go, I prefer to leave them alone and merely add or takeoff additional turns of the cable on the end pulleys to get the tesnion set right. Do this when the door is fully in the up position and there will be little or no tension on the springs. I find this to be a lot safer than messing around with the springs when the door is down as the instruction manuals suggest.

The door should not be hard to lift if there is enough spring tension and it is set evenly on both left and right sides.

-- Gary (hpysheep@midwestinfo.com), January 02, 2002.

Yippeee!!!!!!

We bought the gear set from Sears' parts warehouse today and the price for the set was $22. The instructions were great and easy to follow. While I think that Sears has 100% mark up or more on this set, I must say that the gear set was complete and easy to use.

It took two of us about 3 hours to complete the change from start to finish. This time included the removal of the opener and all steps in between to the final step of doing garage door maintainence. I would say that the next gear change we do would take half that time, maybe less. I might add that we took our time during the process, and enjoyed each other's company.

I would like to THANK everyone here for their input and for teaching me that this job could be done!! I have learned so much !!! Heck, up until the other day, I didn't even know that an opener could be repaired by a homeowner for less than a cost of a new unit.

By the way we closely inspected the overhead door, and she looks real good, mechanically speaking. Thanks again for the lessons on doors.

-- clove (clovis97@Yahoo.com), January 02, 2002.