I can not get my garage door to work, can some one one help?

Question

I have a craftsman garage door opener,and the other night when I came home and pulled into the garage I tried to use the remote to close the door. It came down about a foot and went back up. I used the trolley to pull the door down and have since had to manually open and close th door. I have pushed the latch back up on the trolley, but all I get when trying to remotely open the door is a buzzing sound from the unit. I do have sensors on the door and one is green and the other is yellow.How do I reset the one to go back to green. The weather that night was below zero and I have a heated garage. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

if you have a lit light on each sensor as you said, they are lined up properly. the fact that they are different colors doesn't matter. the yellow tells you power is connected, the green tells you they are aligned. if the unit doesn't move and you hear just a buzzing, that could indicate a few different problems. first, check to see how high up the trolley traveled, there is a bolt that goes through the rail just in front of the motor casing. if the trolley tight against this bolt? if so, it is jammed. to unjam it, you will have to loosen the chain. use a couple of 1/2" wrenches to loosen the nuts connecting the chain to the traveler (the piece that the trolley connects to when you engage the unit). after the chain is loosened, pull it off of the sprocket coming out of the top of the motor housing and move it away from the bolt it was jammed against. tighten the chain and then you will have to reset your travel limits. the screws to do this are usually on the side of the unit. if the traveler was not jammed, open the motor housing by removing the bolts holding it on. there are 8 of these bolts, but usually you can pry the case away gently if you remove 4 on one side. you will need a 1/4" wrench or nutdriver for those bolts. if after you look inside you see white shavings laying in the bottom of the case, you have a stripped gear (very very common with craftsman openers). replacement gear kits are available from most garage door companies, but it is a task to install. if you are not comfortable with your mechanical skills, you might just be better off replacing the whole unit. not an insult there, just offering advice based on what i have seen. personally, changing those gears is the most miserable part of my job and i'm doing them every friggin day when it gets cold like this. also, make sure your door is working smoothly. most opener problems are caused by poorly working doors, especially with craftsman, they are not able to handle abuse very well. if neither of those solutions is applicable, repost or contact me via yahoo mail using this screenname, and i'll try to help ya. good luck

Answer 2

Usually, there are sensors mounted about 6" above the floor that are used to prevent the garage door from coming down if something is in the door opening. Check to make sure that there is nothing blocking these sensors (there's one on each side), check to make sure that the sensor lenses are clean, and check to be sure both sensors are "looking at each other".

Answer 3

Cal Sears repair, they're always very helpful.