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when i open the garage, it will open up a foot and stop. it will go nback down and when i do it up again....same thing. it stops at a foot. there is nothing blocking the sensors. it will work occasionally and then go back to the foot deal. any help would be appreciated.

The plastic gear may be worn out. I had to replace mine last summer for basically the same thing.

If you give it some help (pick up on the door while it is pulling up) will the door go up? Mine is doing the same as yours, but with a little help, it'll work.

Is this also a sign of bad gears. I am thinking I may just need to lube the track a little -- like it is giving enough resistance not to allow it to pick up.

you said your sensors were not blocked, but are they aligned? They need to make a "laser beam" from one side to the other. Are they perfect? I think on most of them the light has to be amber. What may be happening is it is off a little one day then the next time you try it it has settled back and now they are lined up. Most garages will go up, but they will not come down, however, I do think some will not go up. I am not a garage door fixer upper but I did stay at a holiday inn express last night!

its not your gears. its your springs that are broke but if you continue to try and open and close it YES it will strip your gears which will cause a bigger problem. best thing to do is call someone to come fix it. same thing happened to mine a few months ago. coast me just under $200 to get it fixed

Do as JT recommends...call someone to take a look at it.

There are typically 3 problems you'll experience with a garage door opener.

1. Sensors out of line....easy "do it yourself" fix.
2. Stripped gears....call a professional
3. Broken spring....definitely call a professional (people have been seriously killed trying to replace a spring).

You should know if the spring is broken as it makes a hell of a noise when it breaks...if it was torqued.

Not sure why they put "plastic" gears in these things in the first place.

jtdumallard wrote:its not your gears. its your springs that are broke but if you continue to try and open and close it YES it will strip your gears which will cause a bigger problem. best thing to do is call someone to come fix it. same thing happened to mine a few months ago. coast me just under $200 to get it fixed

I just had a spring replaced as well, now mine is doing this. It still closes fine and opens with minimal assistance, so I know the problem is something other than the spring.

I saw on another site (after google search) that the tension adjustment on the back of the motor might fix the problem

You should have screws on the back of the automatic lifter to control the pressure of the door opening and closing. Get on a ladder and play with the screws.

im going to take a look at it tonight. thanks for the help.

sensors may just be out of line.

mine does this exactly but only when its really cold

leaving in the AM locks up, coming home in the afternoon no problems

the doc

mine opens fine in the afternoons when it warms up. weird.

I had gears that got stripped. No way was I touching that job myself. Paid about $125 for new gears and got the rest of the garage stuff serviced as well.

Just had a friend from Chicago stay with us during Christmas. We were talking about customer service being crappy and he told this story about his garage door doing the same thing. Said he called umpteen tech services people at Sears for his Craftsman door...they finally sent a guy out and he fixed it in two seconds. There are two screw type dials on the side or back...adjust these depending on the season...when it's COLD it has a sensor on it that keeps it from opening all the way for some reason. I guess in Chicago it matters more. Mine's doing the same now that it's cold and I'm going to adjust it tomorrow...he showed me how but we didn't drag out a step ladder and do it.

the doctor wrote:mine does this exactly but only when its really cold

leaving in the AM locks up, coming home in the afternoon no problems

the doc

woundedduck wrote:mine opens fine in the afternoons when it warms up. weird.

It seems that is what mine is doing. Opened fine when I got home...