More progress, as well as a comedy of errors.
I picked up a garage door opener last week. While assembling the unit, I found that the belt could not be tensioned. When I gave up and called tech support, it turns out the wrong belt was put in the box. They shipped me a new one, and it arrived Friday.
Put it all together, and it looks OK. Went to mount the opener to the ceiling, and found that it was about 2 feet longer than I expected, which put it right in the middle of a light. So, I had to take down 2 lights (one 4 foot, and one 8 foot), swap places with a gap in the middle for the bracket, and re-wire them.
Next, time to hook up the wall switch and safety beam. Guess what? The wires are too short to reach the opener while being hidden. Off to the store for more wire.
Guess what else? The safety beam unit brackets don't stick out far enough from the wall to clear the garage door track. Instead of globbing a block of wood on the wall as a shim, I drilled out a couple of rivets and bolted them to the track instead.
Next, the belt was still too loose when the opener was in place. It sagged about 4 inches in the middle of the track. So, I took the tensioner/link assembly apart and changed the order of components to allow some adjustability.
The adjustments are easier than they used to be, and there are more features included. There is even a backup battery so the door can open and close if the power is out. The remotes reach to the bottom of my driveway. There is a motion sensor built into the wall switch, so the light comes on if you walk in the people door. Plus, the wall switch has a clock and thermometer built in, so you can see how hot/cold/late you are
Next project: shocks and struts for my wife's xB.
Oh, and I picked up a pile of vinyl siding parts last week, so that can start as soon as I get the framing inspection done.
Regards,
RonB