Garage door opener frustration.

[slowTA]

My wife and I bought this house almost 2 years ago and I put up new garage door openers at that time. Everything was fine until my wife backed into a half open door. The short version of that story is that she got home seconds after I did so I hit the button to open her garage door. Of course she didn't notice and hit her button which stopped the door and since back up cameras point down she couldn't see the door wasn't open all the way.

Everything seemed fine, but now that the weather is colder I noticed our bedrooms are much colder than the rest of the house. It's usually like this since the bedrooms are over the semi-heated garage, but it's worse this year.

So of course now I can tell that there is some play in the garage door when its closed. You can push on the door from the inside and watch the sunlight change where its supposed to be sealed. I also notice that when the door closes the trolley backs up a hair and there is no pressure on the door to push it closed.

See the attached video, my other door closes and the trolley keeps pressure on the door and that one is tight up against the frame.

I adjusted the stops on the opener, but no matter how far down (or just right) it is during the learning process, the trolley always reverses or gets pushed back a bit and the door gets sloppy again.

The opener is a craftsman 139.54920

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[ChaseIt]

I've had some similar issues with an old Craftsman opener when the weather turned cold. For whatever reason when it's cold, the unit seems more sensitive to loose/erratic door movement. Since the door was hit hard, I'd check the door track alignments, cable & spring tension, & the chain track.

I even had a flakey safety sensor cause sporadic issues with the up/down limits. Maybe disconnect them temporarily and see if that has anything to do with it.

Both force and travel limit adjustments work hand in hand, so sometimes it's just a matter of tweaking both in small increments until they work properly.

Good luck!

 

[pattenp]

Do you have the force set too hard? It's bending the trolley track upward from so much closing force.

 

[Hot Rod Grampa]

Some ideas. With the door closed, see if the top section is bent, bowed or damaged in any way from the impact with the car. If it is good, try moving the bolts on the j arm one hole out so without changing limits inside the opener, as a test. Let the opener close the door and see if it improves. Sometimes that will work. Otherwise try setting all parameters like it was new. Again. If the door is damaged or tweaked, you need to repair or brace before any settings will work correctly. Also make sure the top section is braced with a strut near the top of the section. It stops the door from bowing when acted on by the opener.

 

[slowTA]

Thanks for the suggestions. For the record my opener only has open and closed positions, no force settings to adjust. Apparently the new openers figure that out on their own.

The tracks look fine and the top panel wasn't hit, that was limited to the bottom panel only.

The trolley is being pushed up from the force just like the other door too. The difference is that the other door will hold the trolley, and the bow in the trolley track, after the motor shuts off. On the other door, when you disconnect the trolley from the door it gets just as sloppy as the door in question.

 

[pattenp]

Sense you have a working door to compare to you need to do close observations to find what's out of whack on the problem door.

 

[taumac]

First off disconnect the door from the opener by pulling the release. Open and close the door. Check how the door sits in the opening. Adjust the tracks in so you have less of a gap. Now you do need some gap for the door to move free. Make sure arm isn’t bent on connecting door to trolly. Now reconnect the opener and adjust the down stop. It looks to me the isn’t stopping when is hits the floor and bowing. The motor is trying to close the door after the door has hit the ground and pushing the track upwards. It should hit the ground and press on the seal but not fully compress it.

 

[Jinks]

The brackets that hold the tracks to the door frame have bolts to allow adjustment. When your wife hit the door she pressed those tracks back. Close the door, loosen the bolts at each bracket, push the tracks forward till they don't allow the door to shift away from the seals. Not real complicated, but don't force the tracks too far forward, the door will bind.

 

[slowTA]

I already tried to reset the tracks closer to the frame. Unfortunately that didn't take up all of the slack and caused the vertical tracks to not match up with the upper track. So the door made noise transitioning from one rack to the other.

I couldn't move the upper track forward since there is no adjustment in those holes.
Neither of the tracks seem to be bent at all, and the bottom panel of the door has the slightest of bow in it compared to the door seal glued to the floor... which I'm assuming was put down straight.

 

[Jinks]

Your video doesn't show the upper hangers for the tracks, but it does show that the rollers have space to move allowing the door to separate from the seals. Your answer lies in moving the tracks closer to the door frame. Don't over complicate the problem. Your wife applied pressure to the entire system & forced it toward the back of the garage. Find what's bent or slipped out of adjustment. Push it toward the front of the garage.

 

[CombatNinja]

My wife backed into a fully closed garage door with a brand new BMW so you don't have it so bad. If you have a bent panel, just get that changed out. You can buy just one panel, no need to get a whole door.

 

[slowTA]

Jinks, I would agree with you except that the other door is just as sloppy until the opener puts pressure on the door!

 

[LB-1911]

Head over to
Do-It-Yourself Garage Door Instruction Library


Take a look at the video - How to Adjust Garage Door Top Fixtures -

Good Luck