Garage door opener trouble

jbridges2585 Tue Jun 26, 2018 6:33 pm

jbridges2585: Posts : 1
Join date : 2018-06-26

Post n°1

Garage door opener trouble

jbridges2585 Tue Jun 26, 2018 6:33 pm

Hi everyone, I've got a problematic door opener and I'm hoping some genius (or at least someone smarter than I, which is probably everyone here) can lend some help. I have a single garage door with a Sears/Craftsman 1/2 hp chain opener. I do not know the age of the opener but I'm guessing it is about 30 years old. There is no model name on the case other than the brand, but the model number is 139.53413, 120v 6.0 amp. The problem is that the door only works intermittently, that is, when I press the wired opener button it will only occasionally respond. It might work for a handful of times, and then a few hours later I'll try again and it won't respond. I have taken apart the wired button and cleaned the terminals, didn't help. The remote control produces the same problems - it only responds sometimes. This has been going on for maybe a year, and if I unplug and replug the power, it will temporarily work. Another thing I've noticed is that the opener produces a clicking sound on its own. Meaning when I am not trying to open the door, I will hear the opener body clicking almost like its turning on and off or resetting somehow. It sounds more electrical than mechanical, like maybe the power board is engaging and disengaging.

After doing some troubleshooting research I recently removed and replaced the capacitor with a new one, and the old capacitor has a date on it of "April 1988"... pretty old (it's an old house and I've only lived here for 2 years). The P/N number on the capacitor is 30B0363, 220vac, 53-64 mfd. (I don't know what those numbers mean but I figure the more info the better.) So after I installed the new capacitor, the opener worked perfectly for about an hour - button worked, remote worked, car remotes worked, etc. Then a little while later it wouldn't respond again! So, naturally, I did what any sane person would do: in frustration I smacked the motor body of the opener and then it started working... it would open when I pressed the button. That was last week, and now everytime I try to open the garage door, it won't respond unless I give the opener body a light tap with my hand Garage door opener trouble Confused

Very confusing, but interesting that it responds immediately with a light tap!!

So I have no idea. My thought would be a loose connection somewhere? I didn't look too closely at the circuit board, but at a glance it didn't appear to have any glaring problems. The weird thing is the opener will respond the same whether I press the wired button or the remote control - if I tap the body of the opener, the garage door will respond to both the button and the remote. Then after a while it won't respond (unless I tap it again).

Any thoughts?? I tried to give as much info as possible (and sorry for the long post) and thanks in advance for any ideas you might have.

James

GDZone Thu Jun 28, 2018 1:00 am

GDZone

GDZone: Admin; Posts : 340
Join date : 2009-04-28

Post n°2

Re: Garage door opener trouble

GDZone Thu Jun 28, 2018 1:00 am

Since it's happening with both the remote & the wall button I would guess that the problem is with the logic board. If one of the solders on one of the circuits has broken it may be making contact intermittently. Unfortunately with an opener this old the logic boards are no longer available. You also wouldn't want to put $80 or 90 in an opener that old. The life expectancy of a garage door opener is 10-15 years but I've seen openers (like yours) that are 30+ years old. Operators made today won't last as long as the openers made 20-30 years ago just because of all the plastic they use in them now.

I don't think there's an easy answer to your problem short of replacing the operator.

_________________
Brian
Administrator

warren1 Wed Jul 11, 2018 11:09 am

warren1

warren1: Posts : 2
Join date : 2014-07-12

Post n°3

Re: Garage door opener trouble

warren1 Wed Jul 11, 2018 11:09 am

Your well documented post provides a good view of your
problem. Based on lots of experience with "intermittents" in appliances, I suspect that your tapping to change its "state" is definitive. Brian's suggestion of a possible bad solder joint is a good one. Perhaps you can gin up your door controller to be operative while disassembled so you can poke at the board (very localized tapping) with a nonconducting tool like a plastic rod to effect the state change. Another idea is to obtain some spray refrigerant and squirt it on the board and its lead in connectors to see if you can induce the condition. While chasing intermittents can be very frustrating, finally finding where the actual open circuit is occurring can be quite satisfying. One caveat - it is possible that the condition can be occurring within one of the semiconductors (which your probing might be able to confirm). If so, and resoldering the leadout connections does not solve the problem, you are likely screwed.

Last edited by warren1 on Wed Jul 11, 2018 11:11 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : specific reference to other poster)

Garageworks123 Thu Oct 31, 2019 3:10 am

Garageworks123

Garageworks123: Posts : 3
Join date : 2019-10-03

Post n°4

Garage Door Opener Problems

Garageworks123 Thu Oct 31, 2019 3:10 am

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