Garage opener fix

 Well we had collateral damage from the wind and rain storm that took out lots of trees in Torrington and more of Connecticut.

With the power out of course the garage door opener was not working.  So pull the cord for the manual release and next thing you know - open garage.  But with a catch - the door opened and crashed into the plastic cover over the light and said cover hit the ground an broke.  No problem, this has happened before.  A little bit of superglue and we will be back in business.  Except it also dislodged the bulb and socket.  The next day when the power came on, the open worked, but the wires going to the bulb (110V) were doing a  dangerous dance with the housing.  The next day - nothing, dead as a doornail.

A quick check showed that the power was good going into the opener, but it was then going nowhere.  On a hunch I looked at the bulb socket and the unprotected wire showed burn marks from having grounded on the housing.  Did not see any fuses or circuit breakers, so I took down the back panel with the circuit board.  What? One of the solder tracks was burned and two others were starting to go.  Could it be that easy.  One small wire and some solder later and the unit sprang back to life.  (will add a picture some day, but it has lasted 40 years so far so maybe the next time I take it apart will be .....????)

So what did I learn?  Well that 3 cents worth of tape or 5 cents worth of insulated connectors would have prevented this.  They are now taped up.  And the rails will have a stop to make sur that the door can never crash into the unit from now on.  Actually - there is a bolt and nut that looks like it might have been intended to be a stop.  I found a manual where it is called a "trolley stop" but without the drive slide, the trolley rides right over it.....    A large fender washer fixes this problem.

So if you have a 40 year old (or newer) chain drive Sears or similar garage door opener - make sure the door stop works when the system is is hand mode!