Over the course of this winter our garage door opener finally kicked the bucket. After the snowfall there was no point in fixing it until somtime in march when the snow finally melted.
The bulkhead in my garage
So I went shopping for a new garage door opener at my local Lowes. Luckily they had several in stock, however after consulting the folks there, I was told I would need to special order a new opener, because I have size restrictions.
There is a bulk head in my garage. So the opener in its traditional install is too long to fit in my garage See pic to the left. This means that the opener has to be retro-fitted(as all things seem to need in my house), or Special ordered to the correct length.
After investigating the custom order option, I opted for the hack method. Although this method tends to be a little riskier, The custom option just wasn’t an option (way to expensive).
The risk is basically the fact that I’m hacking apart a perfectly good garage door opener, and I’m not even sure if it will work.
So at Lowes I purchased a Chamberlain 3/4-HP Power Drive Chain Drive Garage Access System. It wasn’t the cheapest model, but then again I’m not typically the one to buy the cheap kind.
After pulling the instructions out and reading them thoroughly, I found that in the first few steps I build the armature/track that runs from the electric motor on the garage door opener to the front of the garage. Because the pieces lock together, my biggest concern was recreating the locking system for the shortened components.
The way the track is built there are carriages that slide up and down the outside of the track, so it’s not as simple as using a bolt through the track(as that would impede the carriages). Instead I used an approach very similar to the way that the initial locking mechanisms work, I used a metal punch to divot the metal into the adjoining locking space on the cut down bar. Worked Like a charm.
shortened-bracket
I shortened the piece that was closest to the electric motor, not sure if there was a better piece to choose, but It seemed to work well. The only other issue to deal with once the track was shortened was the chain itself. In order to shorten the chain, I found the appropriate link to shorten too, and pushed the pin out using a center punch and a small vice. Because I had a master link to connect the chain, shortening it was easy.
If you are afraid of installing your garage door opener because your situation seems special, definitely Call a Professional. Or if your dumb like me and have the hankering to make it work no matter what the above method worked for me.
