Garage Door gets stuck going up- HELP!

We recently moved into a house that was built in 1983, and has two garage doors. They are powered by 2 Sears 1/3 HP openers (probably original equipment when house was buit).

The problem is that one of the garage doors "catches" (i.e. stops) while going up at about 2 feet off the ground ~90% of the time. When the button is pressed again, it goes all the way down. This cycle can be repeated ad nauseum, or I can give the door a gentle tug upward just before the "Sticking" point, and this will give the door enough "impetus" to make it all the way up.

Does anyone know what might be causing this problem? The springs (side), vs. garage door opener (remote has short range as well for this same side) (The other door does this too, but only 10% of the time)

Please help-- it is driving us crazy. (Especially my wife who uses that side of the garage)

cmbarry@bellsouth.net

 

Well... it could be a number of things each in it's own or a combination.
First thing to do is check the "balance" of the door by disconecting it from the opener (pulling on the red handle where the arm from the door attaches to the opener track) and seeing if the door opens and closes easily. If not then the springs may need to be adjusted.
Next, usually on the Sears openers there are 2 sets of adjustments. One for amount of 'travel" and one marked "force". Two adjustments for each, open and close. Try turning the open "force" adjustment to a higher level.

Third, check the actual track to see if one of the "joints" doen't have a loose bolt and it may be sagging there. (Had one like this this week!) This is very rare, but it does happen!

Forth...It may just be getting OLD! I know that sometimes it's not as easy for me to get out of bed as it use to be!

 

JohnBoy555,
Thanks for the quick reply!
I will go and check it shortly. I have disconnected the other (non-too-problematic) garage door previously and found no problems with balance.

If the door in question is in balance, I will follow your advice and try to turn the open force adjuster to a higher level. Hopefully I can figure out what is what. This is an old opener with no manual.

Regarding the opener being just plain old... This is definitely true, and I am prepared to replace it... but I want to make sure that if I replace the opener, that my problems with the door getting stuck going up will be over.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks!
cbarry

 

Thanks JohnBoy555 !
I adjusted the "Open Force" screw to increase the power with which the door opens, and Voila, the door doesn't catch any more (at least for 3 consecutive opens-- a new record!)

Thank you for your advice.

cbarry