My garage door has "eaten" another gear!!!

[manntocarson]

So about a month ago I replaced the large plastic gear (the gear that turns the spoke which moves the chain) in my 10 year old garage door opener. I had to replace the gear because friction had slowly worn the teeth down on the gear and the gear would no longer "bite" and function.

Today the garage door opener quit functioning after a month of no problems since the last repair. I popped off the cover and found that the new 1 month old gear has also been "eaten" and the teeth worn down so that it, too, has stopped functioning. Yes there is all of the "snowy" plastic shavings present inside the unit.

Shouldn't the new gear have lasted much longer? This evidently must mean that there is an underlying problem that needs to be fixed or this will continue to happen right? By the way, do they make these gears out of any stronger of a material other than plastic?

Any help or advice is much appreciated!

Thanks!

[manntocarson]

Well evidently the grease was an important step I missed when I "repaired" the last time.

Will order another gear and apply the grease this time. Thanks and sorry but I answered my own questions.

[HayZee518]

check the path of the chain. it may be too tight. grease the carriage slider.

[Door_Tech]

check the balance of your door

That is likely why you are running through gears in the first place. If you take your door off of the opener you should be able to lift each panel up into the radius and the springs should be able to hold it when you let go. If you let go of the door and it wants to come crashing down on its own that means the springs are doing less work and that gear is doing more work. The springs should be doing all of the heavy lifting and the operator is just moving the door from point A to point B

[Marvin Senior]

You will get your answer,and you can find some new garage doors ,all kind of doors which are used in your house

[markatech]

Excellent observation. Also, it's noteworthy that if residential garage door operators didn't have plastic gears, any catastrophic failure (broken spring, door hit by car, etc.) could tear out the expensive motor instead of the cheap plastic gears.

[mb123452010]

check the springs

I would check the springs as the most likely culprit, usually the gears are fine until something causes extra drag on the door. release the opener from the door and operate it by hand.