GDO - Door only travels a little way and then reverses Why does my door only travel a little way and then reverse? Your garage door opener is equipped with safety features that cause automatic reversal in the event that the motor encounters resistance. A few factors can trigger this safety feature, even if the door does not appear to be meeting any resistance. To prevent SERIOUS INJURY or DEATH from a moving garage door: ALWAYS keep remote controls out of reach of children. NEVER permit children to operate, or play with remote control transmitters. Activate door ONLY when it can be seen clearly, is properly adjusted, and there are no obstructions to door travel. ALWAYS keep garage door in sight until completely closed. NEVER permit anyone to cross path of moving door. The opener's force setting may not be set correctly. The force setting tells the opener how much resistance the door should provide, and if the opener detects more than is "allowed," the door will reverse.
Check that the door manually operates correctly before changing your force settings. See How to test alignment and balance of a garage door, then go to How do I adjust the travel and force limits? orHow do I program the travel and force limits?. If you have recently replaced your garage door opener's gears, the shaft bearing kit may be interfering with a part of your RPM sensor assembly called the interrupter cup. Make sure that the wire harness is plugged back into the RPM sensor and the interrupter cup is installed and seated all the way on the motor shaft, so that the edge of the cup rotates through the RPM sensor. The RPM sensor is a small 1 inch x 1 inch electronic circuit board with a 2 pronged black sensor. If the cup is not pushed on to the end of the shaft, it can cause the symptoms described. If the motor shaft moves back and forth through the motor more than 1/16thof an inch during operation, it could lead to the door traveling only a short distance before reversing.
Ensure the motor shaft is tightened enough so that there is not too much "endplay" in the shaft. Endplay is caused by a loose or improperly installed shaft bearing kit. Loosen the set screws on the shaft collar, press firmly on the collar towards the motor, then while applying pressure to the retaining ring tighten the set screws. Answers others found helpful How do I adjust the travel and force limits? How do I program the travel and force limits using black and purple or black and yellow buttons? GDO - What end play is, and how to resolve the problem Why does my door open automatically after touching the floor? How do I test the Safety Reversal System?Back to Garage Door Question List The first thing to check are the electric eyes that are located on either side of the door frame. Their purpose is to detect an object in the way of the door and reverse or disable the opener. If the eyes are not facing directly at each other, they may work intermittently, causing occasional spontaneous
reversals with no rhyme or reason. If you don't have these eyes, no one stole them... you just have an opener that was built before the 90's when they became mandatory for all newly manufactured openers. Disconnect the garage door opener from the door and go through the troubleshooting routine on the garage door repair page. In fact, you really should read the entire garage door repairIt will make troubleshooting later much easier! Remember that sometimes, a garage door opener can increase the binding in a door just because of the way it pushes the door down. Ever notice how it is easier to pull a wagon over a curb than it is to push it? doors were designed to be pulled, not pushed. You may think the door is working OK because it feels OK, but you should still check all components to be sure. Do any necessary repairs, reconnect the opener and try it out. are having problems, you can make slight adjustments to either the closing
force, opening force, or the travel limit adjustments. Some older garage door openers do not have nicely labeled adjustment screws for force and travel limits. In fact, even some of the newer openers manufactured for and resold by your basic garage door company are not userThis guarantees return business... costly minimum charges for diddlyUnfortunately, I cannot give you specs on every opener and all the configurations, but, if you want to know how I have approached the problem of limit adjustments on an unknown opener, it's really a matter of observation and how they work will help you to find the adjustment. on the principle of transferring force to a momentary contact switch: If there is enough resistance to the movement of the door, this force is transferred back as torsion (twisting force) in the motor assembly. this torsion exceeds the strength or tension in the springs that stabilize the motor assembly, the assembly twists.
A small arm of some sort is attached to and moves with the motor assembly. If the movement is great enough, the arm will strike a switch, sending an electrical signal to the The springs and/or switch may be located on the top of the unit, or is off, plug the opener in, keep your hands clear, and send the opener through a cycle or two. If you are lucky, it will reverse as always and perhaps give you a clue as to where the force adjustment springs are. If you figure out where the adjuster is, simply increasing the tension on the spring will increase the closing or opening force. For opening and closing limit adjustment: Look for trip arms or clips attached to the opener chain. may be metal plates screwed on to the chain, plastic snap-ons dojiggies with flexible metal arms attached, etc. There will be two on the chain, one for the opening limit and another for the closing limit. activate the opener, the clips move with the chain, and hit the