Sears garage door opener

Pull the release lever when it's cold and open the door manually to see if it's smooth. It's possible the door is out of adjustment and binding when things contract in the cold.

When's the last time you greased the track, etc.?

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Grease & oil is the first thing i checked . I oiled everything this summer as normal . I will try it with the door released to see what happens . The door is light weight aluminum clean and like new still .

Thanks !

That doesn't mean it's not out of adjustment and binding, some structures can contract a lot in the cold too, my bathroom door binds in the winter but has plenty of clearance in the summer for example.

sure.

My father had a couple of sears openers on a two car garage. The one he used frequently had problems opening - stalling usually about half way up and repeated working would get to go a tad more. We greased the tracks and put another two turns on the spring to no avail.

Finally got around to swapping the electronics between units and that worked (it was easier than trying to swap the mechanism). The problem followed the circuit board.

Only difference we could see was the more used one had a fine black oily powder around the Molex type connector in the back (single row white nylon, if my memory serves me). Not a lot of gunk - but noticeable.

We cleaned the connector with some acetone and a metal "acid brush." That fixed the problem opener. Seems there was an overload protection circuit that is sensitive to a little leakage at the connector

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The door mechanism's pivot points should be greased rather than oiled. This requires spray grease (grease mixed with solvent that will evaporate) to penetrate into them.

The door should be balanced so that when it's unlatched from the opener and held 1/3 of the way up it should slowly fall and when it's held 2/3 of the way up it should slowly rise.

Chain drive and maybe belt drive Chamberlain/Sears openers need grease around the trolly (part that slides against the rail) and above the rail. In cold areas the grease should be thin NLGI #1, not NLGI #2 or combination #1/#2 grease, which are more common. Of course garage door opener grease is suitable, but auto parts departments should have NLGI #1 for much less. Clean off all old grease from the track.

Wires, connections, and solder joints break or loosen from motor vibration. So tighten the screw connections for the wall button and electric eye wires, especially since the opener reads voltage levels from these devices, and the wall button has caused problems. Some of these openers have 2 circuit boards connected together through several pins that may have become corroded. Just unplugging and replugging the boards (disconnect AC power first! At least one board has exposed

120VAC on it in some areas) may help (take care to allign all the pins), but to clean and protect them get some contact cleaner/protectant, like Caig's De-Oxit (Radio Shack, real hardware stores, electronic parts outlets). Wires often break inside the insulation, right next to where they're soldered to the circuit board. Broken solder joints can be hard to see except under strong light and a magnifying glass. Also suspect any areas of the circuit board that are discolored from heat (can be normal), burnt or swollen components (resistors can crack, electrolytic capacitors bulge on top or leak, but don't confuse leakage with glue used to secure some of them). Electrolytics also work worse in the cold, so marginal may affect operation only then.