Garage Door Opener Repair Service in Virginia Beach, VA

There are three different kinds of garage door openers: 1) Standard chain-drive openers, 2) jackshaft/belt-drive openers, and 3) screw-drive openers.

The chain-drive openers are the most common type of opener, but they are hard to work on.

The screw-drive opens are the easiest to work on, but they are the slowest.

The jackshaft/belt-drive openers are a compromise of easy to work on and fast to operate.

In some cases you will only need basic tools such as screwdriver, pliers, small adjustable wrench, and crescent wrench.

In other cases you will need more advanced tools such as an automotive-type tire iron to remove the torsion bar, electric drill with screw bits, adjustable wrench, breaker bar or pipe that fits over the square drive shaft on opener arms, longer screws for torsion spring replacement or some specialty tool engineered to fit a particular part of the opener.

In most cases you can start by removing any screws that secure the cover over the electric eye sensors and disconnecting the wires from these sensors. Then, once you have removed any bolts holding down brackets for your rail system, you should be able to slide the opener out of the rail, being careful to keep any springs on the torsion bar. When removing a screw drive opener you may have to remove or disassemble some of it first.

In most cases, this is as simple as sliding your mounting brackets into the appropriate location on your garage door and bolting them down.

For most types of openers, it is also possible to mount the rail system directly using 3/8″ by 2″ lag screws (bolts) with washers and nuts at each mounting point. You will need a cordless drill with 3/8″ bit and socket set.

LiftMaster and Chamberlain brand openers have a rail adapter for this purpose. You will need a hammer drill, 3/8″ by 2 1/2″ lag screws with washers and nuts to mount your rails directly to your garage door without using the brackets that came with the opener.

For screw drive openers it is a little more difficult. You will need an adjustable wrench, drill and socket to remove the square drive shaft from your screw drive opener motor.

You may also have to remove or disassemble parts of the opener in order to get it out of the rail system. In fact, you may have to disconnect the whole unit from power in order to remove your screw drive opener motor.

Once you have the motor out, install new torsion springs first and then reassemble the opener motor onto the new springs. Once it is mounted to your garage door, you can reconnect power to test that all of your connections are hooked up correctly before putting the cover back on the unit.