a buddy called me and the garage door opener on his 2 car garage door open pulled the screws out of his bracket that attaches the opener to the door. It appears that all four screw holes are likely stripped. I foolishly offered to help so my question is what am I getting involved with? I am thinking 3 ways to solve it
- Drill through the garage door and install carriage bolts (will work but may unsightly being able to see carriage bolts on the outside of the door)
- riv nuts
- sleeve anchors
Are any/all of these ideas viable/good/bad?
Get a look to see if it's pretty much done like a sheet metal screw, or if there are formed threads.
Larger bolts or relocated holes. I had mine fracture the bracket, rewelded it and relocated the holes a few years ago and no problems since. The opener was out of adjustment, which caused the problem, so check that when you get it back together.
Usually the brackets are on a ridge, not the outside skin of the door, so carriage bolts won't need to go through the door itself. Usually.
NOHOME
MegaDork
4/20/23 11:40 p.m.
Stuff on YouTube.
I like the idea of swapping the panels as a best fix, But yeah, work.
Have a cursory look to see if there was a reason it failed. Broken spring or missing wheels?
Steve_Jones said:
Usually the brackets are on a ridge, not the outside skin of the door, so carriage bolts won't need to go through the door itself. Usually.
so what you're saying is i still don't have a reason to use this rivnut tool that I bought... My wife is one day going to look at the pile of tools that I have purchased that are still wrapped in plastic and tell me to stop buying stuff that I don't need...
ClearWaterMS said:
Steve_Jones said:
Usually the brackets are on a ridge, not the outside skin of the door, so carriage bolts won't need to go through the door itself. Usually.
so what you're saying is i still don't have a reason to use this rivnut tool that I bought... My wife is one day going to look at the pile of tools that I have purchased that are still wrapped in plastic and tell me to stop buying stuff that I don't need...
maybe i should take the grease gun out of the plastic and smear a touch of grease over it and a bunch of other tools to make them look more well used :)
First real question is whether this is a wood or metal garage door.
porschenut said:
elevator screws
how would i put those in? Isn't that basically the same as a carriage bolt?
Rivet nuts will pull out.
You need to make a tee out of material to re-enforce the lifting point of the door.
For full support the cross bar of the tee should be ~3ft and the upright the height of the panel.
The cross bar re-enforces the door and spreads the load out and Keeps the lift bolts from working out of the door.
If the mounting point is compromised you can use a backer plate on the either side of the door and run bolts through that to stiffen up the mounting area.
You want to spread out the load so it is not concentrated in a 4"x4" area on 4 sheet metal screws.
If you can, lower the mounting point on the top panel so the pull bar pulls up more in the last foot.
Make sure the balance spring is adjusted well to hold the weight of the door.
I installed an opener just a few months back, so this is still pretty fresh in my mind. One of the things they don't include in the box with the opener, but do call out as necessary in the instructions, is a reinforcement where the bracket attaches to the skin of the door. My door is only 8' x 8' and works very smoothly, so I just screwed it to the skin.
These are cheap and easy to get:
https://www.amazon.com/Clopay-Opener-Reinforcement-Bracket-Kit/dp/B00FY529UK/ref=asc_df_B00FY529UK?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80539344142770&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584138871757033&psc=1
I believe the reason they work is that there is actually some structure inside the top and bottom of the panel.
In reply to ClearWaterMS :
Google it to see what it is. basically a carriage bolt with a flat washer on the end. It it visible from the outside but some paint will address that. My garage doors are solid cedar which is soft and full of tannins that eat metal over time. Could not keep the hardware tight. A box of elevator bolts fixed it, next time I paint the door they will become invisible.
