Testing..

Yep.. yeppp...  yep ,yep, yeppp..

Replacing a LiftMaster nylon drive gear --It's actually easier than you'd think!

It’s happened to a lot of us with garage-doors: Early AM, already late for work; you push the switch to open your garage and the motor turns but the gate only barely lifts –or not at all! $#¡+!!!!! Chances are, most likely the white nylon drive gear’s teeth have finally worn off. This usually happens after about 10 years or so, no matter how well-greased the gears were originally.

What do we do now? Call a repair-person and pay them at least $180 (or more likely $250+ (or a lot more “+”!)) to come out and fix the stinkin' thang? !!!HELL NO!!! You can fix this yourself for UNDER $30, AND it’s easy. I did it recently, and… if *this* ol’ High-Tech RedNeck (i.e. *me*) can do it, ANYbody can.

Search for the part on Amazon.com: specifically, part # 41A2817. Prices are around $13-$19. I got mine for around $18 INcluding shipping. All you need is the large (2”) flat white gear, its respective roll-pin, AND (IMPORTANT!) the tube/packet of proprietary silicone grease (but keep the other parts in the unlikely event you’ll need ‘em in years to come). You’ll also need a 5/32” punch (w/ a straight cylindrical “business end” and flat tip; tapered or cone-shaped will not work), a hammer, a 5/16” socket (deep-well; also I needed a short Xtension) & ratchet for the motor mounting screws, and a nut-driver (I forgot the size!) for 6 sheet-metal screws that hold the cover on. Oh yes, and you’ll need an A-frame ladder too (but I used the bed of my Silverado Z-71, har har!).

NOW: HERE’S HOW IT’S DONE (and UNPLUG the damn thang FIRST!!!):

1st, carefully remove the 2 white light-covers; they’ll just be in the way of the 2 end-screws. Remove the cover; it’s attached by 4 screws: 2 on ea. side and the aforementioned 1 on ea. end. You’ll prob’ly notice A LOT of plastic “snow” in the box; carefully blow/brush as much of it out as possible. Go ahead and remove the white plastic trident-shaped set-pin for the limit switch gear (and the gear itself); then remove the entire limit switch assy. itself by squeezing the 4 black plastic tabs inward, and it’s OK to leave it dangling by the wires (saves trying to remember how to reconnect it later!). Also, unplug the RPM sensor's 4-pin polarized connector to get it out of the way.

Next comes a rather tricky part: removing the lower roll-pin that holds the white plastic drive gear in place. You may need to rotate the shaft with Vice-Grips (or electronically by temporarily engaging the remote switch) some to get it into an optimal alignment to drive it out without damaging the other components. Carefully align the 5/32” punch with the roll-pin and hit it w/ the hammer –HARD!!!!! This is very important: You’re much LESS-likely to do any damage this way AND the pin will be out faster. The principle of inertia plays an important roll here; think of it this way: Imagine a flagpole with a heavy brass ball on the top. You’re trying to drive a nail through the pole. Repeated soft taps w/ the hammer may easily cause the flagpole to start swaying and eventually break whereas a few well-aligned sharp HARD blows w/ the hammer will drive the nail to its destination, and the flagpole’s inertia will protect it. Same applies to the garage-gate opener. Obviously, it’s ALSO important to make sure your punch is aligned and set in order to avoid any off-glancing blows that would damage the circuitry close-by! I did it, and it came out relatively easily (some other users on web forums have said they’ve had difficulty removing this pin though). Only problem was: @ 1st I wasn’t paying attention and drove out the TOP pin (WRONG!!! :-PPpPpPpPPppp). No problemo; I just re-set it and then drove out the bottom 1 ;-)

Next step is to remove the motor itself. Use the 5/16” socket to remove the 4 black mounting machine-screws. Hold the motor, especially when removing the final screw, so it won’t bang on your head!! I had to also temporarily loosen the capacitor mounting bracket and slide it a bit to access one of the motor screws. Other users have reported that, for no-longer than it takes to replace the drive gear, it’s perfectly OK to let the motor dangle by its wires (as long as it’s not 100 years old or more, har har! :-P ).

Now, slide off the old gear –or what’s left of it! IMPORTANT: Use ALL of the included grease to lube-up the new gear; this is what helps it “live” as long as it can!! If there’s any grease left over, use it on the motor’s worm-gear (and maybe a dabble on the little limit switch gear also). Install the new gear on the drive shaft and re-attach the motor, making sure the motor’s worm-gear engages with the teeth of the new drive gear. Also, make sure the black plastic indicator cap for the RPM sensor is still in place on the motor shaft and hasn’t become dislodged. After re-mounting the motor, pound the new gear’s lower roll-pin in place w/ the punch & hammer.

Basically by now we’re just reversing the original procedure: re-plug-in the RPM sensor, re-mount the limit switch assy., re-attach the limit switch gear & trident pin, replace covers, &c. Many users reported having to re-calibrate (READ the manuals –it may be a bit tedious but it's easy!) their doors after this “operation”, but I did this almost 3 weeks ago (early March 2011), and SO FAR it’s been working perfectly w/o need of recalibration.

GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I especially thank doorguy06 for clear concise instructions and don2737 for more detailed instructions and excellent macro-photography.

It took me about 2 hrs. to conduct the entire operation. And about 1 hr. of that time was going to Lowe's to get a 5/32" punch. A caveat here: they had several differently-sized punches, but the 1 I wanted was only available as part of a set. Oh well, @ least now I have a set of good punches made by Bosch (the same co. that makes race-car & fighter-jet engine parts --and also made my Tassimo coffee maker, har har har!!).

…and now some final thoughts that entered my brain: Many users (including don2737) recommend buying the gear kit that includes the sprocket since this relieves the need for driving out the roll-pin. However, this requires locking down the door w/ Vice-Grips, de-railing the chain (and taping it into position and marking it w/ WhiteOut on both the chain & sprocket), disengaging the trolleys, removing the entire LiftMaster box from the ceiling and –for me anyway— MUCH more of a pain in the @$$ than just a few well-placed hammer blows. But, that’s just MHO :-) Check out the above links and choose which method will work best for you. The "roll-pin" itself is aptly-named: it's actually a small piece of high-tensile-strength sheet-metal rolled into a thin cylinder and holds itself in place by compression inside a hole machined in the drive shaft. As such, you'll need a punch with a straight cylindrical flat-tipped "business end" (as mentioned near the top) and not a tapered/pointed one because it needs to travel almost all the way through the drive shaft before the pin pops out. Also, since the pin is hollow, a pointed punch would actually expand it even more, making it impossible to drive completely through the hole. A 10d nail filed off bluntly-flat on the tip might work, but the punch is much better.

Best wishes and GOOD LUCK! :-)

...testing...

Testing.. 1.. 2.. yyyyep... yep...

OK: After trying to publish this w/ Microsquish Internet Exploder 9 --AND NOTHING HAPPENED when I kept clicking "Publish Post", I tried it w/ Mozilla FireFox and it worked. YEE-HAW!

...Rain... --and yes, we need it.

By now, I'm SO stinkin' TIRED of so many people b*tchin' about all the rain we've had. Yes there's been some flooding in some areas, but that comes nowhere near to overshadowing the horrible drought we had last year (and many years previously). After watching 1/2 my trees die, my lawn crust up, having to drill a back-up well, &c. last year, I'm still thankful for every drop we've had lately. I wonder if these people have no idea WHERE our FOOD comes from??? --Maybe they think it materializes like magic on the shelves of the grocery store ("Heeeere's yer SIGN"); who knows.. Rain is the Water of Life. We're just now actually receiving what used to be normal rainfall (used to be 70+ inches per year) again, since the droughts begain in 1977. Before then, farmers never worried about having enough water for their crops & livestock, and I can easily remember when irrigation systems were "novelty items", seen only in photos of the Progressive Farmer magazine.

From BLOATware to BROKENware: Windows 7 'Starter' Ed.

MicroSquish has done it again: After building up high hopes for a new streamlined OS to replace that pile of BLOATware they dubbed Vista a few years ago, they’ve hornschwoggled us again. The beta & RC versions of Windows 7 were amazingly stable, but just recently I had the dubious pleasure of evaluating the much-anticipated OEM release on the latest “net-book” line of lap-tops, specifically Windows 7 Starter Edition: a version streamlined for this particular type of hardware. Unfortunately, it’s quite a bit TOO “streamlined”. Get this: there is NO way to change the desktop background (or wall-paper)! <--DUMB @$$ED IDEA. There’s no “Personalization” feature for modifying the desktop, and even right-clicking on any picture/image/photo brings up a pop-up menu that LACKS the “Set as desktop background” command. Here’s Microsoft’s explanation: LAME!! Even Windows 3.1 allowed wallpaper modification. Of course, they’re more than happy to include very-conspicuous links to an “anytime upgrade” to a much more expen$ive version that allows such. Very ironic that this restricted ver. of Windoze 7 is only available as OEM on net-book computers –-which happen to be available in almost every color in the candy store (ours is a nice luminescent purple, much better than those hideous pink ones that look like Pepto Bismol!).

YARD-SAILIN'...

Been yard-sailin' lately (actually "yard-saLE-ing").. yep, checking out local yard/garage sales to fine any necessary items since everythang's so expensive in the stores lately. Last Sat., found a nice green-marble end-table and a coupl'a really nice 'Boston' shakers & a MadeInUSA (Crescent Tool Co.) 18" adjustable wrench.
An interesting story re. the shakers & adjustable wrench: This was @ a yard sale on N.98 in Comer GA, and they were asking $15 for the wrench and $3/ea. for the shakers. I asked "Would you take $20 for the wrench and both shakers?"; he grinned and said "$twentyFIVE!". I pointed out that priced singly, they added up to only $21. He grumbled something under his breath and said "...ok... $20". After the transaction, he still looked embarrassed re. his apparent un-proficiency in basic math!
This was one of those yard sales where there were no price-tags. I ordinarily don't like asking "what's the price...?" etc. because I have no way of knowing that the price quoted to me would be higher than that for the same item quoted to someone else. I ESPECIALLY hate it when they respond with "wellll... What do you think it's worth?". My immediate response to *that* is "well, I have 2 answers: 1, it would naturally be free if there's no price tag; 2, to me it's now worth nothing because I don't deal w/ people deliberately trying to see how much money they can get outta me; it's bad business.". Maybe some proprietors do actually make more money exercising such tacky tactics, but it won't be comin' from me.

"Maundering...."

From Merriam Webster's Dictionary: "Maundering" means wandering idly or speaking indistinctively or disconnectedly. In other words, drivelling, runnin' off @ the mouth, wandering aimlessly, &c.. --Which is exactly what I feel I've been doing these past couple of years (actually nearly 4 yrs.) w/ this 'Blog. Yes, I would be posting a lot more items --IF I'd actually get some ***FEEDBACK*** once in a while. As I mentioned more than 2 years ago: without any feedback (you know, the clickable "comments" where ANYone can leave feedback), I have no way of knowing whether what I write is even remotely-interesting or just downright suck-@$$. I already was thinking this 'blog site was already dead more than a year ago, but now it seems it's even deader than dead --assuming such a concept even exists. This will be the last time I shall ask/beg/implore/whatever feedback from anyone; otherwise I shall close this site for good. Again: y'alls call. Thank you Blogger.com for giving me the space for ranting, maundering, venting, &c..

RDRAM: Anyone have any??

Any of y'all familiar w/ "RDRAM"? Seems it's a rather rare type of RAM for older (by today's stds.) computers (e.g., Dell Dimension 8200). I just recently acquired another hand-me-down computer from my Dad (yeah: a Dell Dimension 8200), and the RAM architecture is the weirdest I've seen: not only to the boards have to be in identical pairs, BUT any empty slots must be occupied by "continuity boards" as well! I guess this config. didn't last long because they were barely smart enough to build only a few. Anyway, if anyone has any spare RDRAM boards lying around, please give me a shout. I need a couple of 512Mb.-size (or higher). Muchas gracias in advance! :-)

"TIRED of the rat race?" --How many times have we read *that* one?!?

I know: by now I'm sure we're all tired of more than just the proverbial "rat race". We're also sick of all the useless e-mails and web ads. promoting get-rich-quick schemes through internet marketing.
Well, after literally YEARS of researching, *I* have come up with some leads which actually DO WORK (YES! --It's true!!), and I have posted the details on my NEW Business Web Site: ALROX Enterprises. I most defintely encourage y'all to take a look at it: Not only does it contain my usual dose of humor here & there (as all of my web sites do, har har!!), but it has many useful links to very informative (and TRUTHful) materials on how to make internet marketing REALLY WORK.

"High-speed"(?) internet.. --"Right."

I just realized in my past posting I used the phrase "high-speed internet" --which has to be the granddaddy of all OXYMORONS. Such a thing doesn't exist any more. It was less than 10 years ago that I could easily (and fast-ly) download huge weather satellite images, even with only a 9600- or 14400-baud modem. Thing is, NOW so many web pages have so much advertising & other gobbledygook (e.g. XMjavaL-script, or ... uhhh... whatever). And it makes the internet slow to a crawl, even for those lucky enough to afford a T3 line. Also, you'll note that the above link was for a [unfortunately]well-known software company whose new Windoze Vista OS has to be the biggest pile of BLOAT-WARE I've ever evaluated. They're certainly not doing their part for helping streamline information technology, especially what with continually releasing expen$ive and increasingly-buggy software. OK, I'm through ranting now..... time for this old silver-haired wolf to turn in fer th' night. Buenas nachos...

Moving (again), new house (finally!!), and cold pizza (blecchhh!!!)

Yeah: I know:: it's been a long while since I last posted. NOT that it matters anyway, since my "SiteMeter" has recorded extremely little activity on this 'blog page in the past TWO YEARS it's been online :-/ Right now it's 10:10PM on Tues 5-8-2007, and I'm sitting here eating a coupl'a slices of cold pizza from Papa John's and contemplating the meaning of stress in life. Ordinarily I'd say 'contemplating the meaning of life', but lately life has been stressful --but in a good sort of way actually .... welllll.. sort of... Hahahahaha!!! Good news is I've finally found a new house, one that I'd actually dreamed of living in for years. Obviously the bad news is all the stress involved in moving, which in itself is a major pain in the ass: especially for someone like *me* who has collected litterally MOUNTAINS of SH*T over the years. Yeah, I'm one of those who simply cain't throw anythang out. As soon as I actually DO git shed of something --even if I've kept it for 30+ years-- I suddenly realize I have a use/need for it and wish I'd kept it. So... go figure. This house is located wayyyy out in the sticks... even far enough away that high-speed internet doesn't even exist. Who knows: I might be able to afford satellite-based internet access someday --hopefully. We call this place Casa Grande (the "Big House" en Español). How ironic that the phrase is also slang meaning "prison", hahaha! What with moving all my mountains of sh*t there, and all the chores/tasks/&c. that lie ahead, an old song by Sam Cooke comes to mind: "That's th' sound of the men... workin' on the CHAAAAAINNNNN Gannnngggg....."