Craftsman garage door opener repair. Bent "trolley"

Factual Questions
1

Hi all

Hopefully someone can give me some advice.

We have two Craftsman garage door openers. Model 139.53976SRT. With the power outage over the last few days, I opened it manually but when I went to close it, it was jammed. I think I opened it too far and it got jammed on the bolt the top. In my frustration to get it free I think I was a little heavy handed and have bent the outer (moveable) trolley. Now, with the power back on, the outer trolley freely passes over the inner trolley without locking together so the chain moves but not the door. It’s hard to believe but I seem to have done this with both doors :frowning:

Tonight I will disconnect the trolley from the arm so I can take it down and try to bend it back into shape. It looks simple enough. It’s basically a U shape piece of metal which is now opened too wide so the “hole” through the middle is too big. I think I can close it up again and put it back.

If that doesn’t work, it seems that I can buy a replacement trolley from Sears for $35.

Here’s my question:
When the trolley is shaped correctly (e.g. a new one) can it be slipped onto the rail sideways or does the rail need to be taken down so it can be “threaded” over the end. If it’s the former then I can handle that but if the latter then it’s probably time for me to reluctantly call someone before digging myself into deeper trouble. I can see that it won’t simply push on sideways in its normal orientation because the open side of the “U” has lips but I think it could pushed on at a 45 degree angle and then turned into place.

Thanks

2

I dunno whether you can slip the trolley over the rail from the side, as it were. But in any event, the (non-motor) end of the rail on my Craftsman opener is just held by a pin, which would be easy to pull out, releasing the end of the rail and allowing you to slip the trolley on over the end.

3

Thanks. Maybe I didn’t look close enough but there seemed to be a pulley in the way complicating things but I guess that’s not connected to the rail.

4

I can’t completely picture your scenario, but the installation instructions for your garage door opener may shed light on your problem, my ~1989 manual was pretty detailed.

5

D’oh! There was nothing wrong with them.

I removed the moving trolley from one door. It was a bit bent and I managed to straighten it up with the use of a hammer which I’m sure is not the recommended tool.

I put it back and it still didn’t work but then I realized that the little lug that the manual rope is tied to needs to be flipped up to make the trolleys lock together. :o