I had already replaced the gears in it a few years ago and decided to find out what all the "non-noise" source was. Turned out to be the motor froze up.....gee, only 20 years, piece of junk!
Headed out to Lowes and bought a new Chamberlain kit, with my veterans discount I got it for $142. The old unit was a Liftmaster, same company as Chamberlain, the Liftmaster is essentially for professional installers. Chamberlain is the DIY type such as myself. The nice thing about all this....the chain drive and the rail it rides on bolts directly to the new unit so I didn't have to replace everything. Just needed to remove two bolts and the rail is free from the old unit, reattach in the same manner to the new and feed the chain around the sprocket after loosening it a bit. Now for the fun part; when I had my gall bladder surgery earlier this month they must have dragged me around the OR by the neck because ever since, my neck muscles have been extremely painful, and my neck vertebrae are now popping with every move which it didn't do before. Result....it's difficult to raise my head enough to actually look at something overhead. Lifting the rather minor weight of the old/new units was a painful effort so I had to devise a method to help handle the weight without straining the neck. The ceiling braces to which the unit is attached are simple angle iron with numerous holes in them. I got out a couple good bungee cords and hooked them to the upper holes in the braces and to some extra mounting holes on the old unit. Unbolted it while on a stepladder and let it drop, at which point it just hung there bouncing up/down on the bungees about shoulder high. Back on the floor, I set it on the step ladder tool shelf and unbolted the chain rail then slid it off onto the floor. The new one was not nearly as heavy so was able to lift it shoulder high without much neck pain, reattached the chain rail, then got back on the ladder. Placing a towel for padding on the top of the ladder, I was able to "curl" the new unit into place with one arm while slipping the bolts into place on the ceiling brackets with the other hand. Installed the chain and tightened it back to the original setting. Now all I needed was the Jolly Green Giant to come and string the wires from the new safety lights....up the walls, across the ceiling, and down to the motor. No matter how high I went on the ladder, I couldn't tip my head back far enough to work overhead and do it without loads of pain across the neck and shoulders. Solution.....granddaughter's husband. A good ol' boy, about 6'4", easily busts 300lbs., still likes to chew and spit but has a heart of gold. We spent Saturday afternoon stringing those wires and programming everything, all the time he was only standing on the bottom step of the step ladder. Afterward we ordered three large pizzas which turned out to be a good thing, that left two of them for the rest of us! He had worked up an appetite.
Now all I have to do is get a special piece to mount on the wall so the built-in remote in the car will work even though it did work with the old unit. Guess I'll also have to change the remote I have wired into the bike so my hidden button will work again. Probably do that on my next day off.
