jhill wrote:

Trying to assist my octagenarion neighbor, I need help programing and
troubleshooting his sears opener. He's the first to welcome me to the
block so I'm linked to him in eternal gratitude. Please help me!

From your highly detailed description, I can pinpoint the problem to
something or something else.

When working on the overhead portion of the opener, always unplug the
power first because if the unit starts unexpectedly it could grab a
sleeve, finger, or hair and cause serious injury, even amputation.
Don't underestimate how hard an opener can push, pull, or crush.
There's also exposed high voltage inside the opener. On the other hand
the thin external wiring for the wall button and optical sensors work
at low voltage and is safe to handle, unless there's an electrical
fault inside the overhead portion (plugging it into a ground fault
interrupter protected outlet will prevent injury in that case).

Does the opener work from the wall button but not from the remote? If
another remote works, then the remote is bad, probably due to a weak
battery or cracked solder joint. Otherwise the antenna wire in the
receiver may have cracked right where it's soldered to the circuit
board. Cracked solder is common because of the vibration from the
motor.

Does the door open normally but not close at all? If so, then the
optical sensors at the door threshhold could be misaligned (an
indicator light should glow steadily if they're aligned), their wiring
could be loose at the overhead unit, or there may be a broken
connection, often at one of the sensor boxes.

Does the door start to move but then reverse direction? The force
sensor sensitivity may be set too high, the door mechanism may not be
properly aligned or lubricated, or the door may not be balanced right.

Do you hear clicking but the motor only grunts briefly? The motor's
capacitor or a relay may be defective.

The manufacturer is Chamberlain, www.chamberlain.com, and their website
has troubleshooting information. If you don't find the solution
there, phone them at 1-800-528-5880. I wouldn't mention that the unit
is a Sears, but they tend to help anyway with Sears units since they're
paranoid about injuries from defective openers.