On 28 May 2007 10:21:14 -0700, wrote:

My garage door makes it 1/3 of the way up and then begins to bind.
This is a screw drive opener. The rail between the opener and the
garage door, that holds the screw, begins to flex fairly seriously.
It appears this has bent the rail, and potentially the screw inside.
A neighbor told me he thought the screw just needed to be lubed. I
bought a tube of lube but am not real sure exactly *how* to lube the
screw. Do I just squirt the lube directly onto the screw for it's
full length? If the lube does not solve the problem, does the opener
need to be moved further away from the door or something like that?

Thank you for helping.

You didnt say whether it is a rollup door or a cantilevered door. A
cantilevered door puts tremendous stress on an opener when it is about
a 1/3 of the way up.

My chaindrive unit used to flex something terrible at that point in
its travel with my cantilevered door. I had to screw a 2x4 across 2
studs in the ceiling right above that spot in the track, then screwed
another 2x4 down to the track, and finally screwed the track to the
2x4. In other words, I anchored the track to keep it from flexing
right at the spot with the most stress on it. It work for 20 years
after that without a problem.

-dickm