Genie pro 88

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Hi there.

This post may be too late for you, but maybe not for others trying to fix this problem.

I had the same issue, albeit less obvious.

The 25-30 year old Genie Pro 88 opener stopped working suddenly after a few ambiguous creaks. Wife called "repairman" who offered to replace the operner for $850. With a $100 discount for finding him in the Yellow Pages and another $50 senior citizen discount (even though she is not a senior...yet). He said that the "gears" in the motor had worn out...even though it is a squirrel cage motor directly connected to the screw drive. Wife went batshiXXX. Called me. Stop. Send him away.

Came home. Removed the sequencer board. Figured the 24 vac relays had worn out. Didn't have a 24 vt supply to test, so figured I'd just replace them. Read the numbers and purchased replacements at Frys Electronics for $3 each. Removed old ones. Soldered new ones in. Reinstalled the board. No joy. BUT the relays gave an audible click when I pushed the button to open the door. Ah ha. Power to relays.

Used volt meter to check 110 vac power to terminal strip on outside of motor. AC good. Something wrong downstream?

Read something about start motor capacitor on the net. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_motor#Capacitor_start_motor and specifically the section about "capacitor start motor."

Removed the connecter strip from the sequencer board and used Radio Shack digital multimeter to check the capacitance of the 50 mfd 200 vac eletrolytic capacitor. Showed 18 mfd. Ah ha.

After removing it I noticed that the "blow plug" on next to the leads was dark orange. Looked "dried out."

Researched availability. Garage door guys selling the cap online for $18 per unit. Phooey.

Looked at Grainger's website. Ordered the 53-64 mfd 220-250 vac cap by Dayton. Part number 2MER5 Grainger Express was six blocks from my office in Santa Monica. Ordered on Wednesday afternoon. Picked up the component on Thursday morning. Total cost...about $7...plus a thimble of gasoline to drive the six blocks and back.

Came home. Noticed no polarity on capacitor. Phooey. Back to the internet. Wikipedia for electrolytic capcitors. Turns out there are electrolytic capacitors that do not have a polarity. You can hook em up either way.

I once connected one up backwards in a blackbody standard while working as an electronic assembler/summer job in college. That was back in 76. Bang. Whistle. Blew electrolytic capacitor oil all over the room. Whoops.

Nevertheless, I hooked up this one with the leads in the same position (relative to the blow plug) that the old one had.

Waited a couple of minutes for the capacitor to charge. Pushed the button. Voila. Open Sesame.

I had the same concern about the capacity of the component being 53-64 mfd, but I guess these things have some variability anyway...and as long as you put in a capacitor with a capacitance of not less than the required amount (but not TOO much more) you'll be ok.

Hope you figured this out by now. It's hard work opening that door by hand.

J.F.F.