Our house was built in 1966 and in the late 80s the original garage "exploded" according to the previous owners. They built a new garage and also installed a pair of LiftMaster garage door openers. It's a three car garage with a big double door and single door.
The double door is driven by a 1/3 HP chain driven unit that wheezes and coughs its way up and down. The problem was that a) the door would not close and b) the remote was flaky. I'd rather not drop $200+ at Home Depot for a new unit if I didn't have to so I tightened up all of the very loose bolts and started making adjustments. You can use a screwdriver to adjust force up, force down, travel up/down etc. After many tweaks I got it to stop just at the driveway - viola!
The remote was step 2. These units were from the 80s and use DIP switches (real secure, but if you want to break into my garage and steal the cow manure, go for it.). LiftMaster was made by Chamberlain (try finding it at Lowe's or Home Depot) but for every seller on the web there is a buyer, and soon I found my trove of old Liftmaster remotes for about $20 each. Within a week I had two in hand, DIP switches programmed, and the door was singining its song - albeit a creaky, raspy, "I'm about to die" song, but hey it works.
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