"In Tube" roller shutter door motors - servicing

[puffernutter]

Sorry, another request for help/information!

Seemed a good idea at the time.....

A steel roller shutter door was fitted (by me) about 3 years ago and is used many times a day (it's the only way out of the back of the property). Sounds OK going up, but seems to "graunch" more and more when lowering. As this is the only way out the back of our property I'm dreading the day it fails!

This is an "in tube" motor which took a lot of effort to get it up there so I don't fancy getting it down again, but I'm afraid I might have to! I don't have any fancy equipment and it took three of us and a lot of effort (and pain) to get it up there!

Is there any experience here with these beasts, I assume they are not "fit and forget" or have an access point to grease them, so I'll have to dismantle the roller, get the motor out and clean it up a and re-grease it!

Whilst they take up more space, I'm starting to see benefits of roller shutter doors with accessible mechanisms and motors!

Cheers

Peter

 

[Anguz]

is the graunch coming from the roller or the channels the door runs down
going up the door sections are hanging.... comming down if the channels are tight, it pushes the door section gaps together....

 

[puffernutter]

It seems to be coming from the roller/motor, but it is a good point and I'll have a close look later. About every 3 months I spray silicon grease across the slats (so they will "hinge" freely) and also up and down the guide rails; which are just simple "U" section.

Cheers

Peter

 

[gordon stephenson]

The side guide rails maybe need a heavier sticky grease? Spray grease is a bit on the thins I would have thought . OK for the slats but not the channels.

 

[WorkshopChris]

I do not know if yours is the same as this.

This post has just reminded me i have one to look at, have just had a quick look.
The cable end has limit adjustment of some sort and a worm drive gear for manual winding by the looks of it. This may be worth looking at as the grease may have dried up.

The other end is removed with 2 cir-clips. once they are off it looks like the internal shaft should remove from the tubular body but its not going anywhere. Thats as far as i got before coming in to post this.

 

[puffernutter]

I will have a close look, thank you.

 

[puffernutter]

Looking at mine and the way it is installed, that box is right next to the support bearing, so I'll have to find a way of supporting that end when I take the bearing/support away so I can get access to it. From your picture, there is no easy way of getting grease into it without dismantly!

Cheers

Peter

 

[Barking Mat]

I had this over the winter, 4m up a ladder, assumed the brushes were dead. Dismantled motor and of course they're brushless. The problem was, it wasn't all quite straight. And we still have the impression the curtain roller sags in the middle. It kept sticking... Eventually 3 tubes of grease with a paintbrush, and we've not had a problem since. However now you touch it and end up swearing as your covered in grease.

 

[Barking Mat]

Grease the sliders each side, above post not clear enough.

 

[puffernutter]

I understood what you meant - like the two post lift in the car port, I greased the slideways on that recently and got into trouble for it!

Cheers

Peter

 

[Barking Mat]

Great when they work......Pita....

 

[puffernutter]

Been thinking about this as the roller is high up and to access that plate is a real pain as I'll have to support the door on Acro Props (or a red-neck equivalent!) whilst I dismantle the plate that holds teh bearing etc to get at it - and it's right at the edge without much room to work....

No looking at the picture with the cover off, at the bottom is the worml gear for hand-winding. On one side are the electrical switch adjustments for maximum up/down and on the other two side, apart from the spur gear, nothing.

So what if I just drilled a hole in the side and squeezed a load of grease in? I could thread it and seal it with a very short screw, or I could be really clever and install a grease nipple (as long as it didn't foul the gear).

Any thoughts as to why that cunning plan should't create some totally new failure I hadn't considered?

Cheers

Peter

 

[bricol]

Can't you work on the roller with the door closed - and the roller exposed? Door is then self-supporting in the channels.

 

[Turbo]

I worked for a short while making & fitting roller shutter doors. The motor units we fitted were Chinese made & were so cheap that when one went faulty we just fitted a new one. Even so we rarely had to replace them & it was usually due to a problem with the door or guides.

I would check that the door is coming down squarely, it's possible that one side is higher than the other. That will affect the door more when lowering as it's relying on gravity to pull the door down. You could try pulling on the bottom of the door when lowering it to see if it helps. There's a simple trick to solve this - just add some spacers on the side that's lower. They go where the shutter bolts to the roller .

Make sure that the guides have a decent slope at the top in both directions, this helps ease the door into the guides. You could try increasing the slope to see if it helps. If the door is catching it will likely be at the top, it will only catch the guides further down if they've been moved or damaged.

It's also possible that you have a damaged plastic guide of the end of one of the slats.

 

[euroliner]

I have the exact same motor but cant figure out how its locked into the tube ?

 

[puffernutter]

Neither could I! I bought a whole new unit.

 

[Barking Mat]

Was this the thread where I suggested greasing the sides?

Don't do it, the grease turns to sticky glue.

Ways should be kept clean, nothing more than WD40, I've learnt....

 

[puffernutter]

I assume you mean grease, or are you in an earth mound?

 

[lincoln2013]

I changed one of these a few years ago, I seem to remember the motor was bolted in through from the tube.

 

[euroliner]

No sorry I mean, how is the complete motor fixed into the steel barrel? (4 inch CHS)