Hanging the opener of a garage door can be a little tricky, especially if you are doing the job alone. Here is a quick hack.
One of my garage door openers finally bit the dust. What the heck, it was only about 30 years old or so. I purchased a replacement for about $130. I was doing this solo. Most of the tasks weren’t a problem.
However, when I got to the point of actually hanging the opener from the rails I was running into some trouble. Typically, the end of the rail is secured to the garage door overhead. You then pivot the opener up to the mounting rails for the motor.
Trying to get the two 1″ bolts in to securely hold it while threading a lock washer and nut on one side was a bit of a problem.
The opener is about 9 or 10 feet above the floor.
Use this tip at your own risk. Stuff can fall and break and/or cause injury.
I didn’t want the unit to fall since $130 bucks is $130 bucks. That can get you two cups of coffee at Starsucks.
I remembered that I had two boxes of PTO pins. Locating them in my highly organized garage was simple. Actually, the ‘highly organized’ part is BS but I was able to put my hands right on them. A PTO pin is a pin with a spring like retainer. It is designed to easily and quickly secure things such as a something attached to a Power Take Off unit.
If you are dexterous enough, you can insert and lock the pin with one hand. I got the unit in place and put pins on both sides. That secured it so I could grab the nuts, lockwashers and bolts. Just take the one pin out and replace it with a bolt. Snug it down and then you are ready for the other side.
SUMMARY – This little hack saved me a lot of time and aggravation.