Stanley Garage Door Opener 24829 Gear Case Kit - Cover and Body Assembly

Fixed a 38 year old garage door opened for less than $50 with this part. Works fine now. Much cheaper than installing a new garage door opener.

All good not too bad to install

I took a chance on this because my model wasn't in the compatibility list, but it fitted perfectly.I initially thought it came with fitting instructions, but it turned out those were just for recalibrating afterwards, and I actually couldn't use them because they referred to the original fitting instructions, which I don't have. So instead I did the usual thing of taking lots of photos as I removed the broken casing, and reassembling carefully using the replacement. Some of the wiring in my unit was threaded through the old casing so a small amount of disconnection and reconnection of wires was required (while isolated from the supply, of course).Take care not to lose the o-ring or the bush from the motor drive shaft as these are not part of the kit, and make sure you also transfer the spacer between the flat gear and the casing. Also, remove the bush and spacer washers from the top of the new casing before screwing it to the top of the housing, and then replace them from the outside as they don't fit through the hole in the housing. You may not need both washers - match the protusion of your existing bush. Final tip: be careful when you reattach the limit switch circuit board - you need to ensure that the spring contact is located between the white limiters.

To repair a broken one

This part is a great replacement for the gear case on a Stanley Garage Door Opener, but the older version had a few more features that explain why it had a higher price. The included screws no longer have rubber washers to absorb some of the movement. Probably not important, since they hold the two halves of the gear case and there shouldn't be much movement, but it was a nice touch. The brass bushing, while having a wider contact area with the gear it supports, is shorter. There is a silicone washer that is supposed to make up for the reduced height, but it isn't sufficiently thick to fully do the job. This could cause the gear to not align with the mating gear that controls the switch which stops the opener at the end of travel. I ended up reusing the old bushing to avoid this problem. In fact, I thought it odd that the bushing was included in the kit because it isn't a part that breaks or needs replacement.

Broke in 3 months. If your garage door opener has this plastic casing, invest in a new one. FYI, the reason why the original broke (on a Stanley opener) is because of poor manufacturers design. The motor weighs about 5 pounds and is held up by two flimsy rubber nuts, that eventually wore down and dropped the motor causing the casing to break. I replaced the rubber nuts with metal but this plastic casing is just to poorly made to handle the slight gear vibrations and eventually broke.

Gear case cover appeared to identical to the original and has been working without issue for a month. Disassembly was relatively easy but cannot be done in place. You'll have to pull the opener down from your garage ceiling and place it on a bench. Whole process took about 1/2 hour.

This part seems solid. We ended up taking the entire unit off the ceiling to disassemble and then install the new part. Take lots of pictures when you take everything apart. And make sure that when everything goes back together your garage door is not binding or otherwise creating a situation of stress that will just break the new part you just installed. A month in so far and the part is working great.