How to install an operator reinforcement bracket?

Diagnostic – an operator reinforcement bracket (orb) can get damaged from a garage door that has gone off track or jump cables and has been bent because it attaches to the opener hockey arm and sometimes it will tweak when the door is crooked or falls off the track. Or somebody tries to open a garage door with a automatic opener and somehow the door is locked or is impeded by an object and cannot open.

Cost: $20 ¬50
Difficulty: easy
Time to repair: around 1 hour
Tools needed: 3⁄8 ,7/16 ,1⁄2, wrench or socket. Impact drill (not necessary but recommended). 1⁄8 inch drill bit. Chop saw with metal blade or sawzall with metal blade. Self tapping metal screws.
Orb is short for opener reinforcement bracket it is a piece of hardware that you attach to the top section of your garage door and it is custom made to reinforce the connection between your garage door opener and the garage door. The orb bracket is much stronger and more reliable than the ones that you typically get with your garage door opener package because the ones that come from the manufacture are only about 3 inches long and can easily be ripped away from the garage door. Oh rb brackets come in two different lengths 18 inch and 21 inch. That is because the average garage door section are either 18 inch or 21 inch tall. If you have a garage door constructed of wood what we call a wood panel door then most of the time the panels will be less than 18 inch sometimes 15 or 16 inches this is because wooden doors are usually custom¬made to fit the garage door opening. If you have a 7 foot high garage door and you have five garage door sections then the sections will be all different sizes usually the biggest sections will be on top and bottom. Manufacturers do make orb brackets bigger than 21 inch this is because some of them make three section garage doors and of course you would need a longer orb bracket for one of these custom steel garage doors. In any case no matter what the measurement is of your door sections when installing a orb bracket you do not want it to be bigger then the section its so in other words you dont want any part of it going past the 18 or 21 inch or whatever the height of the section may be because this will interfere with the opening and closing of the garage door. Installing a or b is pretty simple so you should not have a huge problem trying to install one. I do not know if you can find one of these brackets at a retail hardware store like lowes or home depot I don’t think I have ever seen them there but that does not mean that they do not carry them now so that would be the first place I would look. If you do not have any luck at a hardware store then I would turn to the internet maybe amazon or ebay. If you have a wood panel garage door and you need to get some screws to attach the bracket to your door you need to measure the thickness of the door panels and the screw length should not exceed that thicknesses.

Step one: before you start to search for a orb you will need to measure the height of the very top garage door section it is easy to see where the section separate so just measure from the bottom of the section to the top. This measurement will give you an idea of what size orb bracket that you will need. Once you have found what exact part do you need and you have it in your hands ready to install you will need to hold it up to the top of the garage door section and be sure that it is the right size if it hangs over the top by a half¬inch or even more you may need to cut part of it off. This is where you would use your chop saw or sawzall to get the right length.

Step two: now that you have the right length on the bracket you will need to remove the two screws at the top of the hinge that is at the bottom of the top section of the garage door this is where the bottom to slots connect to the bottom of the top section. . 90% of garage doors will have a strut along the top of the top section this is a reinforcement not only for the door but for the opener when it pulls on the top section so it does not bend the top section. Usually there are two metal screws that attach the strut to the door where you need to put the top of the orb bracket. You will need to slide the top of the old rb bracket underneath the strut. Once you have removed the two screws if the bracket does not easily slide under the strut then you can take a screwdriver and lift it away from the door just a little bit and just enough to slide the bracket underneath.

Step three: now we need to attach the bracket to the door at the bottom you want to flip the hinge back up and slide the bottom of the orb bracket on top of the hands and the bracket will have two long slots at the bottom these are for up and down adjustability. Remembering not to go past the bottom of the top section use the screws that you previously removed on the hands and screw the bottom of the bracket to the door. Now when you go to the top to tighten down the two screws they may not line up exactly where you need them to so this is where you may need to take a 1/8 inch drill bit and drill some pilot holes exactly where you want to reattach your metal screws. You want to put the screws back into the holes in the strut that the screws came out of originality. Once you have secured the bracket to the door it is time to go on to step four.

Step four: now you will need to reattach the hockey arm of the opener back to the garage door. You will notice on the orb bracket there is a rod slight sliding through with a keeper pin or keep her ring on one end to keep the rod from sliding out you will need to remove the keeper pin or ring and remove the rod. The easiest way to line up the hockey arm to the rod is to pull down on the emergency release so that the carriage moves freely back and forth. The bracket will usually have two or three different holes that the rod can slide through going vertically this is also for adjustment find which slot lines up with the hockey arm and slide the rod through the bottom hole of the curved piece of the hockey arm and then put back the keeper ring or pin. After you have attached the hockey arm to the orb bracket you may have moved the limit adjustment on the opener so you may have to reset the opener limits. Also one last thing a hockey arm should have a slight angle to it and not be straight up¬and¬down or way too far back with too much of an angle you just want a slight angle so you may also have to adjust the hockey arm. Before you reset the adjustments on your opener you should make sure you have the right angle on your hockey arm because this will affect the limit position. To adjust the hockey arm you will see that there are two bolts holding the two pieces together one piece is straight and the other piece is angled you will see a sequence of about 8 to 12 holes that you can slide a boat through you will just need to move the straight part of the hockey arm that is attached to the carriage forward or back to get a good angle. Now you will slide the tightening bolts into any of the holes that you feel comfortable with the further apart the bolts are the stronger it will be. Now you will move on to reset the limits on the opener unit. Once you have the proper open and closed position for the opener your job should be complete.