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Get your free estimateMighty Mule Gate Motor Replacement: The Henderson Owner’s Guide
Replacing a failed Mighty Mule gate motor in Henderson typically runs between $450 and $850 installed, depending on whether it’s a single swing arm or a dual-gate system. We stock Mighty Mule-compatible replacement arms, control boards, and power supplies on our service trucks, so most Henderson homes get a same-day swap. Most owners discover the failure the way you probably just did: the gate starts moving slower, makes a grinding sound near the arm, or simply stops responding to the remote while the control board still clicks.
We’re an independent gate repair company in Henderson that works on Mighty Mule equipment every week. We’re not affiliated with Mighty Mule or its parent brand, which means we can sell you the fix, not push a whole new system.
Which Mighty Mule Models This Applies To
If your opener arm is black or silver with the Mighty Mule name printed on the housing, you’ve got one of the main lines we service: the MM series (MM260, MM360, MM371, MM571), the FM series (FM200, FM350, FM500), or the newer MMX series replaced by the MM series. Where compatibility gets tricky is with pre-2008 units, which used a 4-wire motor harness and a separate limit switch board inside the arm. Newer arms are 5-wire and the limits live on the control board. If you’re mixing an old board with a new arm, you’ll get a gate that opens halfway and quits.
Check the label on the underside of the control box, not the arm. The part number starts with “RB” or “FM” followed by three digits. If the label is sun-bleached (Henderson summers eat through plastic labels within three or four years), send us a photo of the board and the arm, and we’ll identify it before we send a truck.
Styles & brands we work with





Signs Your Mighty Mule Gate Motor Replacement Is Failing
The motor arm is the part that wears out. Here’s what owners in Henderson call us about most often:
- Gate stops mid-travel and reverses. The motor’s current-sensing circuit is tripping early, which usually means worn gears inside the arm or a stiff hinge putting extra load on the motor. In Henderson’s heat, the internal grease breaks down and the arm works harder to do the same job.
- Clicking at the control board but no movement. The board is sending power. The arm isn’t using it. That’s the motor capacitor or a seized gear train.
- Manual operation is fine but the arm won’t move the gate. The internal clutch or pin has sheared, often after a wind gust pushed the gate while the motor was engaged. We see this out near Inspirada where open desert wind hits unblocked.
- Humming for about a second, then silence. The motor start capacitor is dead. The motor can’t get the initial torque it needs to turn the gear train. This part fails more often in Henderson than cooler climates simply because electrolytic capacitors hate sustained heat.
- Gate moves but makes a grinding or squealing sound from the arm, not the hinges. The worm gear inside the actuator is wearing. It won’t fix itself, and lubricating the outside of the arm does nothing for an internal gear.
See the difference
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After
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After
Before
AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For a single swing gate in Henderson, a Mighty Mule-compatible replacement arm installed typically falls between $450 and $650. If you’ve got a dual-gate setup where both arms run off one control board, plan on $650 to $850, since we replace both arms at the same time. That keeps the wear even and stops you from paying for a second service visit in nine months.
Every quote includes the arm, any mounting hardware we reuse or replace, travel to your home in Henderson, the install, and a full cycle test with your remotes and keypad. We hand you a written price before any work begins. Not a range, not an estimate we’ll “revisit.” The number on that sheet is the number you pay. The work is covered by our 365-Day Done Right Promise, which means if the gate doesn’t open and close evenly a month from now, we come back and make it right. No charge.
DIY or Call Us?
The temptation to order an arm online and bolt it on yourself is understandable. The part runs $200 to $350 on its own. But here’s where that goes wrong with Mighty Mule more than other brands: the arm has to be set at the correct stroke length with the mounting geometry matched to your gate’s pull point. Mount it an inch off and you get a gate that slams open, strains the hinge welds, and kills the new arm within a year. Also, the control board stores force settings from the old arm. A new arm with a different motor profile needs those limits re-learned.
There’s also a real electrical component here. The board is powered at 12 to 18 volts DC, but the power supply side is 120 volts AC. Opening the control box and probing the wrong terminal is a shock hazard. We do this every day and we still move deliberately around line voltage.
If you want to try the swap yourself, we’ll tell you honestly whether your model is one of the forgiving ones. Call us and describe what’s happening. If it’s a 15-minute adjustment instead of a motor replacement, we’ll tell you that too. We’re at (775) 210-7739.
FAQs
Most Mighty Mule actuator arms in Henderson last between 4 and 7 years, though units installed on unshaded west-facing gates near the McCullough Range tend to fail at the shorter end of that range. The heat and UV exposure degrade the internal lubricant and the capacitor, and the motor works against that resistance every cycle. If your gate opens and closes more than 10 times a day, plan on the shorter life.
We rebuild Mighty Mule arms when the failure is isolated to the capacitor or the pin, but if the worm gear or motor windings are done, the rebuild cost approaches the cost of a new arm. The arm casing is sealed, which means we open it, replace the worn internals, and re-seal it. We’ll tell you honestly if a repair saves you real money or just delays a replacement by a few months. Call (775) 210-7739 and we’ll diagnose the arm on the truck so you know before you spend.
Most single-gate motor replacements in Henderson take about 90 minutes from arrival to a fully cycled, tested gate. Dual gates run closer to two hours. The physical swap is 30 to 45 minutes. The rest is cycling the gate, adjusting force settings, and testing every remote, keypad, and safety sensor you have. We don’t leave a gate that works “mostly.”
We keep Mighty Mule-compatible arms, control boards, power supplies, and capacitor kits on our service vehicles, along with comparable parts for LiftMaster, Ghost Controls, and DoorKing. That means when we arrive at your Henderson home, the part is usually on the truck, not ordered from a warehouse. If we don’t have it, we’ll tell you before we schedule the visit so you’re not paying for an empty truck. We also lay drop cloths and wear shoe covers inside the house, and we send you a photo of the clean-up before we pull out of the driveway.
Ready to get your gate moving again? Call (775) 210-7739 for a free estimate. We’re a live answer, around the clock, and we’ll give you a written price before any work begins.
Written by Cody Beckman, Owner, Latch and Post Gate Repair Henderson at Latch and Post Gate Repair Henderson, serving Henderson and nearby areas.