Locate your dryer's motor. You will have to open your dryer's cabinet in order to gain access to its motor. For directions on how to open the cabinet of your dryer, please see our How to open your dryer's cabinet section.

Disconnect the motor's two wire leads from the wiring harness. Set your multimeter to the R x 1 setting. Touch each of the meter's probes to one terminal each. Your motor should show little resistance (a reading of zero, or close to zero).

Now check the ground connection. Place one probe on the bare metal housing of the motor. Place the other probe on each terminal, one at a time. You should not receive any reading on your meter from this test.

If your dryer's motor fails either of these tests, you will have to replace it.

• How to replace a dryer's motor.