3638400417 Kenmore Refrigerator - Instructions

Same problems as already described .... door would not close, plastic bits on floor, angry, ready to throw-out 15 year old “dog” and blow at least $1,000 on a new appliance!

This repair is dead easy. Remove the two bolts holding the top hinge and lift off the entire door. Don’t be surprised if the original Riser Cam has virtually disintegrated, mine was a wreck. Remove two bolts that retain the old flat metal “shim” and fiber “gasket”.

Fit new Riser Cam and re-use old shim and gasket. Replace door on dome-shape bottom hinge mount and then re-fit top hinge.

If in any doubt order new shim and gasket along with the new cam riser. Or, do as I did, and “manufacture” either of these parts from scrap material found in the workshop ....

After reading the stories here, I purchased one door closing cam. After getting into the problem area, I realized I needed 2 cam, so I put the door back together and ordered another cam. If you have this problem, buy 2 cams.

First, I was glad I read other posts on this repair as I would have only purchased one of the replacement cams when I needed two! I removed the top door hinge with a screw driver (cover) and small socket set for the door hinge. I then removed the door and removed the bottom hinge (socket set). The bottom hinge had a small rivit that held the bottom cam in place. I used a hack saw to cut off the rivit and replace the cam and secured it with a small machine bolt and nut. I then laid the door on its side and removed the top am from a bracket attached to the bottom of the door. I relaced the cam (second one) and reinserted the screws. I reattached the bottom hinge and then placed the door on the bottom hinge pin. I then held the door in place while inserting the top hinge pin bracket into place and retightening the top screws. I replace the cover with a screw drive which was the ahrdest part in trying to find the hole the small screw gets inserted into. DONE!

At first, I noticed the refrigerator door didn't close at the same level of the freezer door. I started to adjust the hinges and noticed a chewed up black 'washer' at the base of the door hinge. Ppartselect.com was awesome, in that I easily found the schematic of my fridge, and the part I needed. Ordering was a snap, and it came to the house pretty quickly.
Installation, first raise the door up as high as you can, then scotch it with wood blocks (closed door). This takes the pressure off the bottom hinge you must remove.
Taking the hinge off is a snap, but then the problem presented itself. The old door closing cam was riveted to the hinge. I couldn’t get the old one off! I ended up taking it to the garage and breaking out the Dremmel tool with the abrasive cutter (the one that will cut through nails. I ended up cutting off the rivet. This was a pain.
I then found a small nut/bolt and put the new piece on, then put it back into place and removed the blocks. Works good as new. The toughest part by far was getting the old cam off… but there may be some easier way to get the rivet out that I’m not aware of.
Good luck.

Removed icemaker from freezer,
Removed 3 screws from cover plate, and removed screw securing main gear, removed gear.
Pulled back cover plate to expose switches and mechanism.
Removed screw holding switch to remove switch, and installed new switch.
I should have taken a pic of the cover plate, the interior mechanism and the wiring as I went along. It would have saved me 45 minutes in reassembly. Also, as luck would have it, I reversed the wiring on the switch. So off was on, and I had to remove it, switch wires and re-install.
But it works!

The repair went well could have completed the job in 20 minutes if I had a selection of small nuts and bolts to replace the rivet that had to be drilled out. Also buy 2 of the door closing cams Part # PS297995 one goes on the bottom hinge of the refrigerator door the other on the bottom of the refrigerator.

The old cam had broken and was on the floor. I ordered one new cam. I should have been told to order at least two, I did not know they worked in pairs. So I had to re-order, I ordersed four, I was able to see that the other (freezer door has cracked cams) door will soon need replacement of the cams. I had trouble installing the new part because the rivit also needed to ba replaced. I did a "Rube Goldgerg" to get the new part to sit properly. I drilled the hole open a little and forced the part into place. All is well. Thank you very much!

1. Put all perishable food into ice chest. Empty door shelves.
2. Remove top hinge cover with Philips screwdriver.
3. Supporting door, remove top hinge attached by two hex screws.
4. Lift door off bottom hinge.
5. On bottom of door, unscrew the hex screw holding the broken plastic cam.
6. Loosen the second hex screw enough to free the broken cam.
7. Replace the cam and tighten the hex screws making sure the opening of the cam lines up with the hole under the door.
8. Snap off plastic grill at the bottom of the refrigerator.
9. Remove bottom of the two hex screws holding the bottom hinge tot eh refrigerator body.
10. Loosen the second screw enought to rotate the hinge upsidedown. Tighten the screw again.
11. Now the rivet bottom is exposed so as to facilitate drilling it out to remove the broken cam.
12. Loosen the hex screw again and turn it back rightside up. Reinstall the bottom screw and tighten both of them.
13. Using an appropriate size bolt, lockwasher and nut, install other new cam.
14. Reinstall door reversing steps 1 to 4.
15. Don't forget to return the food to the 'fridge, by the way!

This was a 15 year old great working GE regrigerator. Refrigerator was not cooling properly, though the freezer worked great. Using flashlight, examined cam riser which was clearly broken. YOU MUST ORDER TWO GASKETS AS BOTH WILL BE WORN. After removing all food from the door, taped plastic sheet over the open space to keep food somewhat cool Removed top hinge cover and screws on top of door and lifted door out of bottom bracket placing it flat on kitchen island. Unscrewed hinge elements including old broken cam and shims form the bottom of the door and fit in the new cam. Unfortunately one of the shims was broken, so I used a thin plastic black washer from the hardware store which was big enough to fit over the pin on the bottom of the refrigerator itself. Screwed all the parts back together. Be VERY careful to note how you removed them in the first place...mabe take a digital foto or two. This was kind of tricky to remember. Then used a hammer and chisel to break off the rivit holding the bottom hinge elements on the refrigerator. Sawing with jigsaw didn't work that well. The rivit came right off. Then used a flat head screw, lock washer and nut instead of a reivit and attached the new second cam riser. You are now done with the new parts. Simply reattached the door and it closed like new. Had a simultaneoius problem with a faulty defrost heater in the freezer which also had to be replaced and which was really easy to do. About an hour max. This was the real cause of the refrigerator not cooling properly. But that's another story.

Had to defrost the freezer to melt off all the ice before servicing. Once that was done the icemaker replacement only took about 15-30 minutes to complete. The new icemaker came with many accessories and adaptors that were not needed and the instructions were based on replacing an older model and not really clear for my model. They mentioned not being able to use the new stripper but it was exactly the same as the old one so I left the new one in place. All in all it was easy and did the job.

0. As a safety precaution, unplug the range or hit the relevant fuse breaker before you start. You might also want to grab a flashlight. Definitely do not try to do this while the oven is hot.
1. Pinch the wire over the light bulb cap to remove it. This is inside the oven at the back.
2. Pop off the hemispherical glass cap.
3. Unscrew the old light bulb, and screw the new light bulb in its place.
4. Put the cap back.
5. Secure the cap by putting the wire back in its slots on the cap.

No tools needed, the cap is just held in place with pressure from the wire.

Remove the one screw holding the unit in place, unplug it, slide in the replacement, plug and screw it in.

My husband took out the old icemaker in about 5 minutes. The new icemaker was a perfect fit even though the refrigerator was >10yrs old. The only difficult part was the plug extension that was needed so that it would fit into an older appliance. The part was included, it just made the cord about 3 inches longer than it needed to. After working with it for about 20 minutes we were able to fit it on the back side of the icemaker. Now it works great!!

First i removed the lower cover below doors . Then placed a 4x4 under the door to be fixed to keep it in place. Removed screws from hinge support on unit to remove cam Removed outside screw on door and loosened other to allow other cam to be removed . Always buy two cams if one is broken the other cant be in very good shape .The door will work like new with two .

Removed the top hinge cover held by one screw. Removed the top hinge held by two screws and them lifted the door up and off the bottom hinge. Laid the door on the floor and replaced the cam piece from the kit on the bottome of the door. That required removing one screw and losening another. Removed the lower hinge (two screws) and replaced it with the new one in the kit. The lower hinge includes the other cam piece. Lifted the door onto the lower hinge and then replaced the top hinge and cover.