85178L Amana Refrigerator - Instructions

Part received was what I needed. There was one issue--the 'feed' opening to receive water and direct it into the ice tray was a side feed and what I needed was a back feed. That means I had to do some exchanging of parts to make it work. That exercise took more time that the actual installation.

The refrig seemed warm so I checked the temp of some liquid with a thermometer. Readings were above 60 degrees and I knew food would spoil soon. I vacuumed the dog fur off the cooling coils underneath the machine to see if that would help. Nope. I realized cold air from the freezer was not reaching the refrig. The fan was working but no cold air was coming out. I figured a blockage either in the air duct from the refrig or in the return duct to the freezer. I didn’t see any blockage in the refrig section. I took everything out of the freezer and removed the back wall. The cooling coils were completely frozen solid with frost. Being a frost free machine, I knew there were heaters that were controlled by a timer that melted this frost away periodically and that this cycle was no longer working. I found a schematic on the web, maybe your site, and educated myself on the heater circuit. The circuit consisted of a timer, thermostat near the coils, and a cal rod heater all wired in series. The timer was easy to get to and being a mechanical device I figured it must be the culprit. I ordered one online. I checked its operation and it worked fine. Realizing time was short, I hot wired the cal rod around the thermostat and rotated the timer to its heat position. The frost melted quickly and I put the freezer back together and ordered a thermostat. I canceled the timer order. When it arrived, I installed the new thermostat and it has worked fine for the past month. A little colder than usual as I don’t yet have the settings back to where they were. I have checked the operation of the old thermostat. It’s supposed to close at 30 degrees and open at 45. I have done a continuity check on it by putting it in the freezer, letting it cool down, take it out, let it warm up and it seems to work fine. So I have doubts if I really solved the problem. Wire connections were tight and not corroded. Maybe the timer was hung up on debris that I freed by cycling it. I don’t think this is the end of the story.

After unplugging the appliance I needed to thaw a large ice buildup off the evaporator cover panel before I could even remove the panel. The freezer being on the lower part of the appliance has the evaporator mounted vertically and it was 100% encapsulated in rock hard ice. It took over an hour to thaw the ice and collect all the water with a shop vacuum, since the condensate pan began to overflow.
One thawed, I checked all wiring for good connection, checked heater, defrost thermostat, timer unit with multimeter. The defrost thermostat checked out fine after putting it into another freezer for a 15 minute cooldown, but I noticed a crack in the seal and suspected internal moisture and decided to replace that part. A simple plug in of two leads to the new part after clipping it to the evaporator, replacement of the panel, and the appliance was up and running problem free.
A workbench disection of the old part confirmed my assessment, it had internal rust and water and had failed causing the defrost cycle failure.

Removed the ice brucket,
Removed the light shield by releasing one screw using a nutdriver.
Replacing the bulb and reinstalled the light shield.

Your web site is one of the best and most helpfull service sites I ever used. Just wish that in the future you will ship parts overseas.

I removed the switch housing (4 screws), replacing the switch in the housing was a snap. It took 5 minutes, cost $8 and light works like new!

Why didn't I order this part and do the repair earlier? Very simple.

to easy to describe, remove 3 screws and a wire plug then install new unite.
Works great
Thanks

Very simple fix, remove 3 screws, two connectors to the old switch

easy repair and looks great!!!
Thank you from a single Mom:-)

Removed the old handle, did a little clean-up of the refrigerator door, inserted the new handle and used the old screws to secure it. The fit was perfect.

Removed the old. Took off the name plate from the old handle. Put the name plate on the new. Installed new handle.

Took under 5 minutes. Removed two screws and unplugged the wire bundle from refrigerator. Removed old unit. Put old wire bundle on new unit. Plugged wire bundle back into refrigerator and remounted the new ice maker. Could not have been easier. Watched the video first, it was very helpful.

Unplugged the power, removed old icemaker by removing 3 screws and unplugging a small wire harness

Then i moved the wire harness off the old one to the new one, moved the end cover over to new one and plugged the harness back in and screwed it back in and turned it on

ALL FIXED!

Remove 3 screws, took top hinge out, fz door and inserted shim...done.

remove 3 screws,rotate assembly,depress lock on wire harnass connector,un plug harnass.remove old assembly,remove and transfer side cover and steel wire at front of assembly,connect harnass to new assembly,rotate into place,aling screw holes and install 3 screws.flip front steel wire down and wait for about 1 hour,first tray of ice will fall..all done.

Turn off the water source and unplug freezer. Remove copper tube and then remove valve from back of refrigerator. Disconnect plastic tube and power connection. Mark power connection plug top with a "T", this reminder helps with the new valve. Plug power and plastic tube into new valve and screw assembly back into refrigerator. Using a wrench, connect copper tube into valve. Restore water source and plug back in in freezer. Within a couple hours, ice production was back.
Like the other repair stories (that helped me), this job was very easy.