ALE331RAW Amana Dryer - Instructions

First I was told by the maytag repair man that the motor was shot and it would be 467 dollars to repair. Since I didn't have that kind of money I decided to take it apart to see if I could replace the motor myself. Once I had it apart I saw the part that held the motor in place was broken off and the motor was out of place causing it too shut itself off. Once I figured it all out it took about 2 minutes to replace the less than 6 dollar part! Thanks partSelect!!!

After removing the lower access panel, I observed the drum and belt and saw it turning freely. The support rollers in the back turned freely and were in good condition as well. At odd intervals the unit made a humming or grinding noise, and i decided to check the blower wheel (the other rotating part in the system). I found that the central hub of the wheel (which is made of a nylon like plastic) had sheared off from the wheel itself. I ordered a new part and started to remove the old wheel. **NOTE** many of the stories I read described how this part would have a reverse thread, it did not and that cost me an extra 30 minutes to figure out (the new part had arrows showing the correct direction to put on and remove - the original didn't). Once everything was cleaned and reassembled, I started the dryer again, but got no heat. I had previously replaced the heating element, so I thought my wiring was wrong. That wasn't the problem, but a hint from this site about checking the incoming wiring was the solution, my ground wire had come off the terminal in the back of the dryer and I wasn't getting the volatge across the element that it required. With the ground wire back in place, everything worked fine.

Remove screws to top of appliance lid and control panel paying close attention to location and type of screws. Lift back of top panel and lift off front top lid until it snaps up. Slide top panel to side and remove upper front panel screws from the inside of dryer one on left and one on right. Be careful to not let front door fall outward. Slide door panel up off of hooks at base of panel. Remove duct assembly by removing three screws located on the inside of the dryer at the front. Slide out and remove air duct assembly.

Removing the High Limit Thermal Fuse was straight forward. Didn't really understand the online instructions but performed a continuity test across terminals and there was no continuity, so I replaced.

Repare took 1-2 hours, next time will probably cut in half now that I know where to remove screws to access motors & fuses and dryer assemblies at base of dryer.

Removed lower panel, door assembly, belt and drum.
Removed blower wheel cover.
Used dremmel tool to cut plastic from metal that attaches the blower to the motor shaft.
Used adjustable wrench to keep motor shaft from turning.
Used vise grip to clamp on metal and turned to loosen blower wheel.
Attached new blower and re-assembled.

Dryer stopped tumbling, so bad belt was my first thought. Dryer is in vacation home so did not have immediate access to it to diagnose. Ordered belt and discovered that the poorly designed motor pulley had broken and the belt jumped onto the motor shaft and burned through the original belt. Week 2 after ordering pulley, installation went per YouTube video. Glad I also replaced the belt because it was brittle and cracked. Suspect it had been slipping because sheets would ball up into a log, possibly because the drum wasn't spinning fast enough. Anyhoo, after repair all seems OK.

I removed the dryer front and replaced the door switch.
Next I replaced the drum glide reassembled the dryer.

unplug appliance.removed 2 screws @ the rear of dryer top to tip lid back. unplugged the door switch wires.took out 3 philip screws that hold lint screen to inside of drum.removed 2 screws @ dryer front top. lifted dryer front panel off. the drum was now loose. slipped off old belt - replaced with new. set drum back into place. made sure new belt was on motor pulley & behind tensioner pulley arm. replace & reconnect items in reverse order. plug back in & test. after seeing the wear on the plastic tensioner pulley i regret not ordering that part for replacement also.

remove bottom two screws on lower front panel, remove panel. remove two screws on lower portion of door panel, pull bottom panel towards yourself to release pins at the top. Disconnect wiring for light and door switch (make sure to note what wires go where. Complete removal of front door panel. Remove 4 screws holding cylinder frame in place, lift to remove. remove remnants of old felt seal, use rotary tool to remove excess glue, etc. apply glue (used rubberized gorilla super glue), apply felt seal - allow glue to set up. reinstall in reverse direction from removal. Be sure to use glue as there are no clips or other retaining pieces for the new felt and it will not hold in place. overall pretty easy.

A friend did the repair for me. Very simple. Saved me a lot of money by getting the parts and fixing the problem. Thanks!

The video on the web-site was very helpful in showing how to take it apart. First we remove the power plug from the wall outlet. Then we used flat scrapper to push the top two hidden clips to release the Dryer's top. We used the nut driver to unscrew the two screws that held the front panel. We carefully remove the wires that were connected to switch sensor for the door, and the lights. Next step was to unscrew couple more screws that held the front piece from the main fan housing. At the bottom locate the tensioner of the belt. Release it. Remove the dryer drum with the belt. We took the opportunity to clean off the lint that was all over on the bottom of the dryer. We then could reach the bottom left back of the dryer to unscrew the screws that held the heater unit. Before that we unscrew and release the wires for the Thermal fuse and the limit thermostat which are all located on the heating unit. Then we replace with new pieces. Upon removal of the heating unit we noticed the broken heating element. Next was to place the drum back in. We made sure that the drum lined up with the rear support piece then the front. We rotated the drum just to make sure that it was sitting correctly. Then we screwed the front housing unit. Then we put the front panel back on the hooks at the bottom. That help to line up the front panel with the main chasis. We connected all the connectors to the right terminals. Last was to set the top down on to the chasis. We checked that the duct in the rear is not obstucted. Lastly was plugging in the power cord and testing the dryer. It is working again. Thanks to Part Select's video and parts. Total time was just over half an hour.

Removed the two nuts at the bottom of the dryer front to be able to move the front piece. Removed three screws holding the vent assembly in place. Removed vent assembly, replaced with new part and replaced screws and nuts.

Early in the life of my dryer, the Cylinder Seal came out. For the past two years I put off buying the part. When it came in, I p[opped the top of the dryer, removed the two screws holding on the front panel, and pulled the Cylinder of the back wall of the dryer. I then placed the seal in the right spot, glued it down and reassembled. About Fifteen minutes of work and a cheap part, and now my dryer dries a l;oad of clothes in an hour instead of three.

unpluged the dryer,and removed the top.
took the front of the dryer off,release the belt and removed the drum.
unbolted the idler lever.

then I put it back together.
the bolt that holds the idler lever will be a little hard to replace for some.

I first unpluged the dryer. Then I
Removed two screws and removed bottom cover, Then removed the door assembly.Here I had to unplug the light and door switches. I then removed the four screws that holds the tub mount in place, Then I removed the eight screws that hold the blower cover in place, then removed the blower. replaced blower and reassembled in reverse. I started the dryer and it worked fine.

googled make and model number of dryer! Found a trouble shooting comment like my problem! Dryer not getting hot! Watched video on locating and removing element and Hightemp sensor of my model. Then went in and inspected element ! I was able to see that element was bad-had a break in middle. Removed old one and ordered new one! This was a Sunday night! Had back together after work on Wednesday evening! Total time approx 45 minutes! This includes time researching online and taking two sensors off old element and mounting on new element! Easy fix!