DDC0385LD General Electric Dryer - Instructions

Started with removal of rear inspection plate on rear of drier,rotated drier drum by hand to look for any visible problems. Found that drive belt with age had lost sections of teeth and every time the bad sections would go past motor they would "thump".
1. Removed belt from tensioner. Done simply by moving tensioner to unload belt.
2. Slipped belt off motor drive and moved belt to front of drum.
3. Opened drier door and removed 4 screws from under the lid or top of drier ,raised lid for access to belt once belt had been slid to front of drum.
4. (steps 4 and 5 are the hardest parts)Worked drive belt between drum and felt insulators keep in mind there are many stamped steel pieces and sharp edges can be present.
5. Removed belt by feeding a small section past felt and drum and worked rest out from frt. top of drier.
6. Installed new belt in reverse order as removal.
This was done without aid of instruction manual and by someone having major back surgery 4 months earlier. No idea how much this saved me but the price of the belt and time and effort involved made it woth my while I'm sure.

Pulled the top of dryer off. Separated the door from the drum seal or gasket, slipped the belt through, put the drive belt on the motor and then put it all back together.

The repair was simple with my mechanic relative handling the tools. Total time about 25 minutes.

Previous repairs to the venerable machine with parts obtained freom Part Select and shipped to Germany: new drive motor and drum bearings.

open the front of the dryer, open the back access panel, remove the old belt fragment, pull front cover away from bushing surface at the front of drum, drape new belt around the face of drum, match location visible as the track of old belt, reroute belt at the motor and install tensioner in the proper way, reattach front cover, install back panel, done.

Checked out problem found belt broke and order part from part select and when it got in I replaced the belt and then found pully bad too. so I order that part from ya'll and it tok less than 5 mint to install. everything went very well and I and my wife are very happy with everything.
Thank's Partselect,
John& Roxanna

unplugged dryer,removed air duct,,remove( top of dryer) by removing the two back screws.... removed two screws under (fornt top lid),laid top to the side. ...Now remove ( front of dryer) remove,two screws near the( top on the inside)...lean dryer back, and remove outsidescrews at the bottom)..the front should come off. ..located small square opening in the back of the dryer release clamp from drum ,...put belt around drum... put drum and dryer back together...(relace any electrical wires removed if any..remove (rear bottom plug panel)..you can now see the lower inside of dryer....make sure belt is level on drum by rotating...place belt on lower pully,... lift tension(spring pully) on to belt.. replace cover..

take off door, take off front, mind the 2 wires for the door switch, take off top, take out enough screws on right side so it will lean out a bit for the drum to be removed. before removing drum you must remove the belt. pull the wheel to the right, minding the belt pattern for reassembly, its springy and will relieve tension. pull drum out. look to the left of the pulley and check to see any stray wire that may have pulled out while battling the belt. if you found a stray wire and it reaches the dryer motor find its home. on to the coils. I left assembly on dryer so I didn't have to figure out wire placement. the end connectors that the coils attach to are to be reused so don't get to mean with them. remove the end connectors minding how many wires it has and which of the 2 coils go to it. remove the old coils so as not to damage the very brittle ceramic insulators. on to the new, the instructions will tell you to stretch out the new coils to specified lengths. start with the shorter one first! just to see the stretchiness and how far is too far to stretch, if to long it will touch the heat shield and no good can come of that. after stretched out its time to string new coils in, carefully, so as not to stretch or collapse the coil. now hooking the end connectors to the ends of spring. I used 2 pliers to bend the tab a little bigger so it would cover the spring end. after springs are attached to ends and ends are in place, time to battle the drum and tensioner again, make sure plastic piece is on drum insert if equipped, put drum in place and bend tensioner down and install belt. put side screws on, then front and 2 wires , then top then door. plug in and start up. if unit doesn't start remember that stray wire going to the motor, you guessed it wire goes to the start switch. unplug and hook up the wire and it will work.

Change the coil by removing the cotter pin around drum in the back I accidently removed the 3 star bits and the front and it was hard getting back together. The coils are easy to change, but found that the coil wasn't the issue it was the cyclical thermosat underneath the lint catcher in front. The part (heater coil) works better than the older one, so I guess it wasn't a complete screw up. I read up on a few others and think I should have check thermostat first oops. good luck

Pop off the old, pop on the new. I did it with one hand, the 'hard' part was putting the access panal back on.

unscrewed and lifted top of dryer put belt around drum closed top put belt around motor pulley and belt tensioner and finished.( remember to unplug unit before working on it.)

The repair for the average untrained mechanicslly inclined " first off google directions/instruction picture step by step " we took off the wrong part which made this job difficult there is a part on the back that was removed prior to guided directions, called parts select they are awesome"our belt was delivered the next day on a 3 day weekend I was suprised second correct part sent anyone who took on this job , they will appreciatte all this . the belt was fairly easy to repair just do as directed follow guidelines. difficulty detaching a part that never should be"pain in the a" order your part from this company they rock" and picture guide and specific direction guideline @ this dryer has well outlived the money spent still kicking strong after several years of use hotpoint dryer

I didn't know what was wrong at first, only that the dryer would not start. I bought it used so had no fear of taking it apart to diagnose. Found the broken belt inside, ordered a replacement, installed the new belt, then crossed my fingers. Was pleasantly surprised that was all that was wrong and that for less than $20, including shipping, a few hours of my time, and a little help from YouTube videos the dryer is working again!

What to do if you have a load of wet laundry at 23:00, the dryer won’t start, and you have no spare start switch.
Removed rear access panel and discovered the wire from terminal #2 (goes to heater coils) on the start switch had melted and disconnected. The start switch showed signs of overheating but not melted. Removed the switch and found the switch’s actuator button was jammed in the ‘in’ position (dryer won't start). The switch was a friendly one in that it was possible to disassemble it. Most switches today are molded/glued together, but this one could be pried apart. The contacts inside were still in fair condition and, after dressing them, the switch was reassembled. The actuator button had a burr that was filed off and the switch action worked fine. All of the 1/4" male QC contacts on the switch were cleaned with a wire brush. The burned wire was cut back about 6” and a new piece of 14ga wire was spliced in with a wire nut. A new 1/4” QC terminal was crimped to the wire and all wires were re-attached to the switch.
This fix would probably last for a long time to come, but I bought a new switch and installed it and will keep the old switch as a backup.
p.s. The load of laundry was dry by 02:00.

disassembled chassis of dryer, unbolted top, lifted top to expose drum. bolted top back on. resumed repair next morning. unbolted top. lifted drum (it moved up and down about 1 inch) and got new belt around it. rebolted top down. tipped dryer to its back. unbolted and removed panel at bottom, exposing drive motor and tensioner spring. positioned belt around drive motor spindle and tensioner spring. replaced panel. reconnected dryer to electricity. reconnected gas using new flexible connector.

Researching on the web I thought the trouble might be lint buildup or trouble w/ one of the parts involved in spinning the drum. However I cleaned out all the lint and replaced the belt and idler pulley and this didn't improve the smell (drum bearing was fine). I then concluded the trouble was the motor. Running the motor w/o the drum in place confirmed this was where the noise/smell was coming from. Replacing the motor was fiddly--I had to remove the clip holding the motor (pried the top w/ a screwdriver), wires (made a diagram so as to put back in same order, they were hard to get off--a pliers did the job), clamps holding the motor on the duct, the motor mount, the duct, the fan. Putting all this back together took a while (not hard just fiddly). Tested the motor w/out the drum in place and it sounded fine. Put the drum and back/front/top panels back and the dryer runs fine now. All parts came quickly and exactly matched the parts in my 1993 Hotpoint dryer. As others have said the pulley kit is not needed--these are included w/ the motor. BTW I am a 53-year-old lady. Thanks to all who took the time to write up their experiences--big help!!