GCG21YESAFWW General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

I am a 64 year old woman.I will 65 in March. I do the plumbing and painting at our house and my husband who is 67 does the carpenter work, I help him by holding boards he is sawing etc. I though the job would be easier than it was, but it was still easy. I took out the first screw which was in plain sight, secound screw I could not get to, and thought oh no I will have to take some other things apart. but when I removed the screw to the ice maker shield it was easy to slide it down out of way, and I got to 2nd screw pretty easy, I removed 2nd screw put new slide in place put screws in place started 1 st screw, then 2nd screw then went back and tightened 1st and 2nd screw, put the ic maker shield back in place tightened the screw slide ice bucket back in place, and though now this will be ready for company coming for the Holidays.... YEAH....

I took the ice drawer out and turned it upside down. Then removed two philips screws holding the drawer front on. Then with a small straight edge screwdriver pry out the sides to release the locking tabs and remove the auger and crusher assembly. Then on the end of the auger remove the e-clip, slide the auger out and remove the broken part of the crusher dispenser and replace with new. Easier than it sounds. Parts Select was great to deal with. Had my parts in two days.

The repair did not go exactly the way it was described in the YouTube video, but basically it was similar. After unplugging the power cord, emptying the freezer, removing the shelves and the ice reservoir, I removed the ice maker assembly by unscrewing a Philips head screw and unplugging the power connector. The connector had little retaining tabs on each side that I pried open with a straight blade screwdriver. Then the ice maker lifted right out. Next I removed one screw holding the auger motor assembly, unplugged the power connector, and lifted out the assembly. This where things got difficult. After flailing around a bit, I removed the panel on the back wall of the freezer below the evaporator fan assembly, exposing the evaporator coil. I saw that the fan assembly was attached with two screws at the top and two screws at the bottom. The top screws were easily removed, but when I removed the bottom screws, which were situated in very tight quarters, I DROPPED BOTH SCREWS DOWN BEHIND THE EVAPORATOR COIL. Be prepared with a magnetic nutdriver so this doesn't happen to you. I could not retrieve the lost screws, but fortunately it appears that the top screws hold the assembly securely enough. The assembly was loose, but it was still attached by a power cord that I could not disconnect. I removed the tracks on the side walls for the ice bucket, and then I could maneuver the fan motor assembly just enough that I could reach over the top of it, grab and pull off the old fan blade, and slide the new fan blade onto the shaft. Reassembly was straightforward, replacing each part (except two lost screws) in reverse order to disassembly. After getting everything put back in and plugging in the power cord, I was amazed at how quiet it ran.

Looked it up on You Tube and basically followed the very simple instructions. Two minor differences: 1) I took the old gasket off while the door was still attached to the fridge. And 2) because it was a side-by-side freezer/ fresh food, I didn't have to take off the freezer door at all and the fresh food door was only attached at the top with 2 screws covered by a hinge cap. So I undid the screws and lifted it off the lower pin. We put the door on a table handle down and slightly off the table edge. Inserting the v-shaped rubber part of the gasket into the groove was easy- pinching it together with my fingers with a little hammer tap at the corners. Reinstalled the door and voila. 27 minutes!
Most of my DIY projects take twice as long as expected. Much time is spent taking off the old part then not as easy as expected to replace the new part. This was a breeze!

I used the screwdriver to pop out the broken door switch and physically pushed in the next one. 2 Minutes maybe!! On the bezel light, I unscrewed the old one and screwed back in the new. Also, I had to pop and unpop the light cover. Make sure you move it side to side not up and down pop out.

The internal water line was leaking. I could not find any repair parts for my refrigerator but the GE 5/16 water line was the same size. I purchased 6' of tubing and two unions. Make sure the clean and square. If possible, make the cuts in a spot where you can use the pliers and wrench to tighten the union. I cut approximately 2' out of the existing line and replaced it with the same length of new line using the 2 unions, one on each end. Took about 5 minutes.

The three bulbs would then remain on, so I loosened them to keep them off. I didn't know that the cooling system also would stop when the door was open, so for two days only the side freezer was operational. When I discovered that, I hot glued the switch button off, while I searched for a replacement part. The replacement part was an exact duplicate. A simple prying out of the old switch - using a screwdriver, and the reconnection of the two wires connectors to the new part, and clicking back in place ... done. Seriously, it took two minutes.

removed and replaced grill, really easy.

found the correct bulbs, the hardest part.
un screwed old bulb.
Screwed in new bulb.
Waa La,
There was light.

This was a great opportunity to clean the bottom 3 shelves. I unplugged the frig.,disconnected both water lines, unscrewed water tank, pulled water lines out, put new tank in and pushed new water lines in and connected them, and plugged frig. back in. I grabbed my glass to get a drink and feeling proud but no water. I thought about this for a while and came to the conclusion that the freezer was set to 9 and the water had frozen in the value in the door. I dropped the temp. in the freezer from 9 to 3 and after about 2 days the water worked just fine. I emptied the ice because it was clumped into one big piece. I heard the ice maker going to town all day long. I called for ice later and the motor that dispenses the ice was humming and no ice was dropping. I thought about it and could not come up with the answer so I called tech. at GE and he was no help. So I solved one problem and now I have another that I don't have an answer to. My last attempt is to remove the motor housing to see if gears are jammed or something else.

Freezer section defroster heater was inoperative.
turned off the refrigerator by turning the right knob in top rear refrigerator to 0.

Used hose on a vacuum sweeper blower side to feed warm air into the bottom rear section. Removed the top plastic panel behind the ice maker to allow air flow to exit through the fan to defrost the freezer coils.

Placed a flat oven pan into the area beside the vacuum hose and sponged up the melted frost water. After 30 minutes, water ceased to drain.

Removed freezer shelves, and 5 screws on rear freezer wall. It took about 2 minutes to remove the heater & braw assembly at the bottom of the coils. 2 screws have to be removed and wires just clip off and back on again. Replaced the 2 screws.

Replace rear coil wall cover and turn on the refrigerator to 5 to 7 and replace cover and shelves.

I started by finding thw dispenser door part. On the parts diagram it showed all the other parts I might need to replace. Due to the age of the fridge I decided to replace them all, especially the sprIngs. I made sure to watch all of the videos for each part. Although they overlapped, each one showed the repair in more detail. The repair was as shown. If your frosge has been in service like mine for many years, plan on taking thw whole ice chute and dispenser door assembly out for thorough cleaning. One trick I learned is to take pictures as I disassemble so I can refer back for reassembly. When I put it together, the microswitch didn't work. I ordered that part, the only one I missed initially and installed it when it came in. Everything worked well. There was no video for the torsion spring and alignment of the chute and frame is tricky, make sure you take a picture. Part Select should dona video foe that. The putty knife trick for the trim ring was key. It was only shown in one video for an internal part so glad I watched them all.

Cut out cracked tubing between valve and where tubing enters into refrigerator. Cut new tubing to length and attach to existing using union.

remove the front plate. use screwdriver to pry the cover off from the bottom of the cover, remove the wiring from the front cover.remove the 4 screws and pull out the shute. remove three screws from the solonide and replace . very easy fix. save yourself $100.00 labor.

We just bought a new home and found that one of the clear shelf inserts in a door shelf was pretty much trashed. I was very pleased to be able to find this part at this site . Instead of having to replace the entire shelf I could just put in this part. My only comment is that this clear part is rather difficult to get into the white plastic shelf. I was afraid I was going to break it. But it has to fit snugly. The final result is very nice. Just be aware that these clear shelf inserts do not go in easily.