GLR23UGTABS General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

All you have to do is replace the circuit board which is really easy. Still kinda mad because the fridge is less than 2 years old. If you hear the clicking noise its coming from the circuit board.

This story starts with a GE side-by-side refrigerator that has always had wide temperature swings and a temperamental water dispenser. The ice maker was not making ice, and the built in digital thermometer showed it was running warm. I suspected that the heat exchanger was full of dust and so looked there. What I found was that the condenser tank was hot to the touch and the fan wasn’t running. As an experiment, I aimed a fan at the it for a while I saw that the freezer temperature dropped back to normal.
.The fan is marked as 11.2 DC so I checked for voltage at the fan and found some. With three wires and no wiring diagram I wasn’t sure this answered all the questions, but hooking the fan to a 12 volt power supply didn’t get it to spin.
I priced parts at a couple websites before using partselect.com . They also have a good diagram to look at (Sears diagrams are really poor). I ordered the part with 2-day shipping; it arrived on time, was correct and fixed the problem.

Well, I first had a local service guy look at the frige. only to find out his opinion was to replace the entire unit, because the Mother board cost more than the unit was worth. Me not accepting that answer, decided to look on line for a part and availability as well as price. Surprise, Part Select had what I wanted. Now, on the back of the unit in the upper left hand corner is the access door for the mother board.Find it, but before proceeding disconnect the power supply from the wall receptacle. Remove the surrounding screws on the access door with a nut driver and the correct size METRIC socket. Disconnect the wiring connectors on both sides of the board. Now there are 4 plastic type (mine were white) retaining studs holding the board in place. BE CAREFUL not to break these as you gently pull the board off studs. Replace board with new one, and restore wire connectors in their perspective places. Each connector has a different amount of pins inside so connecting them is easy. I know nothing about refrigeration, and this was a piece of cake. Less than 15 min. Unit cools like never before!!!

I first shut off water flow to the fridge. Examination of the package (which was not exact in appearance to the original) demonstrated that the electrical connectors were well-insulated so I arrogantly and successfully proceded without disconnecting the power. My fridge is old enough that the model doesn't appear exactly on anyone's list so I wasn't alarmed that it took an extra 10 minutes or so to noodle out how to adapt the slightly different inlet cowling and electrical cord with extension, but the device is pretty simple.
Soon I loosened the two mounting screws with a nut driver, used a screwdriver to pry away the plastic snap-in housing over the electrical socket on the fridge inner wall and pulled away the electrical plug. The original water fill tube remained in its cavity, ready for re-use.
The new unit's mounting points matched the original screw locations perfectly, as did the fill cowling - which on the replacement icemaker has two possible attachment points. The new unit's electrical connector required an extension pigtail to adapt to my socket, but it was included in the package. The extra cable posed a minor cosmetic issue because it hangs in the collection basket a bit, but that will soon be remedied with a tie wrap.
After the water was restored and an anxious wait of a few hours, we had well-formed ice cubes that weren't all stuck together and the stalactites haven't reappeared.

1. Important: First you will need to prepare for water from melted ice. Plug the drain hole in the bottom rear of the freezer. Have plenty of rags near by. A pan or small bucket is helpful.

2. Unplug refrigerator

3. Remove (4) screws (2) w/screwdriver and (2) w/nut driver. You can remove the light cover to get it out of the way but you don't have to.

4. Remove the evaporator cover (The rear wall)

5. Melt and remove any ice build up. Remember those rags?

6. Remove (2) screws from the heater bracket

7. Remove the failed heater. My old heater was a single element. The new heater was a dual element. This made no difference.

8. Disconnect (2) wires.

9. Re-route and reconnect (2) wires. The wires were re-routed because the new heater has both wires on the same side. Not a problem.

10. Install new heater on the bracket (2) screws

11. Replace cover (4) screws

12. Power up the refrigerator

first I removed shelves, bottom drawer, one drawer slide. then removed plastic cover from inside, light bulb, removed two screws from back panel (inside refrigerator, removed panel. You will see heater towards bottom. Remove screws (2) that hold heater in place, disconnect wires from heater, thermostat is
attached to line just above where heater is attached.
You will find that is quicker to cut thermostat wire, then splice together with wire nut. reassemble in reverse order. To check ice door, you must remove inner door panel, mine had to selenoid rusted and locked up. Removed , cleaned, reinstalledm worked ok. Hope this helps someone. Thank you partselect from your good service!

A week earlier, we had frozen water all over the freezer section which obviously dripped from the icemaker. We turn off the icemaker and cleaned the freezer. Upon turning the icemaker back on, water continuously pours out of the ice tray. This time, even turning off the icemaker does not stop the water from flowing through. I checked and cleaned the water valve, reinstalled it and it still does not work. I had to crimp the water line and even remove the water filter to make sure there will be no water leaks.

When I got the new water valve, installation was a snap as I have already removed the old one. After installing the new valve and putting back the filter, everything is back to normal.

Procedure for removing/replacing the water valve:
(1) Unplug the refrigerator and move it so that you have some working space in the back. If there is a mechanical valve in the water line, close it so that when the hoses are unplugged, there will be no spills. If there is no mechanical water valve, you can simply crimp the hose with a rubber band or a cable tie.
(2) Use an adjustable wrench or a screw driver to remove the screws on the bottom panel. My refrigerator has 4 big screws and 1 small one that is used to anchor the water hose.
(3) Pull the panel up slightly to remove it. The water valve is mounted with one screw at the bottom-left corner.
(4) Use a screwdriver to dismount the water valve.
(5) Unplug the electrical connections to the water valve. My refrigerator has one Brown and one Blue connector. Remember which plug goes to which connector.
(6) Place a towel under the water valve and use the adjustable wrench to remove the main hose connection.
(7) Next, remove the hoses that to into the water valve outlets. On my refrigerator, these hoses are of different sizes and have quick-disconnects. I simply have to press on the collar at end of the hose, pushing it towards the valve to release the hose, then pull on the hose.
(8) Prepare the new water valve by removing the plastic cover that protects the connector for the main water line.
(9) Connect the main water line to the new valve using the adjustable wrench.
(10) Connect the two hoses of different sizes to the valve. You only have to push them all the way into each valve and slightly tug on them to make sure they are locked in place.
(11) Re-connect the Brown and Blue electrical connectors to their original location.
(12) Mount the new water valve into the back of the refrigerator (one screw).
(13) If possible, quickly check that the new valve is working properly: If you have a mechanical valve in the water line, open it and make sure there are no leaks near the valve or inside in the icemaker. You may have to plug in the refrigerator power to complete the initial test.
(14) Replace the back panel with the 4 screws and anchor the hose to the back with 1 screw.
(15) Once everything is back in its place and the refrigerator is on, cycle the water dispenser several times to run fresh water into the hoses and the new valve.

I unplugged the electrical connection. Then I removed the 2 screws holding the icemaker in place. I lifted out the old icemaker unit and put the new one in place. Then put the 2 screws back in and plugged in the new unit.

The icemaker started making ice very soon after turning the unit on.

used a screwdriver to remove screw and unplugged part. Plugged in new one and secured with a screw.
Simple

Removed rear and front grills,brushed and vacuumed area- probably caused the fan motor to fail- unplugged fan, removed fan,motor,and shroud in 1 piece, carefully slipped fan off motor shaft, unscrewed shroud and motor. assembled in reverse order. Frige is in tight area, .I'll now roll it out and clean often

After further diagnosis decided the main circuit board was the likely culprit. Ordered a new one from PartSelect. It came in 2 days and took less than 30 minutes to install. Unplugged the refrig. Removed the old board cover with a nut driver. Removed the wiring cables (note their location on the board) and also there were a couple of cable plugs on my refrig that were not not hooked to anything on the board. Snapped the old board out and the new board in. Reinstalled the cables and then the board cover. Plugged the refrig in and back in business. PartSelect is a great website! The speed of delivery and available information just saved me $500 to $600 from a appliance repair shop.

After advise from the expert, he was adamant the motherboard was the (via symptoms)problem. After receiving the replacement board (via FEDEX), I followed the easy to understand instructions. I did number the electrical plugs and mapped the connections on paper. The key to the rapid fix was to carefully read all of the instructions to verify which (if any) wires needed elimination, which in my case was none. I will definitely use this service in the future as the expense was affordable and after research, I estimate a savings between 55% to 60%.

Things I learned...remove only the two far left screws and one far right screw from the ice auger motor mounting plate. Disconnect both wiring harness connectors. With the assembly removed from the freezer, you'll need to get the motor seperated from the drive mechanism (fork). This was the most difficult part of the repair. The reason is that the fork (which is reverse threaded) cannot be unthreaded independantly of the motor shaft (ie. they both turn together). Locking pliers on the shaft only stripped metal from the shaft and did not supply enough torque to remove the fork. The way I finally did it was to take the old motor partially apart, then lock the gear case (keeping the shaft from rotating) with the motor's own splined internal rotor shaft. Once I finally got the fork apart from the motor shaft, swapping out motors was simple. You'll need to put the old plastic glove on the new motor to keep it dry. Also, the replacement motor I got from partselect.com did not come with threaded mounting bolt holes. Therefore, I had to use slightly larger self tapping screws I got from the hardware store. I also used locking washers as the assembly is subject to vibration.

Unplugged refrigerator and used a screwdriver to remove access panel on rear of refrigerator to expose "mother board". Unplugged connectors (6 total) and using needle nose pliers released two retainers to remove mother board. Installed new mother board snapping it onto the two retainers and plugged the connectors onto the new mother board. Plugged refrigerator into outlet, refrigerator came back on, automatically reset it's temperature settings and has been working fine since. Total time, less than 15 minutes. Money saved, hundreds of dollars!

My problem began with having to replace the auger due to damage (broken blade). Unknown at that time the unit was having a defrost cycle issue. Once auger was repaired, then the motor to auger failed. Once repaired the GE unit then began shutting down without warning. Mother board replaced. All was fine for two weeks then noticed odd performance by ice-maker (chunks of Ice again)and frozen package containers showing signs of dampness and then refreezing. Read through the Parts Select web site to see what other users may have had gone wrong with their GE's and what the parts overview section may reveal for me. Found that the defrost thermo and temp-sensor controlled defrost functions. The parts were cheap, $20.00 for the pair so I replaced them both since they are both located next to one another in the freezer compartment. The repair video furnished on the P/S web was great and very accurate. The entire job only took about an hour. The repair video indicated using wire-nuts and electircal tape Instead, I chose to solder the wires and use shrink-tubing to provide the moisture barrier. PartSelect folks are great not only for their parts pricing but also for the informative videos. The GE works better than ever