Drum Belt

We followed the instructions for the drum glide replacement and changed the belt and drum support bearing piece, cleaned it out too. Works like a charm. Thanks for saving us a bundle.

The motor bearings had stiffened up – classic planned obsolescence.

I could tell the motor was bad, because when I tried to spin the drum by hand, it wouldn't turn in any direction. (Normally it can turn fairly easily.)

(Helpful hint: As you remove screws / parts, place them in a plastic baggie, and write on the baggie from whence they came. This is especially helpful if you have to order parts and then wait a few days for them to arrive.)

You can replace the starter motor without removing the drum, but it is easier if you do remove the drum. Plus, I decided to also replace the drum belt, since it was 9 years old and is a wear part.

UNPLUG THE DRYER BEFORE YOU BEGIN.

1. Pop off the top cover; it has two spring clips at the front, then it hinges up. Disconnect the green grounding wire at the back, then slip the cover off the hinges and set it aside.

2. Remove the front panel:

a. Looking down into the dryer, disconnect the electrical harnesses that go between the front controls and the body. You may have to cut a nylon cable tie to access one or more. (Note that they have shapes that won't allow you to mix them up later). Also, there are two wires that attach to connectors in the top middle of the dryer, which are difficult to get at; you may need a needle nose pliers to pull them. Remember their color-coding for reinstallation.

b. Remove the two phillips screws located about 8 inches from the top, on either side, inside the body, that hold the front panel in place.

c. The front panel is now held in place by spring clips. Pry it gently to pop it loose. It will hinge out, then you can pull it up. Notice how the front piece has felt pads that serve to hold the front of the drum; you'll line it up the same way when it goes back together. Set the front panel aside.

3. Remove the rear motor vent plate.
a. It is at the back, lower right of the dryer (which is lower left once you're behind it). 2 phillips screws hold it in place.

b. Now look inside to see the motor and belt. Memorize how the belt feeds around the motor pulley and the larger, white plastic tensioner pulley. Notice how the rear motor bearing sits in a half-round metal plate, held down by a spring clip. (Make a drawing if you like.)

c. Move the spring- loaded tensioner arm to take tension off the belt, then slip the belt off the motor pulley.

d. Notice that the tensioner pulley, arm and spring are all held in place by the spring. Note that the tensioner pulley can slip off its shaft. Note these things for when you put it all back together later.

e. Now undo the tensioner arm spring and remove the arm, pulley and spring. Set them aside.


4. Remove the drum:

a. There is a yellowish plastic block at the top front of the open dryer body that holds the drum. Take it out with a phillips screwdriver.

b. Slip the now un-tensioned belt off the drum, to the back, so it hangs over the heater element body. You can leave it there for now, so you don't forget to install it before you put everything back together. If you're going to replace the belt, now is a good time to do so. (Check the length of the new belt against the old one, to make sure they're the same.)

c. Now you can remove the drum. It uses a center ball in a socket joint at the back to hold it in place. Use a screwdriver to lever upward on the back of the drum. This will pop the ball up, and then you can pull the drum out from the front.

5. Clean it up.
Now is a very good time to vacuum out any lint in the fan area, inside the dryer body, etc. Also consider removing the lint trap assembly from the dryer front ( 2 phillips screws) and vacuuming it out as well.

6. Remove the motor.

a. First, remove the fan that's attached to the front of the motor. Use a socket (7/8", I think) to unscrew the fan from the front of the motor shaft. IMPORTANT: The fan has a plastic hex nut sh

I felt ,if I was going to replace the top drum glide and lower basket seal, I might as well replace the belt ,bearing assembly and the idle pulley assembly and avoid having to replace these sooner than later. All of the parts showed alot of wear and the belt like all drive belts, should be changed every 5-6 years.
DISCONNECT ELECTRICITY and GAS LINES
1.popped top by pushing and prying at front /top clips about 2-3in. in from side edges. lifted it off
2. removed the front panel by removing the 2 top front screws from the inside, then the two lower screws from the front after removing the small white plastic hole covers. disconnected the multiplug electric connector top right. set panel aside.
3.remove small back panel.and loosened belt.(observe belt path and idle pulley assy.
4. lifted drum and slid it out the front.
5. using socket, removed rear plastic bearing housing and replaced the same. be careful of observing the small ball bearing and the small piece on outside back panel. replace the same. you wil probably need a second set of hands to hold the piece on the outside when screwing in the screws from the inside.
6. unscew the "bearing" from the rear of the drum and replace with new one.(the screws are self-tapping and go in HARD!!)
7. apply lubricant liberally to plastic bearing holder
8. place new belt around drum(rubber side against drum cloth side out.
9. idle pulley assy. is removed by removing spring and just sliding assy out of holder. replace with new
10. replace drum and belt
11. take front panel and remove top drum glide and lower basket seal.( i marked where the two seal/glide come together with a marker )
12. scrape and remove as much felt and possible. I then used "goo gone" to remove all the glue. clean well and using the provided high temp adhesive reattached glide and seal.
13. reassemble and enjoy your NEW? dryer

I followed others suggestions with numbered steps and listened to others suggestions about replacing other parts while in the dryer. I took the dryer apart and cleaned it out well. I used acetone to remove the glue from the felt and Drum Glide at the top of the Drum. It worked much better than Goo Gone. By doing the clean up and evaluation one day, I ordered all the parts that I saw were worn or difficult to get to. I replaced the Heating Element only because the old one was very brittle and to get to it again would be difficult. Also, I followed other's advice to photograph the parts before removing. It was easy to remember how things went if I had a photo to refer to.

When the parts arrived it only took about 30 minutes to install them all because the glue removal, lint removal, and parts removal had been done another day. I should add that I am a 66 year old woman and found the job quite simple. Excellent web site. Thanks to others for the step-by-step instructions. Oh, to hold the Drum Glide and felt in place while the glue cured, clothes pins work great. I let the glue cure overnight to make sure that it was really secure.

took off back vent panel, removed belt from idler pulley. tried motor again to see if it would work under no load. motor was not seized just would not run. concluded it was the motor. I removed the 2 mounting screws from the back of motor area. from there removed top of dryer and bolts for the front door panel. propped open the door panel to get to the fan housing and 2 front motor mount screws. disconnect the fan wires. pull out fan and motor assembly from front of dryer. I used a medium sized locking wrench behind the pulley and then mounted the wrench (attached behind the pulley in a vise) from there I was able to use a socket to take off the plastic nut at the end of the fan. Notice that it is a reverse thread so don't strip it. dismount motor from bracket and reasmble with new motor. all the steps in reverse. Since the motor was out it just made sense to replaced the belt at this time. took about 45 minutes to disassemble and just over an hour to get it all back together. Make sure you clean out the lint box from inside the dryer.. over the years it will accumulate a lot of nasty dust bunnies. check that all the surfaces are clear of dust and the back of the vent pipe to..

First I pryed up the top cover then opened the access cover on the rear to remove the belt from the drum. Next I removed the front of the dryer to have access to remove the drum. I then removed the 3 screws that hold the drum to the rear drum bearing assembly and pulled the drum through the front of the dryer. I then removed the bearing and proceded to remove the ground ball and reassembled in reverse steps.

After reading other posts on this page I learned that these symptoms are very common for older dryers when the felt bearings ("seals") are worn out. I replaced the top and bottom felt strips (the top one has plastic wear pads which had completely worn away on my machine). I also took the time to replace the rear plastic bearing and the belt (pretty cheap parts). In addition, after opening up the dryer I found that one of the wire pigtails connectors was black and melted from arcing (bad connection). I replaced the bad connectors with crip-on connectors from Radioshack ($2). Incidentally, I bought lifetime supply of high temp wheel bearing grease: one tub for $7... and used about a teaspoon, but hey, that's still cheap. The hardest part was cleaning off the old felt adhesive, I used nail polish remover to soften the old glue and scrapped of 80% with a screw driver... good enough! I held the new felt on with duct tape until the glue dried.

I suggest watching the installation video for the rear bearing replacement I found on this website. It showed me where the screws are and the trick for lifting up the back of the tub using the belt to disengage the rear bearing. It was a snap.

Replaced upper and lower felt bearings. Lubed the drum bearing.
The help on this site was great for doing the repair.

Removed top using a butter knife to release the two tabs in the front(between the top and the front). Removed the front(two screws from the inside. removed rear louver panel(four screws). reached in through rear panel and released belt. removed drum assembly and change out, bearing assembly drum and bushing assembly in the back panel, being sure not to forget the grounding bearing(had my 9 year old give me an extra hand to hold the ball bearing on the back..
Replaced the slider felt on the drum and the belt since i had it apart. Also replaced the seal from the front panel to the blower motor.. while it was apart i cleaned the inside with bleach and a rag. reasembled a tryed it out. Run like a new dryer- Nice and quiet.- It had been sqeeking for months before the it stopped working. the time it took to fix it was a lot less hassle than it would have been to buy a new and get rid of the old one. And it saved me money. I love saving money!! I would recomend partsselec.com t.good prices,fast shipping, got what i needed. What more can you ask for..

I first watched the video. Had I not done that, I probably would have started looking for a new dryer. The repair is simple and I feel like now I could repair just about anything on the dryer.